tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post7514386276349411154..comments2023-09-29T04:22:04.132-07:00Comments on Quills: Courseblogging: Is Mary a Girl?Fretful Porpentinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11165078003123517013noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post-70730336267916736652009-10-19T19:49:58.076-07:002009-10-19T19:49:58.076-07:00Great post. I'm happy to see that I'm not...Great post. I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one plagued by these doubts in the survey.<br /><br />One joke I make with my students is that every "anonymous" author is a woman who felt she wouldn't be allowed to write as herself (stolen straight out of Woolf, of course)--which includes Beowulf, pretty much all of medieval drama, etc. It turns up on my exams occasionally, often with a smiley. I think that's a win.Christopher Vilmarhttp://christophervilmar.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post-37982046260976444922009-10-13T11:36:58.922-07:002009-10-13T11:36:58.922-07:00Anonymous -- OK, I think you may have talked me in...Anonymous -- OK, I think you may have talked me into trying <i>Tenant</i> next time. (I'm starting to wish I were a Victorianist so I could assign them all!)Fretful Porpentinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165078003123517013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post-42432639025151616322009-10-12T11:10:53.161-07:002009-10-12T11:10:53.161-07:00While I love all the books you considered, especia...While I love all the books you considered, especially the Gaskell, I would have chosen The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Partly because I never even heard of Anne Bronte as an undergrad, and partly because, as an historian, I love the way the book gives the rather common story of the upper-class debauched male from the perspective of how it destroys the women and children.<br /><br />BTW, the last time I had a class read the wife of Bath, long before "cougar" was a popular term, one basketball player did note that "damn, that woman was a playa!"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post-80266749934052095752009-10-12T08:01:15.642-07:002009-10-12T08:01:15.642-07:00I'll see you that, and raise you one "I&#...I'll see you that, and raise you one "I'm taking Intro to Psych and I want to write a paper about how the Wife of Bath is bipolar!" Luckily, the student in question changed her mind before paper drafts were due.Fretful Porpentinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165078003123517013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post-43258409147376703652009-10-12T07:44:52.106-07:002009-10-12T07:44:52.106-07:00The WoB is totally a cougar. But just wait until ...The WoB is totally a cougar. But just wait until somebody turns in an abstract for a paper arguing that the Wife of Bath's Prol. is a "tragedy" ... because she's a woman, and it sucked "back then" to be female and stuff and not have any power.<br /><br />I sigh.the rebel lettristehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08369013300190217105noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post-71424871742612244002009-10-12T07:17:26.647-07:002009-10-12T07:17:26.647-07:00But tell us, IS the wife of Bath a cougar?
I thin...<i>But tell us, IS the wife of Bath a cougar?</i><br /><br />I think I stammered for a bit and then said something like "Well, she <i>did</i> marry a twenty-year-old when she was forty, so, uh, I guess she fits some people's definitions of a cougar." And then tried to make the point that she does, however, have a vision of the ideal marriage that is based on love and mutuality, even if only in fantasy. Hedging-r-us.Fretful Porpentinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11165078003123517013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2164185959238733667.post-33863303882973220612009-10-12T07:10:56.314-07:002009-10-12T07:10:56.314-07:00Well, your students know from the start that women...Well, your students know from the start that women write. But tell us, IS the wife of Bath a cougar?<br /><br />Anyway, I love love love North and South...Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09716705206734059708noreply@blogger.com