[Hardy-l] RE: Teaching Hardy

Tue May 20 05:52:10 PDT 2008

Beth's request for ideas about teaching a Hardy course gives me a chance
to ride one of my hobby horses, although the brevity of the class may
preclude this possibility of doing what I'm about to suggest.  Anyway, I
would argue that there are significant pedagogical gains to be had by
moving outside of the "Big Six" novels found in the "Novels of Character
and Environment" designation of the General Preface ("big six plus one"
including Under the Greenwood Tree) and teaching something from either
the "Romance and Fantasies" or "Novels of Ingenuity" groupings.  The
construction of Hardy as solely "the historian of Wessex" is
increasingly seen as problematic, and a way of breaking out of this is
to look at his less canonical texts.  So if there's ANY possibility of
squeezing in a fifth novel along with the four being considered, I would
select one of the following: Desperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelberta,
The Trumpet-Major, A Laodicean, or The Well-Beloved.  My apologies to
fans of A Pair of Blue Eyes and Two on a Tower, but there it is.  As a
way of challenging the usual paradigms used to discuss Hardy, or at
least expanding them somewhat, any of these novels would prove useful,
so it's worth at least considering.

As for editions, I still fondly recall a scotch-fueled discussion I had
with Rosemarie Morgan and Keith Wilson in Louisville about the relative
editorial merits of the Oxford versus the Penguin texts.  I know that
given the location we should have been drinking bourbon, but I can't
stand that stuff.  Anyway, at this point I think Oxford has taken itself
out of the race by letting a number of the Hardy World's Classics go out
of print, so I would support going with the new Penguin editions,
general editor Patricia Ingham.  As for ones to avoid, the Macmillan
"New Wessex" edition is still floating around out there, and although
the introductions are often interesting, textually they are extremely
suspect, so I'd stay away from them.

Finally, in her original posting Beth asked for "truly essential Hardy
materials" to get in to her library, a request which could make for an
interesting parlour game.  Off the top of my head, and in no particular
order, here is a selective and without a doubt incomplete list.

Michael Millgate - Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited

Rosemarie Morgan - Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy

Peter Widdowson - Hardy in History: A Study in Literary Sociology

Keith Wilson (ed.) - Thomas Hardy Reappraised: Essays in Honour of
Michael Millgate

Jane Thomas - Thomas Hardy, Femininity and Dissent: Reassessing the
'Minor' Novels

George Wotten - Thomas Hardy: Towards a Materialist Criticism

J. B. Bullen - The Expressive Eye: Fiction and Perception in the Work of
Thomas Hardy

J. Hillis Miller - Thomas Hardy: Distance and Desire

Dale Kramer (ed.) - The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy

Phillip Mallett (ed.) - Thomas Hardy: Texts and Contexts

Tim Dolin and Peter Widdowson (eds.) - Thomas Hardy and Contemporary
Literary Studies

Michael Millgate - Thomas Hardy: His Career as a Novelist

Dennis Taylor - Hardy's Poetry, 1860-1928

Shanta Dutta - Ambivalence in Hardy: A Study of his Attitude to Women

Phillip Mallett (ed.) - Palgrave Advances in Thomas Hardy Studies

Margaret Higonnet - The Sense of Sex: Feminist Perspectives on Hardy

Dale Kramer - Thomas Hardy: The Forms of Tragedy

As you can see, I've included a number of essay collections, since you
get a more eclectic "bang for your buck" with them.   It's too bad that
the Ashgate and Blackwell research companions aren't going to be out in
time for you class, since I think there's going to be all kinds of good
material in them, but there's nothing to be done about that.

All the best.

Richard Nemesvari

Department of English

St. Francis Xavier University

rnemesva at stfx.ca

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