Approaches to Teaching the Works of John Dryden

by Jayne Lewis (Editor), Lisa Zunshine (Editor)

Overview

Which John Dryden should be brought into the twenty-first-century college classroom? The rehabilitator of the ancients? The first of the moderns? The ambivalent laureate? The sidelined convert to Rome? The literary theorist? The translator? The playwright? The poet? This volume in the MLA series Approaches to Teaching World Literature addresses the tensions, contradictions, and versatility of a writer who, in the words of Samuel Johnson, "found [English poetry] brick, and left it marble," who was, in the words of Walter Scott, "one of the greatest of our masters."

Part 1, "Materials," offers a guide to the teaching editions of Dryden's work and a discussion of the background resources, from biographies and literary criticism to social, cultural, political, and art histories. In part 2, "Approaches," essays describe different pedagogical entries into Dryden and his time. These approaches cover subjects as various as genre, adaptation, literary rivalry, musical setting, and political and religious poetry in classroom situations that range from the traditional survey to learning through performance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781603291675
Publisher:	Modern Language Association
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Series:	Approaches to Teaching World Literature , #126
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	197
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Jayne Lewis is professor of English at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of books and articles on eighteenth-century literature and culture, and most recently Air's Appearance: Literary Atmosphere in British Fiction, 1660-1794. Lisa Zunshine is Bush-Holbrook Professor of English at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. She is the author of Why We Read Fiction and Strange Concepts and the Stories They Make Possible and the editor of Acting Theory and the English Stage.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

PART ONE: MATERIALS

Primary Works 3

Online Resources, Recordings, and Artwork 7

Background Materials and Criticism 10

Further Reading Recommendations 12

Survey Issues 13

PART TWO: APPROACHES

Introduction 21

Poetry

John Dryden's Trojan Horse: Religio Laici Anna Battigelli 30

Dryden the Elegist: "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham" and "To the Pious Memory of . . . Anne Killigrew" Cedric D. Reverand II 37

Reading Dryden's Verse: Generic Control in the Killigrew Ode and Oldham Elegy John Richetti 44

Dryden's Sweet Saint: The Killigrew Ode in the Survey Course Deborah Kennedy 53

A King and No King: How to Use Dryden's Engagement of the Reader in Absalom and Achitophel Christopher D. Johnson 58

Absalom and Achitophel in an Eighteenth-Century Survey Course Kirstin R. Wilcox 64

Restoring Dryden to the Core Curriculum: Groups, Crowds, and the Poetry of Public Occasion Ann A. Huse 69

Forward from "Mac Flecknoe": British Literature, 1660

to the Present Scott R. MacKenzie 75

Drama

Introducing John Dryden the Dramatic Margaret Anne Doody 81

Teaching Marriage à-la-Mode in a Course on Restoration Comedy Will Pritchard 90

Teaching Dryden's Heroic Plays Daniel Gustafson and Elliott Visconsi 98

Teaching the Passions in All for Love Blair Hoxby 104

Multimedia Dryden: All for Love and a Performative Baroque Aesthetic Dianne Dugaw 110

A Potion for Secret Love Thomas F. Bonnell and Katie Sullivan 118

"Hither This Way": Musical Dryden for Nonmusician Students (and Nonmusician Teachers) Amanda Eubanks Winkler and Kathryn Lowerre 124

"Originally Shakespear's": Adaptation, Critique, and All for Love and The Tempest J. Caitlin Finlayson 132

The State of Innocence and Paradise Lost: The Politics of Adaptation Elizabeth Bobo 140

Prose and Translation

Dryden and Rochester: Tracing Literary Rivalries in Dryden's Prefatory Texts Jennifer Brady 146

Forgetfulness and Authorial Presence in Dryden's Prose Aaron Santesso 153

Teaching Dryden's Latin Translations: Lucretius, Vergil, and the Honeybee Adam Potkay 158

Questioning Nature: Dryden's Fables, Ancient and Modern Philip Smallwood 164

Notes on Contributors 169

Survey Participants 173

Works Cited 175

Index of Dryden's Works 191

Index of Names 193

Editorial Reviews

"Dryden is a major figure of the Restoration, writing in almost all of its important genres. This volume is a valuable addition to the series." —James Evans, University of North Carolina, Greensboro

From the Publisher