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1. Long Essay 1a. Describe and focus backgrounds, learning, challenges . . . |
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Victoria Webb
Romanticism in the Middle School Classroom and Beyond
More often than not, when people hear romanticism, the word “love” comes to
mind. When I first learned the term as an undergraduate, I too was under the
assumption that I would be reading romantic novels found on a housewife’s
bookshelf. Now, as a graduate student, I believe that I can find romanticism and
its elements in most popular novels and other popular media. Romanticism,
particularly during the American renaissance, is so broad that it stretches over
other genres of literature. When I tell my students that stories like The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Last of the Mohicans are not only
both romantic writings, but they also share gothic elements, many stare at me in
disbelief, and demand to know how. Once we identify the elements that make these
texts romantic, we are not only capable of understanding how, but we are also
capable of identifying other popular books and movies that could fall into the
category of “romantic”.
The Last of the Mohicans,
an unexpectedly popular read amongst 7th grade boys, is one of the
novels that most are surprised to hear is considered romantic. When I had first
told my students that I had reread the novel for my romanticism class, many were
up in arms arguing, “But, it’s not a romance novel!” I grinned at the teachable
moment that had presented itself and began to explain how exactly a novel that
the boys had grown to love, filled with fighting and death, fit nicely under the
umbrella that is romanticism. Despite the lack of Fabio on the cover, I said to
them, the heroic journey, honor, and color code were definite elements of
romanticism. Of course, this took explaining as well. I explained to them that
in a romantic story, the hero is on a quest, typically battles external or
internal forces (this was the part when half of the class yelled out,
“antagonist!” gleefully), displays advocacy for romantic honor, and somewhere in
the story there may be specific color codes that correlate with the gothic. I
was pleasantly surprised to see arms shoot up into the air and ask questions
like, “Does that make Batman a romantic story?” My heart leapt as I saw
the wheels turning. We began to compare Mohicans to Batman. We
could see that Batman too was on a brave and heroic journey to save Gotham
similarly to Hawkeye saving Alice and Cora from Magua. Now we were able to dive
deeper into comparisons. After briefly explaining that “the gothic” doesn’t
necessarily involve vampires and heavy metal, the students were able to pick up
on the color codes in Batman,; from the fact that his costume
is dark and allows him to blend in with the shadows, to the redness of Poison
Ivy’s hair. The kids were getting it, and they were on a mission to find
romanticism in everything; this was to try to challenge me, but I was up for the
challenge.
I knew that comparing the “light and dark lady” might have been pushing it for
13 year olds, but I tried my luck with nostalgia and was pleasantly surprised.
Upon hearing the term “nostalgia”, I was greeted with a plethora of blank
stares. Sadly the word wasn’t a part of their vocabulary, so I had to do a brief
lesson in dictionary skills before diving into a deeper analytical question.
Once that was out of the way, we went right back to Batman. We came to
the consensus that the nostalgia came from Batman’s inability to move on from
the death of his parents. This, along with the colors and heroic journey,
solidified our conclusion that Batman is a romantic story. In that
moment, I beamed with pride. However, this moment was short lived as the bell
had rang and it was time for them to go. After my successful lesson, I knew that
I had to do more research in order to continue to teach the subject. I explored
the top popular novels among kids and adults, and I found that romanticism is
far from gone.
While the American renaissance might be long over, romanticism is thriving in
modern novels; however, many people who are less versed in genres might miss
important details. Since my class was required to read classic novels for their
first reading assignment, I had a list of popular classics on hand. I decided to
take another look at these novels with rose colored glasses hoping I’d find
romantic connections to texts I’ve read in class. I was pleasantly surprised
with how much more I could find with the intention of finding these elements in
mind. Re-reading the texts for the umpteenth time, I wrote down every model of
romanticism I could find. The first novel I examined on my list was The Great
Gatsby.
I originally hadn’t anticipated finding a lot of romantic elements since I’ve
studied Gatsby as an American modern
classic which is the total opposite of American renaissance literature. However,
I was able to identify key elements that take this novel from realism to
romanticism. I compared Gatsby to Ligeia for starters, and one of
the things that I noticed in both novels are idealized women. Both Gatsby and
Poe’s narrator are hopelessly in love with a woman that has very little
character development. These women are merely symbols of something greater than
themselves. This, of course, brings in the element of the sublime. The sublime,
by Dr. White’s definition, is “beauty mixed with terror, danger, threat—usually
on a grand or elevated scale”. I believe that this can be applied to Daisy as it
has been applied to Ligeia. Daisy represented an unattainable goal that would
have allowed Gatsby to reach transcendence. In addition, Gatsby overcame
circumstances which would have eventually led him to Daisy; this journey can be
seen as the “hero’s journey” that is presented in classic romanticism. These are
elements that I noticed when I re-read Ligeia in class as well. Lady
Ligeia is depicted as something more than human as Poe writes “”. In both
stories, we do not know much about either woman; In Ligeia, we aren’t
even told her last name or the country from which she came. She is an
otherworldly beauty who was in and out of our protagonist’s life before we could
even speak her name. Daisy is no different in that aspect. Gatsby is infatuated
with her, yet we don’t see much from her past that gives us any idea of who she
is or how she genuinely feels about Gatsby. I believe that both authors give us
empty idealized characters in order to take away any human qualities that may
humble them or take them down from their sublime pedestal.
It seems that classic novels aren’t exactly a favorite among 7th
graders. However, they do seem to enjoy reading dystopian novels. Traditionally,
when I teach dystopian literature, I teach these novels as a separate genre
altogether in order to emphasize what makes these books unique. However, during
my research, I couldn’t help but think of Thoreau’s Resistance to Civil
Government as I looked over popular books on our dystopic lists, such as
The Hunger Games, The Testing, and Unwind. When I defined dystopian
literature for my students, I told them that dystopian novels primarily take
place in a future that is worse than the world we live in now, and typically
with an overbearing or all-controlling government; the heroes of these stories
typically are rebels and resist the government or make an attempt to go against
it. Though Thoreau was an advocate of nonviolent protest, he remarks, in
Civil Disobedience, “Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or
shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall
we transgress them at once?” In layman's terms, Thoreau is asking if we should
blindly follow unfair laws. In a novel that my class read, Unwind, we
were presented with a situation of an extremely unjust law in which people were
stripped of civil liberties along with body parts. To summarize briefly, in the
future there is a second civil war, during which all pre-birth abortions are
illegal; however, parents can have their children “unwound” between the ages of
13 and 18. To put simply, being “unwound” means they are sent away to an
organ-harvesting facility, killed, and have their organs harvested and stored
for “human recycling”. While I’m sure Thoreau did not necessarily have this in
mind when he wrote about unjust laws, I still view Unwind as a warning to
defending one’s rights. The advocacy for individualism, as well as the journey
the main characters take, make many dystopian novels romantic.
Even though I’m merely a 7th grade Language Arts teacher, I want my students to
be exposed to more than the TEKS that I have to teach. Like the stories and
character I hold close to my heart, I too am on a romantic journey...to teach
higher grades. Perhaps I can make the stretch to turn that into a romantic
notion. In short, one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had in recent
months has been teaching my students what I have learned about American
romanticism and watching them actually take an interest in the intertextuality
between classic books and popular novels. In turn, this has made me a better
student and teacher because not only am I able to explore these connections with
them, but I am now able to identify and apply elements of romanticism in
literature from different genres.
