Ferdâ Asya, editor. <i>Teaching Edith Wharton’s Major Novels and Short Fiction</i>

Over the past few decades, Edith Wharton’s work has seen an impressive surge of scholarly interest. A significant number of studies on Wharton’s oeuvre, the dynamic presence of the Edith Wharton Society, and the growing audience of the Edith Wharton Review (published by Penn State University Press) have expanded previously held views of Wharton as a “grande dame” whose literary vision was limited to the moribund mores of late nineteenth-century New York aristocracy, as seen in critically acclaimed novels such as The House of Mirth (1905) and The Age of Innocence (1920). Wharton is no longer seen as the “literary aristocrat” that Vernon Parrington famously decreed a century ago. Or, rather, scholars have acknowledged the complexity of an author whose social pedigree and cultural capital enabled—rather than stunted—a lucid, prescient, and remarkably complex view of American modernity. With her distinctively ironic perspective, Wharton portrayed a society in flux, torn between tradition and change, fueled by desire yet forged by alienation. Wharton’s contemporary resonance and visibility in academic discourse have, in turn, increased students’ interest in her work, which now figures prominently in university curricula—from general education and lower division English classes to upper-division undergraduate courses and graduate seminars across the world—calling for a more sustained conversation between scholarly insight and pedagogical experience. Teaching Edith Wharton’s Major Novels and Short Fiction, the first volume solely dedicated to teaching Wharton’s fiction, brilliantly addresses this need by bridging the gap between academic scholarship and pedagogical practice.Meticulously edited by Ferdâ Asya, a seasoned Wharton scholar with vast teaching experience, the volume brings together a wide range of scholars who have taught Wharton’s novels and short stories to both English and non-English majors across all undergraduate and graduate levels; in different modalities (online or face-to-face); in collaborative modules between students on both sides of the Atlantic; and through a diversity of approaches, from traditional reader-oriented practices and contexts well-established in Wharton Studies (such as material culture, gender identity, and class mobility) to innovative interdisciplinary lenses, including addiction studies and ecoliteracy. Drawing on instructors’ own experience and reflecting on students’ response to class questions, discussion prompts, and particular assignments, each essay is an invaluable resource for everyone interested in teaching not only Wharton’s work but also, more broadly, women’s fiction, American studies, transatlantic themes, film and cultural studies, and early twentieth-century genres, such as realism, naturalism, regionalism, and modernism.Following Asya’s eloquent introduction to Wharton’s work and the scope of this project, the volume includes eighteen essays aptly organized in five parts: “Culture and History,” “Wharton and Other Authors,” “Wharton and Critical Lenses,” “Wharton and Interdisciplinary Contexts,” and “Wharton and the World Today.” While each part has a distinct voice and self-standing unity, it contributes cohesively to the entirety of the volume, which demonstrates such strengths as clarity of style, accessibility of prose, seamless weaving of theoretical insight and practical application, and the immediate feel of sharing in a conversation among students (and instructors). The latter feel is beautifully sustained not only by the inclusion of student voices through class evaluations and responses to class prompts but also through the sincerity of self-reflection that all contributors demonstrate. As a scholar and teacher of Wharton’s work, I felt part of an invigorating exchange that maintains its academic rigor while keeping track of students’ pulse. As such, the volume speaks nicely to both experienced and new teachers of Wharton’s work, including a wealth of pedagogical and cultural resources, suggested assignments, and a diversity of multimodal material and digital resources that can be adapted to a range of courses.All essays emphasize the need to contextualize Wharton’s work not only socially, culturally, and historically but theoretically as well. Contributors show how complex theoretical concepts can be marshaled to teach Wharton’s fiction. In her eloquent essay “Getting to Know the Community: Using Raymond Williams’s Concept of ‘Knowable Communities’ to Teach Wharton’s Summer,” Sheila Liming shows how Williams’s “knowable communities” can help graduate students tease out the complexity of Wharton’s representation of urban and rural spaces and reflect on literature’s broader engagement with the natural world. Liming illustrates how such insight can be worked into digital assignments, such as infographics (visually engaging posters that combine text and graphics) with Adobe Photoshop while drawing connections to British and other Victorian works (e.g., Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles). In “‘We’re Near Each Other Only If We Stay Far from Each Other’: Teaching Psychoanalytic Desire in The Age of Innocence,” another case in point, Erica D. Galioto brings Wharton’s novel in conversation with psychoanalytic theory to elucidate the desire that structures the form and content of both American and British novels. Galioto’s essay is exemplary in scaffolding student engagement with theoretical concepts, which she threads into discussions of modernist form.Although most essays focus on Wharton’s major novels and short stories—syllabi staples such as “Roman Fever,” The House of Mirth, and The Age of Innocence are rightfully discussed throughout the volume—they also bring lesser-known texts into the fold. For instance, Pierre A. Walker draws attention to Wharton’s earlier story “The Last Asset,” which he examines in the context of Darwinian theory, gender, and the role of performativity in the construction of identity. In their respective essays, Tricia M. Farwell and Melinda Knight focus on “Writing a War Story” and The Marne, showing how Wharton’s overlooked wartime writings may furnish productive discussions about gender not only in terms of characters but also in the context of women’s war writing at the intersection of journalism and literature. Wharton’s later fiction—which had been considered less worthy of critical attention by earlier scholars—is also well represented. For example, Ferdâ Asya and Jericho Williams discuss Wharton’s later novels in “Teaching Edith Wharton’s The Children in the Anarchist Tradition in Literature Course” and “Slouching Toward the Posthuman: Teaching Edith Wharton’s Twilight Sleep,” respectively.A significant number of essays address Ethan Frome (1911), Wharton’s well-known novella, which they discuss from remarkably intriguing, thought-provoking perspectives. Of particular note is Lina Geriguis’s essay, “Ecoliteracy and Edith Wharton: The Ecosomatic Paradigm and the Poetics of Paratexts in Ethan Frome,” which turns to the novella’s paratextual features to flesh out connections between disability, sustainability, and ecological literacy. In another vein, Brenden O’Donnell’s essay “Modeling Addiction: Teaching The House of Mirth in the Context of Addiction Studies,” elegantly shows how new, interdisciplinary contexts can convey the complexity of character and storytelling in a well-established novel, such as The House of Mirth. As O’Connell points out, addiction becomes the ground for innovative storytelling that allows addicts to recreate—and reclaim—their own story.The volume is also innovative insofar as it draws valuable connections between Wharton and authors (or texts) not directly discussed in relation to her work. For instance, in “Survival Versus Thriving: Social Mobility in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth and Edna Ferber’s So Big,” Windy Counsell Petrie takes a comparative approach to the theme of social mobility in the context of American women writers of the Progressive Era. In “Developing Sympathy: Teaching Edith Wharton’s Summer with Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel,” Nina Bannett juxtaposes Wharton’s 1917 novella Summer with Lynn Nottage’s contemporary play Intimate Apparel, which addresses the experience of African American women in early twentieth century. Pairing such texts from different genres raises broader socioeconomic issues for women, complicated by race and class divides. Krisztina Lajosi and Gene M. Moore’s essay, “Teaching Edith Wharton with Henry James in the Netherlands,” effectively demonstrates how the pairing of Wharton and James can be mined in a European Studies graduate course to explore the construction of national identity and cultural exchange. Rita Bode and Sirpa Salenius take one step further by showing the significance of cultural exchange in practice. Their essay, “Students Abroad—In the Classroom: A Transatlantic Assignment on Edith Wharton’s ‘Roman Fever,’” reflects on the experience of carrying out a joint project on Wharton’s story between senior students in Canada and graduate students in Finland. The students’ exchange via digital platforms, such as Padlet, helped them feel part of a broader, international literary community.Reading this volume one feels rightfully part of a global community of scholars, who converse, collaborate, innovate, and reflect on the art of teaching in an evolving, digital age—and this remains possible thanks to the dynamic resonance of Wharton’s oeuvre.

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