[About halfway through the Spring 2025 semester, I lost my Dad. While that was of course the semester’s most defining moment, it also allowed me to reflect for the remaining weeks on my own teaching in relationship to one of the most dedicated and talented teachers I’ve ever known. So for this semester reflections series, I want to highlight one moment from each class where I’d say I particularly felt my Dad’s presence.]
Continuing
the thread from yesterday’s post, the other class I taught on that Monday
morning was American Literature II, the second-half American Lit survey. That
day we were located close in time to Langston Hughes, amidst our Unit on Modernism
and the Early 20th Century, and specifically were on day three (of four)
with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (we also briefly added in a
supplemental text, Sherwood
Anderson’s “Hands,” as we often do in a survey course). That discussion
covered a number of turning points in the novel, including the extended flashback
in Chapter VI where Nick Carraway narrates the moment when young James Gatz
abandons his prior self and heritage to create the new identity of Jay Gatsby. And
as we talked about it, I couldn’t help remembering one of the (many) arguments
my Dad and I have had about literature over the decades, in this case about
whether Gatz’s parents/heritage are implied to be ethnic (read: non-white) in any
way. My Dad thought no, I thought yes; as usual I don’t know that I shifted his
perspective at all, but as always I know that the debate sharpened my own
reading and analysis. Not sure there’s much in my ideas that he didn’t contribute
to one way or another!
Next reflection
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Spring
semester reflections you’d share?
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