In a historically based class one must be sensitive not just to the analogous but also to the anomalous. Perhaps the most important lesson such a hybrid course teaches is that similar, even identical phenomena can have very different meanings at different times. One of the chief purposes of comparing works from widely separated times is to measure the distance traveled, the forces that made the journey possible, and the consequences of arriving at a new place and a new hour. Blade Runner and Patchwork Girl are just the tip of the iceberg of the recent fascination with rewriting the Romantic era. Looking around at the contemporary scene, the teacher confronts a bewildering array of allusions to Romanticism, a hodgepodge of trivia and clich s, as well as more illuminating images in novels, films, and digital media.
Classes using such material often require modifying one's usual teaching approach.
Generally, one will not want to include more than one or two contemporary texts, unless one is willing to give up the focus on the prior century and pursue a topic that crosses entirely between eras. For teachers who are thinking of adding contemporary material to their Romantics course, I have three recommendations to offer. I will key each point to a brief discussion of a contemporary text that I have found to work well when teaching the nineteenth century. Consider picking a contemporary text that is very different from the Romantic works covered in the class, not a version of one of the assigned texts. Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl .