Between and beyond the lines : teaching austen through the lens of gender to first year university students of english in mascara

Abstract

Between and Beyond the Lines is a research that approaches Jane Austen’s novels Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility from a fresh gender dimension. The duality of men vs. women is invested at the heart of the novels sessions taught to groups two and four, first year students at the University of Mascara as part of a didactic experiment. While it is detected that literature remains by far the subject with least attractions to learners, it is disregarded as boring, condensed, ancient and uninteresting overall. This research puts forward a new strategy to attract learners’ attention, engage them more in the classroom and fuel their passion for literature. The fresh perspective of gender invites learners’ thinking and involvement inside the classroom as well as it activates their curiosity into the text being taught. On the way to find answers, this work has been divided into four chapters. The first one which is introductory serves as a review of the literature carried through a lens of gender. Chapter two goes beyond the lines of Jane Austen’s novels. It sets on the journey to survey learners’ general views with regard to literature-related issues with the use of the pre-questionnaire. A series of five sessions follows where PP and SS are brought into groups two and four with gender as the key element of teaching both novels. Chapter three comes to investigate the efficiency of the teaching experiment with an opening crossroad session followed with the post-questionnaire. The final chapter is an attempt to offer solutions for the issues and problems detected during the study or pointed by the students