Ultimately, the project shows that Wharton’s success as a novelist indicates that she received attention from literary critics at a time when many other women writers were ignored. The assignment asks students to consider to what extent readings of the novel have changed (and stayed the same) from new critical to new historicist, to feminist, and to critical race studies (to name a few examples). Ethan Frome is the focus of the project because the historical scholarship on this novella reflects changing trends in literary criticism. The assignment also aims to show students how “good questions” have changed over time. The primary goal is to teach students what makes a good question when they are beginning their research. The course project introduced demystifies for students the work of literary critics by indicating that literary criticism has a history and a changing practice. This chapter provides resources for teaching Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome in a course on literary methodologies.
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