About: Revolution Now & Revolutionize Lit

A Revolution in Fiction is designed as a collaborative weblog to encourage exchanges among literature, history, art history, and the human sciences across the ages. A Revolution in Fiction has, since its origins in 2009, become a site for commentary on revolutions in fact. Revolutionary studies have abruptly become urgent, given the developments of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Syria, and Libya, and the summer 2011 violence in the UK and Chile. By bringing a historical perspective on our world today, we may get the distance needed to steer clear of at least some of the violence that is, alas, also part of revolution.
The site is maintained by Julia Douthwaite, Professor of French, University of Notre Dame, and author of The Frankenstein of 1790 and Other Lost Chapters from Revolutionary France (forthcoming, University of Chicago Press, 2012).

En français: Nous invitons les chercheurs et les étudiants français et francophones à contribuer à cette exploration collective de la France révolutionnaire et ses échos ailleurs. Nous nous intéressons également à vos réflexions sur les moyens de révolutionner l’enseignement des lettres aujourd’hui. 

Revolution Now: We hope to explore and publicize new findings about French revolutionary art, literature, and culture, and to inspire more research on the little-known, transitional period between the ancien régime and modernity (1780-1830). We also seek reflection on the relations between the French Revolution and its impact abroad in Saint Domingue / Haiti or elsewhere, in the 18th century or today. With the new wave of revolutions sweeping the Middle East in 2011, the time is ripe for a cool and clear-sighted ‘revolutionary studies’ to guide public debate.

Revolutionize Lit (Teach this!): A related goal is to mobilize a revolution in teaching literature, once considered a moribund affair and now gaining increasing life thanks to innovative teachers at all levels: elementary, secondary, and university.

Creative projects: we can breathe energy into literature by empowering students to craft artifacts (altered books, especially, but also collages, videos, paintings) that reflect on their readings and incite them to shape the text into an entirely new creation.

Collective utopianism: the multi-national writing of utopias–a project that to date has united groups from France–metropolitan and l’Île de la Réunion–and the USA allows students to join their teachers in imagining a better world.

Projects, games, and strategies: simple and proven strategies exist to keep students motivated and even have fun in the classroom, all the while tackling some pretty sophisticated topics.

See “Teach This” for an ongoing list of ideas and strategies for teachers of all levels.