Pedagogy Apr 2017

Blank Spaces, Full of Mourning

Vincent A. Lankewish

Abstract

This essay compares and contrasts the first edition of In Memoriam, Tennyson's elegy for his friend Arthur Henry Hallam published in 1850, with more recent editions that distort the original by dramatically compressing the text to fit it onto fewer pages. In this light, I consider the negative impact that such editorial choices may have on students reading the poem for the first time and the benefits of presenting them with the text in the format first encountered by Victorian readers (accessible today thanks to the British Library). The blank space following many of In Memoriam's 131 lyric sections is an integral part of the mourning process that Tennyson unfolds before us. Relatedly, I describe my multiple attempts to teach the poem to undergraduates, as well as a talk on this topic that I gave on a pedagogy panel at the Northeast Victorian Studies Association's 2000 conference, “Victorian Breakdowns.”

Journal
Pedagogy
Published
2017-04-01
DOI
10.1215/15314200-3770229
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy editorial matter
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (6)

  1. Freud (1957)
    On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology, and Other Works…
  2. Gray (2004)
    In Memoriam: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism
  3. (2004)
    Introduction to Gray
  4. Hill (1971)
    Tennyson's Poetry: Authoritative Texts, Juvenilia and Early Responses, Criticism
  5. Jackson (2005)
    Dickinson's Misery: A Theory of Lyric Reading
Show all 6 →
  1. Ross (1973)
    In Memoriam: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Jan 2026
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism genre theory writing pedagogy graduate education two-year college teacher development social media race and writing gender and writing affect and writing literary studies editorial matter
  2. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Dec 2025
    Harry Potter and the Artificially Intelligent Wand: Learning Team Communication in a Simulation Environment ↗
    Payal Mehra; Gaurav Lavanya; Rishab Chauhan
    writing pedagogy argument professional writing editorial matter
  3. Composition Forum Oct 2025
    Collaborative and Equitable Assessment: Graduate Student Responses to Co-Creating Feedback Guidelines in a Graduate Composition Pedagogy Course ↗
    writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development collaborative writing assessment literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies editorial matter
  4. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Resilience ↗
    Emily Rónay Johnston
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy curriculum design teacher development editorial matter
  5. Pedagogy Oct 2025
    Contributors ↗
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy advanced composition creative writing writing across the curriculum graduate education two-year college service learning teacher development technical communication professional writing labor and working conditions archival research multimodality artificial intelligence literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies literary studies editorial matter