KNOWING

• Our introduction to and initial impressions of Anne
• Summary of and background on the novel

READING

• Feminism and Gender in Anne of Green Gables

  

  • Female romantic friendships and formula parody
    • Irene Gammel, Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic
  • Anne and Marilla’s reverse bildungsroman arcs
  • Utility v. personhood as a source of human value
• Religion in Anne of Green Gables
  • Wordsworth and the divine child
    • “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood“
  • Adoption, others-oriented living, and children as neighbors
    • Jen Wilkin, “Your Child Is Your Neighbor” (org)
  • Anne’s view of prayer
• Lightning Round
  • The value of personal sacrifice and quiet faithfulness
    • Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl 
    • Janie Cheaney, “A Well-Behaved Woman” (World)
  • Counterpoint: Montgomery’s perspective on Anne’s unrealized dreams
  • The problematic relationship between Mr. Phillips and Prissy Andrews

PASSING ON

• M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle
• Gene Stratton-Porter, Girl of the Limberlost
• Jeanne Birdsall, The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and an Interesting Boy