Whodunit

I have a good way to torture your students: have them try to figure out how a mystery ends. To be precise, have them try and figure out how a Sherlock Holmes story ends. lol I came up with this idea several years ago as a way to explain New Criticism. See, with New Criticism, nothing but the text itself matters. Your analysis should be supported by whatever clues are in the text just like Holmes figures out the crimes because of the clues around him. Even the least little word could have great meaning.

This is driving my students nuts. My TTH group took it all in stride but some of the students in the MW group were flipping out because they wanted to know NOW. lol Poor babies. The one guy is going to fight me on it, I know. He loudly proclaimed that mystery stories are to be read all at once and not separated. That the point of reading them is not to figure it out yourself but to find out who/what/when/where by reading the whole story. Gee, one reason I like reading mysteries is because I like to see if I can guess correctly what is going to happen.

Is this proof that the generations behind us have a shorter attention span? Possibly. But I only have 75 minutes to get a major point across and I try and find fun ways to do. Ok, I do have longer than 75 minutes because I spend multiple class times on the theories but I like to try and come up with various ways for the students to think about the techniques. "The Musgrave Ritual" is one of those ways.

Can't wait to see how they squirm when I introduce them to "The Phantom of the Opera" musical. hee hee