Bibliography of Sources / Further Reading for Game Players

All of the paper-backed cards in the deck of Cards of the Humanities (i.e. those with images of old sheet of paper on the back, rather than those with images of a book cover on the back) represent the result of student research into the history and theory of literary genre. 

To see the sources we used for this information, and if you want suggested readings to learn more about these literary genres, please see our bibliography.

User Testing!

On the last day of class, we played our game using two decks of cards designed by students and produced by Make Playing Cards. We chose to get the cards produced in tarot card size in order to accommodate the amount of text some of them contain. 

Here is student feedback on the experience of playing the game for the first time:

Pastoral Poetry - Primary Sources

It's interesting because my first instinct as far as getting primary sources was to request from the stacks a lot of books titled pastoral poetry. There were the usual pastoral poetry, Victorian pastoral poetry,  17th Century pastoral poetry - even a title called The Use of Nostalgia: Studies in Pastoral Poetry.  Yet none of them were really answering the questions/assignment posed by the professor-

Neo Slave Novel - Primary Sources

Finding primary sources was a lot easier and a lot less stressful than finding secondary sources. Thanks to Professor Morgan, an English professor who's classes focus on African American literature, culture and political/social movements, I was able to find some really awesome primary sources. Because Professor Morgan is an expert in the field of African American literature, I trusted her opinion on what she claims are the most important and accurate examples of neo slave novels. She named Kindred, Beloved, and Dessa Rose. I was excited to hear these three titles because I had actually encountered them during my search for secondary sources. Additionally, I'm actually already reading Beloved for another English class I'm taking right now so it has been fun to view it in the context of this classroom and also in my other class in which we are focusing on gender and sexuality.

Frontier Romance- Primary Sources

I felt that finding the primary sources may have felt harder than finding the secondary sources because I did not know what to look for. I had to go through the same process I did with the secondary sources. I did this and found a couple of novels that I thought looked right however they were not even close to what I needed. That is why it took me a while to post, I was looking for something I already had. When I found my secondary sources I had not realized that within those sources were my primary sources. 

Spiritual Autobiography- Primary Sources

I found the search for primary sources to be much easier than the source for secondary sources and, consequently, far more enjoyable. The genre of spiritual autobiography is widespread and far-reaching, covering works from the seventeenth century as well as contemporary pieces. What I found most interesting about this portion of my research was the fact that many of the central themes to spiritual autobiographies have remained constant over time, but the context and style of writing has changed quite a bit. The primary sources I referenced were each a sort of generative, evolutive piece, as they walked the reader through the author's course of development and encouraged her invited her to participate in the author's exploration of the inner-self.

Unexpected Encounters Within the Epistolary Genre

I was extremely excited to begin my search for primary sources after understanding the gist of epistolary fiction. It was most interesting to find various novels written in epistolary form for such different audience members. I came across an unexpected text written for middle school children and, moments later, I found a complex epistolary novel told by a woman undergoing ceaseless abuse which was more for adults. Besides the ability to cater to readers of different ages, I found it astounding how this novel continues to be a successful genre.