Approaches to Teaching Sand's 'Indiana'

Marion Krauthaker, ‘A Review of Approaches to Teaching Sand’s ‘Indiana’. Ed. by DAVID A. POWELL and PRATIMA PRASAD. viii + 224 pp. $24. ISBN 978-1-60329-210-8’ Studies on George Sand by David Powell never disappoint: his vast bibliography of monographs, editions, chapters, articles and contributions on Sand, and the way he applies queer theory to nineteenth century texts, bring thought-provoking perspectives on the most preeminent woman writer of nineteenth century France. Approaches to Teaching Sand’s Indiana, the outcome of his collaboration with Pratima Prasad, is yet another fantastic addition to the corpus of Sand’s studies and to the MLA Approaches to Teaching World Literature series. Tackling themes, such as social norms and margins, ethnic inequalities as well as gender codes and offering a commentary on the period following the July Monarchy, this novel has, over the past decades, become Sand’s most examined texts and is taught in a range of curricula internationally. It was undoubtedly a challenge to attempt to examine this widely studied text without reiteration, yet Powell and Prasad are successful in offering a fresh perspective by providing the first comprehensive pedagogical resource on Indiana.