Exploring Literature with Professor Barbara Benedict

Georgia Bussey ’28

Contributing Writer

“Who would like to be the chocolate distributor today?” is one of the first questions you will hear in ENGL 160 – Introduction to Literary Studies, a class taught by English Professor Barbara Benedict. This fairly new tradition started only a few years ago for Benedict, but quickly became a hallmark. But whether or not there are Hershey minis to pass around, Benedict’s students know the class offers plenty of food for thought both at the Harkness table and beyond the walls of Benedict’s classroom.

As a Trinity College faculty member since 1984, Benedict’s teaching philosophy has enduringly revolved around curiosity. Often sprinkling impromptu questions to spark spontaneous and dynamic discussions, Benedict invites her students to follow their curiosity and voice their insights. She described her teaching style as a combination of something she calls a balance of “scaffolding and free play.” While scaffolding consists of “the basic facts, literary analysis [and] historical context,” free play is driven by questions, with the goal for students to “explore their imaginations.” Outside of the literary studies class, Benedict allows students to craft their prompts for formal assignments to tailor a deeper, individual understanding between the lines of text.

Throughout her time here, Benedict has appreciated the generational variance of English students at Trinity while recognizing a common thread: an enduring “eagerness to improve.”  Regarding today’s students, she observes a commitment to “intellectual identity.” Even so, she believes in the importance of fostering a learning environment that makes space for humour. “I like to have a jovial classroom,” she added.

Benedict notes that she always knew she wanted to be a teacher. Though her father was an excellent teacher, it was her own natural exhibitionism that started with teaching Latin classes whilst still in high school. “I’m the person on the flight [next to you] who wants to talk about the book you’re reading. I just can’t help it,” she laughed. 

As a Harvard graduate with a B.A. cum laude in British history and literature, Benedict originally planned to major in classical studies. It wasn’t until she took a class about 18th-century English literature, taught by the renowned 18th-century history critic W. Jackson Bate, that her trajectory changed. The period’s “complexity, irony and thickness of allusions” as explored in Bate’s class was a “magical experience” for Benedict. “Coming from England, my natural mode is irony, not sentiment,” she reflects. “This is a romantic country; England is a much more satirical one, and I learned that’s where my impulses go.” 

Equally captivated by history, Benedict realized she was more suited for English, drawn by the liberty it offered for interpretation. “I couldn’t question the information being given to me with history,” she explained. “But I found my way around a literary text very naturally.” Despite her inclination towards books, she also shares that she grew up dyslexic. However, this did not discourage her; at eight years old, she was in the park when her mother opened a copy of Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice.” “I got so excited I pulled the book away from her and started reading it myself,” she expressed. “Without question, the author who has had the greatest impact on me is Jane Austen. She has been the main influence on my life as an author. I also love [William] Shakespeare, Alexander Pope, and [Charles] Dickens as well—all very classic, I have to say.” 

Although her English accent may suggest she’s a lifelong Londoner, her nomadic childhood set her on a diverse path. First born in Pennsylvania, she then moved to Mauritius, where she learned her first language, Creole, before moving to London, where she would spend most of her upbringing. During this time, she attended the prestigious St. Paul’s Girls’ School, visiting Kenya and the Seychelles along the way. Finally, her family moved to Berkeley, California, where she spent her secondary school years at Berkeley High School, which was quite the transition for Benedict. Stating that Berkeley High was in a “very dangerous location” in the late 1960s due to the anti-Vietnam War riots,“flooded with violence and teargas,” she whispered, “the culture shock stunted my growth.”

When she’s not writing or reading, Benedict enjoys drawing and painting—but true to character, she’s especially fond of travelling. Among her favorite destinations are Australia, India, Thailand and Morocco, though she always loves returning to her roots in West London, where she grew up. 

After earning her Master’s from the University of California, Berkeley, she pursued her Ph.D. dissertation while teaching first at her graduate alma mater, then at Trinity. She shared that her journey of getting her dissertation “was very, very hard, but I wanted this profession very dearly.” When she applied for her first teaching job at 28, “it was the lowest time ever for hiring anyone seeking to teach English literature, precisely 18th century literature.” Her perseverance led her to a junior leave, where she went on to do research at the British Library, which “opened a wonderful door. I found all sorts of fascinating unpublished work, and that is when I started writing books.”

With a year-long sabbatical on the horizon, Benedict looks forward to dedicating time to her next book, “Precious Things in Literature,” as well as resuming her love of travel, with plans to visit Japan, France and England before circling back to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. For now, she extends her gratitude to Trinity College and finishes the year feeling “a deep privilege to teach here.”