Death of the Essay? Generative AI, Literature Teachers’ Five Stages of Grief, and Alternative Assignment Design in Victorian Studies

Abstract

In this essay, we discuss the ongoing fallout from generative artificial intelligence (AI) for literature instructors and reflect on our own and other scholars’ experiences with students’ adoption of such language generation tools, particularly in courses on Victorian literature. Since the essay in its current academic form is itself a mostly Victorian invention, many teachers of Victorian literature have a deep commitment to the genre. Given recent developments in AI-generated writing, we – along with many instructors – are in the process of grieving ongoing changes to a cherished teaching practice. For this article, we use what are popularly called ‘the five stages of grief’ as a heuristic to think through the end of the essay in undergraduate literature classrooms and to speculate on what lies beyond. This essay takes instructors’ affective responses seriously and critically examines what these affects reveal about literary studies and the field’s assumptions about the essay’s validity as a mode of assessment. Ultimately, we make the case for rethinking the traditional essay assignment and for treating literacy exercises like the Victorians did: as spaces for exploration of personal literacy and world-building, as tools for imaginative play and for generative failure.
Are analytical or argumentative essays the best way to assess