We’re back! For our first Page Breaks of the new year, we’re reading Hua Hsu’s short essay, ‘My Year of Making Lists’. The start of the year is a time when we’re often prompted to make lists: resolutions, memories, favourite things, plans for the future. We’ll reflect on Hsu’s article, our own ways of using – or avoiding – lists, and perhaps also add to some future reading lists.
“Lists were placeholders of a sort, in which I began to sketch out universes I wanted to someday visit. Songs with kalimba. Artwork involving flowers. These lists indicate nothing about my sense of taste. But they suggest a compulsive awareness about time’s passage, a desire to displace anxious energy into nerdish ritual.” (Hua Hsu, ‘My Year of Making Lists’)
Text (Reading)
- Hua Hsu, ‘My Year of Making Lists’ (New Yorker, 2020).
- A PDF version of this text is available to download on our password-protected texts page – email d.butchard@bham.ac.uk for access.
“Time” and Place
- Wed 3 February, 1 pm
- Zoom: Link (Password: pagebreaks)
Looking forward to seeing you all again soon! This event is run by Dorothy Butchard and Toria Johnson (d.butchard@bham.ac.uk and t.johnson@bham.ac.uk). Please email us if you have any questions, but you’re welcome to just turn up.
About Page Breaks
This is an informal weekly reading group within the Department of English Literature. All welcome!
Page Breaks: Postgraduate Seminar in English Literature