In resurrecting Page Breaks we’re going to return to a well-tested formula: the ‘Works Loved’ session.
In ‘Works Loved’ sessions, we invite you to share a text that you enjoy or has been important to you. We’ll each share a text: this could be a poem that convinced us not to drop out as an undergraduate, an essay that launched the idea of postgraduate research, or a text that somehow remains separate from the very idea of ‘studying’ literature. Academia can often feel overwhelming, with multiple pressures competing for our time and headspace. This seminar is about remembering why we got into this business in the first place – namely, the ‘love’ (and we can discuss this term) we feel for the books, poems, and ideas that make up our discipline.
There’s no advance reading for Works Loved – just come along with your chosen text, and be ready to tell us why it matters to you and to discuss the other texts raised. All varieties of texts are permitted and we would particularly encourage you to read from your chosen text (either in full or as an extract).
When and Where
This will be a hybrid session. For those attending in person the location is:
4.30pm, Arts Room G13. The room is on the ground floor of the Arts building
And for those attending online the zoom link is:
https://bham-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/6447557473
What to bring
We invite any format or genre, and people have brought film clips, audio recordings, and artworks in past sessions – these are all very welcome! In terms of length, if you plan to read aloud we recommend anything from a couple of sentences to a full paragraph or page. If you’d prefer not to read, that’s fine too: you could bring printouts to hand around, better yet, email the extract to Rex on r.ferguson@bham.ac.uk so that it can easily be shared in the room and online.
Remember you are also free to just describe the text you have in mind rather than read from it.