This week we are thinking about poetics and environmentalism, reading John Shoptaw’s essay ‘Why Ecopoetry?’ (2016). Many thanks to Miranda Jones for suggesting our text this week.
12 March 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Category: 2018-19
A Writer’s Sense of Place (Wed 6 March 2019, 2pm, Arts 247)
This week we are reading Louise Erdrich’s essay on ‘A Writer’s Sense of Place’. Many thanks to Will Carroll for suggesting our reading this week.
2 March 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Declining British Fiction? (Wed 27 Feb 2019, 2pm)
This week’s text is Jennifer Hodgson and Patricia Waugh’s response to claims of a decline in British fiction. Many thanks to Liam Harrison for suggesting our reading this week
20 February 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
On Keeping a Notebook: Reading Joan Didion (20 Feb 2019, 2pm)
This week we’ll compare notes on how we record our ideas and observations – whether for research, writing or personal pleasure. Our text this week is Joan Didion’s ‘On Keeping a Notebook’.
11 February 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Slow Violence: Reading Rob Nixon (30 Jan 2019, 1pm)
Slow violence is our topic this week, reading sections from Rob Nixon’s Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011).
25 January 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Deep Time and the Anthropocene (23 Jan 2019)
This week’s theme is deep time. We’ll be discussing the introduction to a recent special issue of Environment Humanities on “Unexpected Encounters with Deep Time” (May 2018).
16 January 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Works Loved: How Texts Matter To Us (6 Feb 2019)
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. In this seminar, … Continue reading “Works Loved: How Texts Matter To Us (6 Feb 2019)”
16 January 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Dinosaurs, Nostalgia and Popular Culture: Reading Svetlana Boym (16 Jan 2019)
In the first meeting of the new year, we’ll be thinking about dinosaurs and popular culture, continuing our reading from Svetlana Boym’s The Future of Nostalgia (2001).
10 January 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
The Future of Nostalgia: Svetlana Boym (Wed 12 Dec 2018)
This week we are discussing nostalgia, reading the first chapter of Svetlana Boym’s The Future of Nostalgia (2001).
7 December 2018 by Dorothy Butchard
The Work of Genre: Joseph Luzzi (Wed 5 Dec 2018)
This week we will be reading Joseph Luzzi’s discussion of the Work of Genre, where he analyses representations of labour and community in Wordsworth’s poem ‘Michael’ (1800) and Verga’s novel I Malavoglia (The House by the Medlar Tree) (1881).
2 December 2018 by Dorothy Butchard