This week we’ll be thinking about heroes and epic, reading two texts as a starting-point: a short section from Dean Miller’s The Epic Hero and passages from Derek Walcott’s poem Omeros.
9 May 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Category: Page Breaks
The Cultural Politics of Popular Fantasy: Ramzi Fawaz (Wed 8 May 2019)
To start off the summer term, we’re reading a short section from Ramzi Fawaz’s book The New Mutants (2016).
3 May 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Works Loved: How Texts Matter To Us (27 March 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.
27 March 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Milkman (Wed 20 March 2019, 2pm)
In a change from the usual format, this week our text is a novel: Milkman, by Anna Burns (2018).
19 March 2019 by Dorothy Butchard
Why Ecopoetry? (Wed 13 March, 2pm)
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
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