Postgraduate Research in English Literature
Page for Postgraduate Events and Research in English Literature
In a counterpoint to our long-running session theme, Works Loved, this week we’re thinking about books that inspire the opposite emotion. Listen to the podcast ‘Books We Hate’, and come along to reflect on the discussion and share your own dislikes. (But don’t worry – Works Loved will be back soon, to remind us of … Continue reading “Page Breaks: Books We Hate”
On Wednesday 24 February (from 9 am), we will be hosting a Page Breaks Research day. This will be an opportunity to work on your own research (while knowing that others are working at the same time), with periodic zoom calls to set and reflect on goals.
Love them or hate them, book covers are often the first thing we encounter when browsing different forms of literature. In this week’s Page Breaks, we invite you to reflect on aspects of choosing and responding to a book cover. Do you have favourite examples? Least favourite? How would you choose your own? Come along … Continue reading “Page Breaks – Book Covers (1pm, Wed 17 Feb)”
For this week’s Page Breaks, we’re listening to an episode of ‘A Piece of Work’, a podcast about modern art based out of MOMA. This episode ‘The Writing on the Wall’ asks questions about how to achieve ‘authenticity’ in inherently reproducible pieces, and if words/language can be art.
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 … Continue reading “Page Breaks: My Year of Making Lists”
Who knows what 2021 has in store for us – but Page Breaks, our weekly reading group for postgraduate researchers in english lit, will be back in the w/c 1 Feb. We’ll continue to meet weekly online via Zoom, and we look forward to seeing new and familiar faces!
Page Breaks this week will be on Wed 09 December at 1pm. We’ll be returning to our cherished ‘Works Loved’ format. Find out more about Works Loved here: https://blog.bham.ac.uk/englitpostgrad/works-loved/
On Wed 2 Dec our text is the short but intriguing preface to Mariah Carey’s memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey. We’ll think about Mariah’s refusal to acknowledge the concept of time… and perhaps also check in on her enduring presence as a Christmas icon.
On Wed 25 Nov we’ll discuss how country houses and museums have (and have not) grappled with the complex histories that define Britain’s past, including structures of racism and colonialism. Our text for this week is Sumaya Kassim’s video essay ‘The Museum Will Not Be Decolonised’ (2017). See you there!
On Wed 18 Nov we’ll consider the pleasures and problems of pop culture in an era of streaming and digital on-demand. Our text for this week is Simon Reynolds’s 2019 article “Streaming has killed the mainstream: the decade that broke popular culture”. See you there!
