Page for Postgraduate Events and Research in English Literature
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!
We are relaunching the Romance Reading Group online just in time for our Christmas Romance special! Our first 20/21 session will be on Thursday 10th December 2020 from 17:30-19:00, so save the date in your calendars! It will be on: Christmas, Romance and Popular Films. Please RSVP via our website (https://romancegroup.wixsite.com/home/event-details/christmas-romance-and-popular-films). Then, closer the time, you … Continue reading “Romance Reading Group: Christmas, Romance and Popular Films”
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!
Thanks to popular demand, on Wed Nov 11 our regular Page Breaks session will be devoted to classic comfort TV institution The Great British Bake Off. Our episode is an infamous oldie: the attack of the Baked Alaska, aka ‘Bingate’. This will be co-hosted by a superfan (Toria) and a skeptic (Dorothy) so there’s space … Continue reading “Page BAKES: The Great British Bake Off”
On Wednesday 04 November (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.
Page Breaks this week will be on Wed 28 October 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/
Page Breaks this week will be on Wed 21 October at 1pm. We’ll be reading ‘A Hovering Young Man’ and ‘Something to Do’, from Zadie Smith’s recently published collection, Intimations.
Page Breaks this week will be on Wed 14 October at 1pm. We’ll be thinking about the art of a scathing review – and what we do with authors whose work is admired by some and reviled by others. Our text this week is Patricia Lockwood’s 2019 review of John Updike’s fiction, “Malfunctioning Sex Robot“.
Page Breaks this week will be on Wed 07 October at 1pm. We’ll be thinking about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and (among other things) her use of feminist fashion. Our main text for this week is Vanessa Friedman’s New York Times commentary, ‘Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Lace Collar Wasn’t an Accessory, it was a Gauntlet’
Our first Page Breaks of 2020-21 will be on Wed 30 July at 1pm. We’ll start the new academic year by thinking about literary responses to the pandemic – past, present, and future. Our text for this week is Parul Seghal’s article “In Search of Time Lost and Newly Found”.
