As I was recently re-reading Great Expectations for my summer class, I realized that Pip’s narration and the directorial point-of-view of HBO’s Girls bear some striking similarities. Because I can only ethically blather on about such a connection for so long in class before feeling guilty and academics as the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals are not […]
Monthly Archives: July 2013
July
22
What Stacy is Reading Now: The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga
posted by Stacy
When I start something new, I dive in wholeheartedly. Over the years, my friends and family have seen me intricately plan my dissertation in a twenty-page outline and carefully separate out my lesson plans and teaching materials in binders and multi-colored file folders. I still proudly read books with two different colored pens in hand. […]
July
19
China Miéville’s Mental Calisthenics
posted by Kate Krueger
Miéville stretches me. Reading his fiction is like doing yoga of the imagination. With each twinge and contortion, I discover mental muscles I didn’t know I had. His fiction defies categorization: it is fantasy and horror and science fiction and biting sociopolitical critique, all in one heady jumble. Miéville has won several Arthur C. Clarke […]
What Kids Aren’t Reading
posted by Laura
I recently read an article on NPR’s “monkey see” blog called “What Kids Are Reading” that discusses trends in high school students’ reading habits. The thrust of the article is that high school students are not reading at their grade level; neither their own leisure-reading choices nor their reading assignments in school tend to be as […]
July
08
Take My Advice…
posted by Stacy
When an award-winning novelist gives you a book recommendation, you should take it. Fellow University Iowa alum and General Education Literature instructor — and honorary “lettered lady” — V. V. Ganeshananthan is my go-to source for teaching ideas as I plan my World Literature syllabi. (Incidentally, she’s also the author of one of my favorite […]
July
02
Persephone Books
posted by Laura
Early in my reading days, I rarely paid attention to publishers, and even now, this is a topic better covered by fellow Lettered Ladies Stacy or Jessica, whose academic work focuses on printers, reprints, and the physical book. I recognized various imprints as a kid, of course — Little, Brown & Co., Random House, Penguin […]
You Are What You Eat
posted by Stacy
One of my favorite things about being an English professor in a department of four is that I get to teach a variety of classes. Although I was officially hired as the resident Shakespearean and early British literature specialist, I regularly teach contemporary World and South Asian Literature and explore my interests in theory and […]
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