Coping Reads

[goldenbowl]

I wanted to propose a bonding activity for all of us! I imagine that we all, well, read — and I’ve been wondering what books people have been reading — in and outside of our research— that have given us joy and pleasure through the application process.

I’m collaborating with a friend of mine to teach a one-off class on formal analysis applied to Kafka, and I’ve been taking the opportunity to read all of the Kafka work I hadn’t read yet. I’m halfway through Amerika right now and I’ve been surprised to see Kafka be so light-hearted and humorous. It hasn’t moved me the way his other two novels did, but I’ve been enjoying seeing a very different side to his writerly personality. 

Edited March 4, 2019 by goldenbowl

[trytostay]

Whenever someone asks me why I like to study the eighteenth-century, I just tell them to read Haywood’s Fantomina, or: Love in a Maze. It’s a perfect example of the bizarre social customs that those in the eighteenth-century followed through and through, even in their most immoral actions. The eighteenth-century was WEIRD, ya’ll. I am convinced someone needs to adapt it for a film or something. It is quite humorous, however it has some dark themes as well. (TW: rape.) In my subfield this is a very common text, so I’m not sure if others have read this, but it was what really got me invested in c18. 

Edited March 4, 2019 by trytostay

[victoriansimpkins]

1 hour ago, trytostay said:

Whenever someone asks me why I like to study the eighteenth-century, I just tell them to read Haywood’s Fantomina, or: Love in a Maze. It’s a perfect example of the bizarre social customs that those in the eighteenth-century followed through and through, even in their most immoral actions. The eighteenth-century was WEIRD, ya’ll. I am convinced someone needs to adapt it for a film or something. It is quite humorous, however it has some dark themes as well. (TW: rape.) In my subfield this is a very common text, so I’m not sure if others have read this, but it was what really got me invested in c18. 

YES YES YES FOREVER YES. Though my "true" scholarship begins just a wee bit after this, I've been focusing a lot on Frances Burney and Eliza Haywood's works and depictions of the time. I relish in the majority's misunderstanding of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries. These folks were FAR from boring.

[havemybloodchild]

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

Actually came up in several faculty interviews today at SMU so that was fun!

 

[Rootbound]

Outside of my research, but I read Samantha Hunt’s “The Seas” back in November while going through endless drafts of my SoP, and it was such a captivating read. Highly reccomended to one and all!

[The Wordsworthian]

Not a book, but a fantastic poem recommendation: just recently reread Spenser's Daphnaida and wow, I forgot how harrowing that poem is.  Highly recommend.

[dangermouse]

outside of my specialism, but I've recently reread angela carter's the infernal desire machine of doctor hoffman and loved it even more the second time round (tw/ rape, more cannibalism than you would expect, phrases so luridly beautifully you will want to throw the book through a window or against a wall on several occasions).

and for a truly delightful early-Romanticism read, i always have to recommend ann radcliffe's the Iialian, which has brought me innumerable joys over the year. it is a wonderful example of the development of the gothic genre, it is melodramatic and unselfconscious and has an absolutely insane plot that just keeps on getting madder and madder with each revelation. when i was in undergrad me and one of my friends drunkenly performed a two-man version of it at predrinks (... i know ...) and it was a Hit.