TripWillis Posted June 19, 2012 Posted June 19, 2012 Is everyone doing their homework in preparation for the fall semester? In addition to my submission goals and my two part-time jobs, I've been putting together and reading my summer book list. It's partially composed of things I should read and partially composed of things I really want to read. Hell, I like it all anyway. Summer Reading List (already read in bold) Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities -- John D'Emlio Shadow and Act -- Ralph Ellison Train Dreams -- Denis Johnson The Practice of Everyday Life -- Michel De Certau The Sportswriter -- Richard Ford The Political Unconscious -- Fredric Jameson Somethin' or other by Terry Eagleton Terrorist Assemblages -- Jasbir Puar Times Square Red, Times Square Blue -- Samuel Delany Some Andre Dubus short stories The Trouble With Normal -- Michael Warner Tropic Death -- Eric Walrond Culture in the Age of Three Worlds -- Michael Denning Any suggestions? Some old school french theory, maybe? More novels and poetry? What are you doing this summer?
Medievalmaniac Posted June 19, 2012 Posted June 19, 2012 I'm reading the books on my Postcolonialisms syllabus, and the texts for the comp TAs, to get a head start on the semester. I'm also working on Latin, Welsh, and Old Norse Icelandic, reading several titles in Arthuriana, and working on two articles I'm submitting in July and August, respectively. And teaching full time, 6 classes a day. Never a dull moment!
TripWillis Posted June 20, 2012 Author Posted June 20, 2012 YAY you are starting in the fall! i hope this means all is well, health wise? also, if your postcolonial class includes any 21st century texts or theory, would you might shooting me the list of titles? one of my exam lists for generals is 21st-c poco so i'm working on putting together a draft of my exam list this summer. THUS...my summer reading list is primarily reading many other lists to figure out what goes on my three lists. in case i didn't just say it enough...lists. LISTS. SO MANY OF THEM. Two Espressos 1
Stately Plump Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 I've been dabbling in journals in my field. And very much enjoying the access to my new school's library's online resources
Fiona Thunderpaws Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 (edited) FIFTY SHADES OF GREY! Just kidding. (Though a friend did dare me to read it, and it's so much worse than you could possbily imagine.) I admire everyone's abilities to stay on top of things. My summer reading list thus far is me reading whatever the hell I feel like reading, and most of these things are not-so-scholarly. I figure that for most of my program I'm going to have people/classes/my career dictating what I'm reading, so I'm trying to enjoy my last few months of totally unstructured reading time as much as I can. Though if you're looking for French theory Trip, I recommend The Wretched of the Earth if you haven't read it already, or Sartre's Search for a Method, which is interesting though not quite as enjoyable to read, in my opinion. Edited June 20, 2012 by Fiona Thunderpaws BruisedHibiscus 1
gatz Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 Shadow and Act -- Ralph Ellison I don't know if you have the collected essays, but the rest of Ellison's stuff in there is incredible as well...he's just so astoundingly timeless and yet current and just completely fascinating when he talks about history and american lit
Datatape Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 Not going to be a Ph.D. student in the fall (boo), but I'm making my way through two big volumes right now so as to prepare a better writing sample: The Ecocriticism Reader, eds. Cheryll Glotfelty & Harold Fromm The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Connor
Stately Plump Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 The Ecocriticism Reader, eds. Cheryll Glotfelty & Harold Fromm I just had a course in Ecocriticism and I thought this was fantastic.
Medievalmaniac Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 YAY you are starting in the fall! i hope this means all is well, health wise? also, if your postcolonial class includes any 21st century texts or theory, would you might shooting me the list of titles? one of my exam lists for generals is 21st-c poco so i'm working on putting together a draft of my exam list this summer. THUS...my summer reading list is primarily reading many other lists to figure out what goes on my three lists. in case i didn't just say it enough...lists. Yes, FINALLY starting. I got a clean bill of health in May - remission, Baby! I can toss out some titles, although I think many/most are more from the late 20th century - still, it's a start, right? lol the Empire Writes Back Ahmad, In Theory Anderson, Imagined Communities Bhabha, The Location of Culture Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth Gilroy, The Black Atlantic Said, Orientalism Lunsford and Ouzgane, Crossing Borderlands Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason Sinha Animal's People Coetzee Disgrace Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost. Seth, A Suitable Boy Achebe, Things Fall Apart other authors I know deal with postcolonial themes: Duras, Rushdie, Loomba(criticism), Chatterjee I hope there's something here that is useful to you!!
Datatape Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 I just had a course in Ecocriticism and I thought this was fantastic. It is fantastic, what I've read so far, anyway. I've never been much of a theory person, but I'm really enjoying it. I especially appreciate that Glotfelty and Fromm made a concerted effort to not include anything terribly dense while at the same time hitting on the major aspects of the field.
siarabird Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 My to-read list so far: Postcolonial Theory, Leela Gandhi Orientalism, Edward Said The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Ania Loomba A Companion to Postcolonial Studies, Henry Schwarz/Sangeeta Ray Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: In Other Words, Sangeeta Ray En-Gendering India, Sangeeta Ray Native Intelligence: Aesthetics, Politics, and Postcolonial Literature, Deepika Bahri I know that I'm really behind in my field (give me a break, I'm earning my BA in 3 years after all ) so I'm trying really hard to catch myself up this summer.
wreckofthehope Posted June 20, 2012 Posted June 20, 2012 that's do awesome. most of the texts you listed are on my 20th-C list already - my 21-c list is looking at the most current and cutting edge poco theory and literature and it's going to be exciting! There's some very interesting recent poco eco stuff - don't know if any of that would be relevant, you're probably aware of them any way, since these are pretty obvious examples, but just in case: Postcolonial Ecologies: Literatures of the Environment edited by Elizabeth DeLoughrey and George Handley (both of whom have interesting work in the area of their own). Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment - Graham Huggan One of my exams is on literature and globalization, mostly, some of those might be relevant (I'd be interested to see your list - it might help mine!): Saskia Sassen - Guests and Aliens (not poco, but possibly useful) The Rebecca Walkowitz edited issue of Contemporary Fiction (winter 06) titled " Immigrant Fictions: Contemporary Literature in an Age of Globalization" has lots of cool essays in it.
Medievalmaniac Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Nobody here but us Lit Majors trying to figure out this theory thing! lol At least it's postcolonialism, which makes some sense. Poststructuralism, anyone?
Gauche Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 I still have one year left of undergrad left, but I could use some books on New Historicism. I meant to focus on it in my theory class this past semester, but Psychoanalysis occupied my attention instead.
Datatape Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 Poststructuralism, anyone? TripWillis, Historiogaffe, Two Espressos and 2 others 5
TripWillis Posted June 21, 2012 Author Posted June 21, 2012 LOL Poststructuralism is passé now anyway. Two Espressos 1
Medievalmaniac Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 LOL Poststructuralism is passé now anyway. Yeah... because no one could figure out how to do it! lol BruisedHibiscus 1
antecedent Posted June 21, 2012 Posted June 21, 2012 I read Contemporary Linguistics by O'Grady et al, and now I'm making my way through the more engaging but still fairly academic The Language Wars: A History of Proper English by Henry Hitchings. I tried to read Austin's Doing Things With Words but I found his style too dry, and now it's packed up in a box waiting to be shipped to my dad's! Oh well. Yeah... because no one could figure out how to do it! lol Hahaha nice!
JeremiahParadise Posted June 25, 2012 Posted June 25, 2012 After Theory (Eagleton) and a bunch of novels for me: Bellow, Ellison, Kerouac, Plath, and more. Also, since I'm applying this fall, I'm reading lots of recent articles by prospective profs/advisors.
NowMoreSerious Posted June 25, 2012 Posted June 25, 2012 LOL Poststructuralism is passé now anyway. Yes, which makes me admire those who have "ridden the wave" and ignored it for the past 40+ years. They won. They eventually won. Now there are new better things for them to ignore. Medievalmaniac 1
bdon19 Posted June 25, 2012 Posted June 25, 2012 In the time after graduating, I finally got around to reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, and am now resisting the urge to specialize in contemporary lit. I've decided, in a final act of young rebellion against the academy, that my summer will mainly consist of me holing myself up in my room with Netflix, catching up on TV that I always was too busy reading to watch. I have all next year to read that theory stuff, anyway. kairos 1
TripWillis Posted June 26, 2012 Author Posted June 26, 2012 In the time after graduating, I finally got around to reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom, and am now resisting the urge to specialize in contemporary lit. I've decided, in a final act of young rebellion against the academy, that my summer will mainly consist of me holing myself up in my room with Netflix, catching up on TV that I always was too busy reading to watch. I have all next year to read that theory stuff, anyway. What did you think of Freedom? I preferred The Corrections, but thought Freedom was pretty intriguing most of the way. The end was very, very melodramatic.
bdon19 Posted June 26, 2012 Posted June 26, 2012 The ending WAS very melodramatic, but, for some reason, that is what I LOVED about it. I think it's because I just spent the past term writing my senior thesis about whether or not the novel is "dead," and then there's this amazing novel that uses the 19th-century novel form and brilliantly transposes it onto the twenty-first century. I don't know, it was just kind of refreshing for me, in the way that Victorian novels can be refreshing. And in the way that, at least formalistically, it's not trying to DO anything other than be a novel (unlike something like Eugenides's The Marriage Plot). I haven't read The Corrections yet, but I'd be interested to do so now! TripWillis 1
TripWillis Posted June 26, 2012 Author Posted June 26, 2012 The ending WAS very melodramatic, but, for some reason, that is what I LOVED about it. I think it's because I just spent the past term writing my senior thesis about whether or not the novel is "dead," and then there's this amazing novel that uses the 19th-century novel form and brilliantly transposes it onto the twenty-first century. I don't know, it was just kind of refreshing for me, in the way that Victorian novels can be refreshing. And in the way that, at least formalistically, it's not trying to DO anything other than be a novel (unlike something like Eugenides's The Marriage Plot). I haven't read The Corrections yet, but I'd be interested to do so now! Ya gotta read The Corrections. It is top notch stuff.
Two Espressos Posted June 26, 2012 Posted June 26, 2012 Ya gotta read The Corrections. It is top notch stuff. This is completely off-topic, but who's the badass sage in your avatar picture? He looks familiar.
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