A small anecdote about loving literature

[Branwen daughter of Llyr]

As some of you may know (and if not, you know now...), I'm currently studying my ass off for the Subject GRE in April.

So today, during a particularly slow afternoon/evening in the store I work in, I was sitting and answering Princeton's mock exam, my Norton Anthology of English literature vol. 1 besides me (as was the Penguin dictionary of literary terms). After surprising myself and answering quite a few questions correctly, I was finally done (after two days) with the exam, and started looking at their recommended reading list. Immensely enjoyed reading Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to his Love again (it's been a while), and then moved on to their next recommendation.

and oh boy.

As I sat reading Ben Jonson's To the Memory of My Beloved, The Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us, I started crying. Not figuratively. Real tears were running down my cheeks, and I got all sniffly. Now, I've read this poem before. A few times, even. But it's been a while, and I was surprised by how very moved I was returning to it. So there I sat, sniffing and tears running down my face, from a poem, in the middle of a store (well, actually hiding behind the cash register), my heart feeling like it was going to burst.

So if anyone was wondering why I'm applying to grad school - I think this is the answer. Ben Jonson can move me to tears. Shakespeare can arouse every single human emotion in my body and soul. As can Chaucer. As can John Donne and Jane Austen. Cosgrove can make me roll on the floor with laughter, Swift makes me laugh, and think, and puzzle, and....

'nuff said, no?

[Nighthob]

Re: Subject Test

I found that the main thing to study up on is critical theory. For example, you need to be able to recognize Derrida or Foucault or Barthes based on a ready passage or be able to identify major schools like Formalism, Structuralism, etc. Seems like many of the more recent tests focused on critical theory than on identification of major works or authors. Of course, YMMV, but that's what I encountered and what I've heard from others most recently.

[Branwen daughter of Llyr]

Re: Subject Test

I found that the main thing to study up on is critical theory. For example, you need to be able to recognize Derrida or Foucault or Barthes based on a ready passage or be able to identify major schools like Formalism, Structuralism, etc. Seems like many of the more recent tests focused on critical theory than on identification of major works or authors. Of course, YMMV, but that's what I encountered and what I've heard from others most recently.

B)

Thanx - I've heard the same, so am also beefing up on critical theory. But, after 9 years out of school, my identification kind of sucks. I have to re-read most of the major modern poets (to at least recognize their style), and review a lot of the older stuff I've forgotten over the years. So weekends I read criticism, and during the week I read literature.

Criticism, however, does not move me to tears hahahaha!

[Kam]

(Sometimes criticism moves me to tears, but not in the good way. lol)

It's always great to re-read something and to remember just why you love literature as much as you do, why you want to work with it in a professional manner, and (maybe most importantly) why you're going through this whole process. I haven't read anything that has evoked a strong emotion in me lately, but your post reminded me that it does happen.

P.S. Have you read Jonson's Eastward Hoe? Some parts of it are actually laugh-out-loud funny haha