Hello everyone!
Would like to apologize for my lack of blogging in the last couple of weeks.
Nothing hugely exciting has happened since my return to Manchester following Christmas break.
I spent the week of the 9th finishing critical essays for classes from last term. Ugh!
But now I'm back and things should be picking back up quite soon again!
Leading into February, January will end with a flourish of hockey training.
And then February itself will be filled with hockey and Within the Ruins coming to the UK!
I digress...
I set up my timetable this term to allow for maximum travel time.
Fictions of the American South - ***
The first of my Tuesday lectures (10am-1pm) is receiving a 3 to 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. I have sat thru two lectures already and I will say it is an entertaining class listening to how the British analyze and view certain aspects of American literature, particularly in the Southern United States. I do find the class to be a bit hooky in the fact that I feel I am sitting thru another U.S. history course. Granted, I know little of British/English history, and I'm sure it works the other way for the peers in my class, I wish I could take a British history course to learn more about their history -- rather than relearn my own history in a different accent. That and I was a little confused as to why Edgar Allan Poe was so heavily looked at in terms of his relation to the Southern Gothic and how his work presents the southern home, ect. I've always been used to analyzing his work in terms of manic & insanity, and madness, so I guess it is interesting to look at it in a completely different way, I'm just not fully sold on it yet. Regardless, I find myself amongst a few people from lectures from last term who I find their company to be very nice.
20th Century American Poetics - ****
My Tuesdays resume at 2pm for the first of my poetry courses. The lecturer, Nikolai Duffy, is very open to running his class as unstructured as possible. I definitely like that aspect because I feel poetry is one of the most difficult subjects areas to teach as it covers such a wide range. Again, I picked this class as I wanted an outsiders take on the way American literature is analyzed. I think Nikolai Duffy will be an outstanding lecturer because of his knowledge and accomplishments in the subject. He is also an accomplished poet and creative writer himself, so he will be a great resource to listen to. I look forward to furthering my understanding of poetic themes, motifs, ect.
Poetry Workshop - *****
After two days of, I return for my final lecture of the week -- the second of my poetry courses. I am giving Poetry Workshop 5 out of 5 stars because it is going to be an excellent way to work on my skills in analyzing other people's poetry as well as hear feedback on my own poetry. I think it will be a really unique class as it is not a seminar, nor a lecture. It is strictly a workshop that deals with building skills/poetic techniques. The 'lecturer', Jean Sprackland is also an accomplished poet. She has published several collections of her poetry since 1997 and is looking to publish another collection this year. Her 2003 collection Hard Water earned her a spot on the shortlist of the T.S Elliot Prize in poetry. Amongst her accomplishments is a 2007 Costa Book Award for her collection entitled, Tilt. She, like Nikolai, will be a useful resource in helping to building my poetic/creative writing techniques. I am very fortunate to have two wonderful and accomplished lecturers so easily available for questioning.
