seminars #2 and #3
I guess I lost all my energy after posting about
Seminar #1. That, or there's nothing terribly interesting to say about these two when compared to the seven freaking presentations in seminar #1! Romanticism is at 4pm on Thursdays, Victorian at 7pm—Thurdays are now known as 19thC British Thursdays.
Romanticism is taught by the wonderful newly-minted PhD, and when I think about her qualifications and personality, and the type of graduate students (let alone undergrads) that we have at my school (yes, I just dissed myself and my school), I can't help but wonder why on earth she came here. But I'm not going to dwell too much on that one. The class consists of maybe six people I know and eight that I don't, so I can't speculate on whether it will be a good class or not—I do know that everyone is shy for some reason, and I hope that was just first-night jitters or something. For instance, mentioning the "canonical big six" and receiving blank stares from a lot of people, the poor woman then asked if we all knew who they were and again with the blank stares...come on people, I can't be the icebreaking conversation-starting person
and answer intro to lit questions. Then later when asked for the definition of "heteronormative" I tried to send the telepathic message "look, I know these answers. I'm not going to sit here and give them all, because I sure don't want to be
that person." But if everyone keeps up the silent treatment I might have to adjust my attitude about speaking up. Screw everyone else. If they're not going to talk, someone has to. I'll be
that person, but only in extreme circumstances. Anyway. Standard fare for assignments: weekly responses, a presentation, a seminar paper. I immediately sent the syllabus to
Jane Dark for her approval. That, and because I think she's a syllabus geek, like me.
Seminar #3 is Victorian, and this is my "half class" because with this particular prof (whose classes I have taken several times now, including his undergrad Victorian class) you simply don't have to exert a terrible amount of effort to learn something and do well.
Great Expectations,
Middlemarch,
The Mayor of Casterbridge, standard fare poets and essayists from the Norton, and
Dorian Gray; a very short explication essay, a presentation, a short seminar paper. No worries. I would just like to note that this is the class
I said I would not take, almost a year ago. Ha! So funny, the passing of time causing one to realize that the decision between having to work really, really hard in another seminar (or take something I didn't want to study at all) and having to do a presentation on
Middlemarch...it's a no-brainer.
