This is the second post celebrating 2017 the world of English Literature at YSJU. Today we’re going to be looking at some of the debates that took place across the programme, ranging from a robot reading group to pressing questions regarding diversity and the university curriculum. Continue reading “looking back: 2017 in review #2”
confessions of a bookseller
By Harriet Bartle
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to sell books? I used to; I’d worked in retail for three years before I became a bookseller and as such I knew the ropes of customer service. I thought that it might be different, though; almost a romantic sort of job, where you spend your days surrounded by books of all genres, chatting to the quiet customers as they wander in out of the cold and expect to find fellow book lovers carefully shelving new stock and listening to peaceful, interesting music. As a literature student, it became the ideal prospect, the dream job; when I was lucky enough to be presented with the opportunity to enter the group of people that can call themselves booksellers, I jumped into this new world of pages head first. I was eager to see how this fascinating industry worked, particularly in the new era of internet shopping.
how to answer life’s biggest questions: studying liberal arts at ysju
By Erin Byrne
The Liberal Arts Foundation Year is a brand-new course that just launched this September and I am incredibly excited to be one of the first students to take it. At the helm is the wonderful and hilarious Dr Adam James Smith who is leading this slightly rowdy but enthusiastic group through the maze of what it actually means to be a Liberal Arts student. In our very first session he got us thinking about what this strange, slightly old-fashioned term ‘Liberal Arts’ actually means, and why it is (and always will be) important. Continue reading “how to answer life’s biggest questions: studying liberal arts at ysju”
halloween post: the children of the quad
By Rachel Smith
As students we know the city well. Regardless of whether you’ve lived here for months or for years, you’ll still be aware of the air York has. It’s inescapable: the crooked buildings, cobbled alleyways, and the sheer abundance of ghost walks remind you of it whichever street you walk down. We all know this. York is a city of ghosts.
What we don’t hear about are the ghosts much closer to home.
monday matters #1: a response to the inaugural words matter lecture
The inaugural ‘Words Matter’ lecture was delivered at YSJU by Dr Kaley Kramer on Monday 9th October 2017. Here, two third-year English Literature students add their thoughts to Dr Kramer’s address. Continue reading “monday matters #1: a response to the inaugural words matter lecture”
a literary experience; or, the summertime epiphanies of a final year english literature student
By Tia Byer
For Emma Stone in Easy A, it seems to be “always the way” that there is a connection between the literature we study in class and the way it resonates in real life. I have often mused upon this myself. But during the last two years of my undergraduate degree in literature, I have never fully grasped the true meaning behind this notion. All that was about to change. This summer I actually had one of those experiences.
big summer read: gospel, testimony or testament?
This summer, the York St John Literature programme invited students and staff to read and respond to Colm Tóibín’s 2012 novella The Testament of Mary, a study of the mother of Jesus of Nazareth as she comes to terms with her son’s crucifixion at hands of the Roman Empire. In today’s post, Adam asks: Why is it called a ‘Testament’ anyway?
By Dr Adam James Smith
Much as Margaret Atwood’s 2008 novella The Penelopiad relished the opportunity to give voice to a woman too often left silent despite her centrality to both her myth of original and subsequent literary culture, Colm Tóibín clearly delights in offering centre stage to a woman without whom there would be no New Testament. Defined and iconicized as the Mother of Christ, Mary is most often understood through her maternal relationship to the son of God, rather than as an individual in her own right. Continue reading “big summer read: gospel, testimony or testament?”