Welcome to all new students!

 

Today marks the start of Welcome Week for Freshers at York St John and we’re really looking forward to meeting all the new students. Introductory sessions are planned for Wednesday 11.30-1.30pm and Thursday from 9am-11am in Temple Hall, for all single Honours and Joint Honours students.

If you’re new, don’t be shy: come and say hello to any of the staff in the Literature team! Find out more about some of us on the ‘in-profile’ pages.

 

Next week, classes start and we will be welcoming back returning students.

 

In the meantime, to keep up-to-date with news, events, study tips, student voices and more follow this blog, and follow us on Twitter (@YSJLit)

 

By Jenny Prout, second year English Literature student

 

The Texts and Contexts Project is facilitated by the Head of Programme for English Literature, Dr Liesl King, who works with a group of students on the Literature at Work module. This year there were six of us who came together to create the anthology for 2016. The anthology comprises extracts from some of the best work produced by students over the past year, and interviews with the featured students. The project gave us the opportunity to put forward the English Literature Programme’s Contribution to Create ’16, the Faculty of Arts end of year festival.

 

As a group, we had regular meetings to discuss our thoughts on the content, layout and design of the new anthology.  We also had meetings with Liesl to discuss our progress with her, so that we were on the right track.  We worked really well together because we kept in constant communication and presented our own ideas as well as listening to each other’s.  Members of the team were individually responsible for choosing extracts, editing them and sending out interview questions to students selected to appear in the anthology.

 

One of our aims was to improve the anthology from the previous years.  The biggest change that we made was including illustrations, created by the art students, to accompany each module description.  I’m also pleased to say that we were able to include a bigger volume of work, so that many more students were recognised for their talent.  The module descriptions themselves were also re-written by the module tutors, in their own words, making the anthology more accessible for the new students that are looking to join the university.  To put our own stamp on the project we included an afterword, signed by the team.

Overall, this project was very rewarding  as we got to hold a finished product in our hands. If you decide to take the Literature at Work module, I would recommend taking the opportunity to get involved in the Texts and Contexts project, as you can gain so many skills.  If this is something you take part in I hope you enjoy it and learn as much as I did!

Dr Janine Bradbury, Lecturer in English Literature

What are your research interests?

 

Broadly speaking, I’m very interested in issues of race, gender, and performativity in African American literature and American popular culture. My teaching and research spans a diverse range of topics including passing-for-white novels; drag; American professional wrestling; Black hair, beauty, and stylisation; critical race theory, and Afrofuturism.

 

What was your last publication about?

 

I’m putting the finishing touches to a book chapter about an American pro-wrestler named ‘Goldust’ who, back in the mid-1990s, toyed with androgyny and drag in his in-ring performances. Gold, glitter, and camp are three of my favourite things.

 

 

What are you currently working on?

 

I’m currently reworking my doctoral research on literary passing into various forms, and I’m drafting an article on the performer/actress Grace Jones.

 

Which modules are you teaching on this year? (UG & MA level)

 

Writing for Academic Success, Reading Texts 1, Literature at Work, American Literature, Space and Place, Gender and Sexualities, and American Literature in the Twentieth Century. I supervise undergraduate and MA dissertations (including several on African American women’s writing). I also contribute to modules on our MA in Contemporary Literature.

 

Is there a topic or text you especially enjoy teaching?

 

I obviously love teaching things related to my research interests, especially where there is scope for interdisciplinary learning and teaching (film clips, music, advertising, as well as literature). Highlights of the semester include lectures and seminars on Jennie Livingston’s documentary Paris is Burning (1991), the Harlem Renaissance, and Sapphire’s Push (1996). But I especially love working with our first year students on their writing skills – their energy and enthusiasm is infectious.

 

 

What do you read for pleasure, when you’re not researching?

 

I’m a big fan of contemporary American crime thrillers and I really like Attica Locke’s novels (The Cutting Season is my favourite, and I’m halfway through Pleasantville – she’s also a writer for the TV series Empire).  At the risk of sounding like I’m plugging it, the last book I devoured in one sitting was written by my wonderful colleague, Naomi Booth. It’s called The Lost Art of Sinking and I was utterly absorbed by it. I love sports writing and commentary –specifically anything to do with pro-wrestling. I adore books as objects and collect first and rare editions. I like books about art (books about Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kara Walker, Ellen Gallagher, and Lorna Simpson are on the coffee table at home). I also really enjoy podcasts (RuPaul has a great show, I was engrossed by Serial), audiobooks, and American TV boxsets (The Walking Dead, Mad Men, etc.).

Our wonderful colleagues in Creative Writing held a launch event for their new journal York Literary Review last night. Issue one is available here.

 

pic.twitter.com/u1bml5eP6o

— York Literary Review (@YorkLitReview) May 3, 2016

 

Congratulations to all involved!

Don’t forget to follow the Beyond the Walls blog for updates on Creative Writing at YSJ.

Julie Raby, Head of Department: Humanities

What are your research interests?
Contemporary Shakespeare performance, Contemporary Theatre, and Blended Learning strategies.

What was your last publication about?
A review of the RSC’s Henry IV plays.

What are you currently working on?
I’m writing about the RSC from 2008 to 2014. I am looking at the RSC in a contemporary theatre context. It is very exciting because it means that I can go and see lots of performances.

Which modules are you teaching on this year? (UG & MA level)
Shakespeare: Perspectives (a lecture this year), Media Geographies, MA – British Literature, Scriptwriting, and the postgraduate qualification PCAP. I did a lecture on Reading Texts 1.

Is there a topic or text you especially enjoy teaching?
I love teaching. I love teaching Shakespeare. I love to teach Shakespeare so that it is relevant to today. I enjoy bringing actors into the classroom to talk about their work, and work with students on the text.

I am very interested in looking at the relationship between technology enhanced learning, the classroom and field trips. I particularly enjoy taking students on trips to the theatre.

I like reading texts from all periods and in the past I have taught on Romanticism, Gothic and Horror, and several Media modules.

My favourite novel is Mrs Dalloway.

 

What are your wider interests beyond teaching and research?

Going to the theatre and Art Galleries. I enjoy writing my blog, Between the Acts. I spend most of my holidays either in a theatre or in a library writing about Shakespeare. It’s Sunday and I’m writing this in the British Library before going to the National Theatre to see As You Like It.

I also try to swim half a mile on weekdays and I’ve swum a mile across Lake Windermere and Salford Quays.

I love the countryside and like walking my dog, Shankly, with my husband when I get chance. We also have two ferrets called Beatrice and Benedick.

By Heloise Pearson-Child (English Literature yr 1)

Have you ever been inspired to go out and help others? To write that book? To meet those people? To do that charity idea? Well after spending just 40 minutes with Sophie Nicholls, a poet whose writing has raised awareness to the plight and strength of refugees, I saw an entire class of Literature students absolutely alive with encouragement. Never since the Viral Motivational Speech by Shia LaBeouf have a group of people been so ready to ‘Just Do It’. But why wouldn’t they be? Sophie Nicholls is living proof the power literature still holds in our world. During a time of rapid technological change and internet everything, words upon a page are as vital to society as they have ever been, as proven by Sophie Nicholls’ book of poetry, Refugee.

How often have we seen refugees as a group of victims? How often have we pitied them? Let’s face it, we all have, and that’s our biggest mistake. We see refugees as a collective group. As Victims. But worst of all, we simply ‘see’. We never take part, try to get to know their stories, or even actively try to change the situation. Yes we all can comment on a quote by David Cameron. We can all share that post about raising awareness. But we could be doing so much more!

Sophie’s poetry does more than these posts could ever do, because she brings us into the lives of the refugees. The group of people become individuals, each with their own inspiring and tragic story of survival, strength and cruel misfortune at the hands of others. Those ‘victims’ become strong, independent human beings, who deserve not our pity, but our help and kindness. They deserve a place to belong. They deserve a home. A community. A job. And basic human rights. They need us not to just see, they need us to talk about them, write about them, raise awareness about them. Writing is one of humanity’s greatest tools. It’s the permanent engraving of our own language, which allows us to tell and order our own stories that couldn’t be told without it. For refugees it can help them conquer the torture and torment they faced. For readers it gives us a connection to those suffering. It breaks down the boundary and makes their plight personal. And for a country, it can be spark that lights the fire of change.

So why not become that change? Well after seeing the way my seminar group reacted to Sophie’s lecture, we might just be. To see a group of students discuss the issues of politics and humanities in a way that would floor politicians has raised awareness of the power we all have. We all could be those people writing books and getting the word of the suffering out. We all could be that activist helping refugees write about the trauma, and just simply being a friend to them. We all can be that voice to tell government and law makers how we feel about the degradation of others.

Why let media control our lives, when we can control media! Sure we can’t control the news, but we can make news. Instead of sharing the photograph about refugees, be the person in the photograph, talking and helping refugees. Instead of commenting on the disgraceful quote by yet another prime minister, be the person in the quote. Be the inspiration that appears on people newsfeeds and encourages them to ‘Just Do It’! Finally, instead of liking some post about a shocking new book, art, news story etc. Be the one making that post. Write a controversial book. Do eye-opening graffiti that’ll annoy a community. Be the protester on the news. Be the blogger that doesn’t believe in the government. We can all be Sophie Nicholls; we all have our talents and strengths. So instead of sitting on our sofas, listening to everyone else and giving away useless pity; let’s be the leader of a change. One that sees humans not a swarm. Strength instead of weakness. And people with real stories that deserve our respect.

Today I watched a group of students become inspired to make a change. But who will inspire the students to follow? It could be you.

What are your research interests?

Twentieth-century American fiction, masculinities, war representation, creative non-fiction/memoir

 

What was your last publication about?

Norman Mailer’s Armies of the Night and its use of ambiguity. It’s a piece of participatory journalism that foregrounds Mailer’s subjective response to the Vietnam protests in 1968.

 

What are you currently working on?

An edited collection provisionally titled Music, Memoir, Memory with YSJ colleague Rob Edgar. It’s a look at the narratives involved in writing about music and the current trend for nostalgia and memorialisation. Plus, I’m starting the process of turning my PhD thesis into a monograph.

 

Which modules are you teaching on this year?

At UG level I’m teaching on Reading Texts I, Forms of Narrative, American Literature Space & Place, Contemporary Writing, Gender & Writing, and American Literature in the Twentieth Century. On the MA I teach on Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Literature, and Contemporary American Literature.

 

Is there a topic or text you especially enjoy teaching?

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. It is genuinely the most moving novel I have ever read. Simultaneously, it’s a slippery devil full of postmodern trickery!

 

What do you read for pleasure, when you’re not researching?

Anything to do with music, especially the American underground or electronic music. I also wait for any new John Irving novels with insane levels of excitement.

 

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Follow Fraser on Twitter: @FraserYSJ

 

What are your research interests?

 

Postcolonial, Caribbean and Black British literatures and cultures. My research into Anglophone Caribbean literatures and cultures covers many things: sugar, tourism, sexuality, myth, writing, gender, food, history, race, orality, language, migrancy and diaspora. Caribbean literature is often neglected and my research has focused on recuperating less well known archives of writing and on making Caribbean literature more accessible (see for more detail, The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature). Not only is  Caribbean literature a deeply historical literature which demands to be read in its cultural, economic and historical contexts but in its contemporary forms it is also richly diverse, exciting and ground-breaking, as Marlon James’ 2015 Booker prize winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings attests.

 

What was your last publication about?

 

My last publication was a chapter surveying Black British poetry since 1945 for the newly published Cambridge Companion to Post 1945 Poetry, edited by Ed Larrissy (CUP). It was a tough chapter to write as there are so many exciting poets around, including Patience Agbabi, Jackie Kay, Dorothea Smartt, Grace Nichols, Karen Mcarthy-Woolf, Daljit Nagra, John Agard, Dean Atta – but I also needed to historicize the contemporary scene and show how there have been shifts between different generations of poets and the terms used to examine and to categorise their work.

 

What are you currently working on?

 

Currently, I am writing a monograph called Food, Text and Culture in the Anglophone Caribbean which examines Caribbean food cultures and the ways in which food, text and culture are linked in the Anglophone Caribbean and its diasporas. It’s great fun as I get to explore food histories and foodways and look at texts as varied as cookbooks and literary texts. I’ve published on British entrepreneur, Levi Roots too though I’m not sure he’d enjoy my critique!

You can access another recent article by myself on food in Caribbean writing here.

 

 

Which modules are you teaching on this year? (UG & MA level)

 

Canonicity: Making and Breaking the Canon, Cultures of Childhood, Gender & Writing, postcolonial Literature (MA), Writing the Caribbean.

 

Is there a topic or text you especially enjoy teaching?

 

Anything which demands further research into cultural and historical context; anything Caribbean! A text which combines the two is Matthew Lewis’ Journal of a West Indian Proprietor , published posthumously in 1834. Mathew ‘ Monk’ Lewis is well known to many of us as an English  Gothic novelist but he also inherited two sugar plantations in Jamaica and these journals are a record of his two visits there in 1815-16 and in 1817. He died on the journey back to England and these unfinished entries are fascinating reading both for what he does say about life on a slave plantation and what he doesn’t. It’s not entirely certain, even at the end, where he stands in relation to slavery. …

 

What do you read for pleasure, when you’re not researching? What are your hobbies?

 

I make myself read a novel for pleasure every Christmas day when everyone else is sleeping off dinner! I also teach new texts every year in order to keep ahead of contemporary writing and shake my teaching up a bit. Besides this, I love reading about vintage finds, upcycling furniture, crafting, gardening – all the things I do with abandon when I’m not working.