“Language is the key to the heart of people.” ― Ahmed Deedat
For updates from the English department and the latest information about events, follow @YSJLit on Twitter
York St John has a more general blog run by students for students called YSJ Life
There is also a science fiction blog called Terra Two
The English Literature department has its own blog – Point Zero. Staff and students contribute to this blog and update it with the latest news, as well as writing entries on their own interests.
One student who contributes to Point Zero is Nicoletta Peddis. She’s in her secon
d year, currently studying joint honours Creative Writing and English Literature. Her posts have varied from writing on York Literature Festival events, such as this piece on a talk by Andy Owen, to writing on current political events.
Here is an extract from one of her posts, ‘Stay Human‘:
I will not change my nature, I will not give up hope, I will not stay silent. Over the last six months what has saddened and worried me the most about Brexit is […] the ways in which people’s fears and hate have been opportunistically used. […] It was time to put the anger to one side and make good use of my experience as a literature student.
I will not forget what studying literature at York St. John is teaching me: that my opinion counts, and that my voice can be heard, and that hearing multiple and different voices is the most enriching feeling a human being could ever experience. […] I have always loved literature, but when I was younger I failed to see its potential, […] over ten years later, I married my love for literature with the knowledge that it is the strongest weapon of all.
The ways in which literature enables us to understand the ways in which the world can be described, criticised, analysed is not only stimulating for my mind but it’s also what gives me hope and strength and the will to live in a world where love, compassion and solidarity are stronger than fear and hate. [….] So, to answer to everybody who asked me what I was going to do after Brexit: I will stay human and I will speak up for humanity, and I will try to bring humanity to others
A brief interview with Nicoletta:
Why did you choose to study English Literature?
Before this degree, I chose to study for a degree in Politics because I have always been interested in it, and I thought doing it at university was the only way to get involved, and the good thing that I realised whilst studying English Literature is that you can get involved in so many different ways. The things we do in English Literature are, to me, more powerful than the things I did whilst studying Politics. Literature can make you aware in a different way of what is going on in the world and can make you find a better way to speak up for yourself and make your voice heard.
Why did you choose to study at York St. John?
I already lived in York, but when I decided to study English Literature at university I considered a few different places, so I would have moved. But when I came to the open day here at York St John and looked at the programs, I felt like the courses were more open to a lot of different texts and authors, and did not focus strictly on the literary canon like other universities do.
What are you thinking about in terms of a career?
There are a lot of things I would like to do, and I think the Literature at Work module is really helping me realise that my prospects are more open with a degree like this. At the moment, I’m thinking that I would quite like writing both creatively and objectively, so blogging is helping me with that. I also haven’t completely put teaching aside as a possibility. York St John do a course which is called CELTA, which basically gives you a certification to teach English as a second language, and with that you could teach English all over the world. So, I might do that next year because if you are a student here you can do it as part of your degree.
Do you have any favourite modules so far?
This year my favourite is Conflicting Words at the moment, it is amazing. And I loved Gender and Writing last year, it was really interesting as well.
By Eleanor Squires.