The Joys of Teaching Literature, started in September 2010 and with a Spanish version since July 2021, is a blog for ranting and raving about teaching and researching English Literature, Cultural Studies, and Gender Studies, and other aspects of the Anglophone world. I publish a post once a week, usually on Monday. Please, download the yearly volumes for free or read the volume collecting some of the entries (Passionate Professing: The Context and Practice of English Literature, 2023). The comments option is not available, sorry, but you may contact me through my e-mail address, Sara.Martin@uab.cat. The contents of this blog are protected by a type 4 Creative Common License (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd)).

  • READING MEN’S MEMOIRS ABOUT FATHERS: THERAPY AND VALUE

    I was going to start writing my projected book on secondary characters, but then I realized that since it is not exclusively focused on English-language literature but on a selection of European novels in different languages, I might have problems presenting it in my next research assessment exercise (the board might value negatively my straying…

  • LEYENDO MEMORIAS MASCULINAS SOBRE PADRES: TERAPIA Y VALOR

    Iba a empezar a escribir mi libro proyectado sobre personajes secundarios, pero me di cuenta de que, dado que no se centra exclusivamente en la novela en inglés sino en una selección de textos europeos en diferentes idiomas, podría tener problemas para presentarlo en mi próximo sexenio de investigación (los evaluadores podrían decidir que me…

  • DESIGN IN FICTION: BETWEEN ‘WORLDBUILDING’ AND ‘SPACE’

    In his famous, but rather absurd, essay “The Death of the Author” (1968), Roland Barthes ranted about the impending dismissal of authors from literary criticism, to be replaced by a sort of totally objective super-reader that would focus on the text as if sprung from language itself, with no active mediation from the author. The…

  • EL DISEÑO EN LA FICCIÓN: ENTRE LA ‘CONSTRUCCIÓN DE MUNDOS’ Y EL ‘ESPACIO’

    En su famoso, pero más que absurdo, ensayo “La muerte del autor” (1968), Roland Barthes se explaya a gusto sobre el inminente desahucio de los autores por parte de la crítica literaria, para ser reemplazados por una especie de superlector totalmente objetivo que se centraría en el texto como si surgiera del propio lenguaje, sin…

  •  IN AND OUT OF THE RABBIT HOLE: GIVING UP ON AN ARTICLE

    It’s not at all usual for me to abandon an article at the writing stage, but today I’m giving myself permission. I’m sharing this misadventure in case you’ve also fallen down a rabbit hole and can’t climb out. Forgive me in advance for the long tale, I’m sort of exorcising this unfinished article from my…