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)).

  • ON THE APPRECIATION OF FOREIGN CULTURES (AND WHY TAKE A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES)

    I based my last lecture for my elective subject on audiovisual adaptations and production design on Sarah Cardwell’s volume Adaptation Revisited: Television and the Classic Novel (Manchester UP, 2002). In what must have been originally her PhD dissertation, Cardwell vindicates the specific aesthetics of television and focuses on four case studies: Brideshead Revisited (1981), Pride…

  • SOBRE LA APRECIACIÓN DE LAS CULTURAS EXTRANJERAS (Y POR QUÉ CURSAR UN GRADO EN ESTUDIOS INGLESES)

    Basé mi última clase para mi optativa sobre adaptaciones audiovisuales y diseño de producción en el volumen de Sarah Cardwell Adaptation Revisited: Television and the Classic Novel (Manchester UP, 2002). En lo que debió ser originalmente su tesis doctoral, Cardwell reivindica la estética específica de la televisión y se centra en cuatro estudios de caso:…

  • THE TURN TOWARDS MODERN FATHERHOOD: WHAT HAPPENED IN THE LATE 1960S (IN THE USA)

    I’m reading bibliography for my book on sons’ memoirs about fathers, which is now beginning to pass its first preliminary stage, though I still have no title, contract, or a delivery date. My current target is checking whether my intuitions can be transformed into a solid working hypothesis and a sound thesis. I believe that…

  • EL GIRO HACIA LA PATERNIDAD MODERNA: CÓMO OCURRIÓ EN LOS AÑOS 60 (EN EUA)

    Estoy leyendo bibliografía para mi libro sobre las memorias escritas por hijos acerca de sus padres, que ahora está empezando a pasar su primera fase preliminar, aún sin título, contrato ni fecha de entrega. Mi objetivo actual es comprobar si mis intuiciones pueden transformarse en una hipótesis de trabajo sólida y una tesis razonable. Creo…

  • RE-READING STEPHEN KING’S CARRIE: RECLAIMING THE VISUALIZATION OF THE ANGRY GIRL

    [WARNING! SPOILERS ABOUT STEPHEN KING’S NOVEL CARRIE]           Like many other people, I saw Brian de Palma’s very popular 1976 film Carrie (scripted by Larry D. Cohen) before reading King’s 1974 novel. The question I’m exploring these days with my students is how and why the visualization contributed by audiovisual adaptation through production design, casting,…