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)).

  • TWO STYLES OF DOCUMENTING THE CRISIS: CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY AND INSIDE JOB

    In this unusual long weekend in June with no exercises to mark, and after a WHOLE lecture-less week in which I’ve managed to write non-stop I don’t know what trash (and thank God for that little time…!), I’ve finally managed to find some time to see two fine documentaries on the current crisis: Michael Moore’s…

  • PHILO-LOGOS, OR THE LOVE OF LANGUAGE: READING JAUME CABRÉ’S EL SENTIT DE LA FICCIÓ (AND THINKING OF ENTRY LEVEL EXAMS)

    This is serendipity. I get from my excellent local library Jaume Cabré’s autobiographical essay on why and how he writes, El sentit de la ficció. As I read it on the train I find the perfect passage to close my first-year course on 20th C English Literature (pp. 24-25, in case you know the book).…

  • ONE MORE SLAP IN THE FACE: THE GENERALITAT ANNOUNCES THE DOWNSIZING OF THE TENURED STAFF IN CATALAN UNIVERSITIES

    I grab a coffee to start my day, sit in front of the TV to watch the news for a few minutes and this hits me in the face: the Generalitat announces plans to cut from 70% down to 40% the percentage of tenured staff in Catalan universities (see http://www.3cat24.cat/noticia/1225786/barcelones/El-govern-vol-reduir-en-un-30-els-professors-universitaris-amb-placa-fixa). First, I panic thinking they’ll…

  • FORCED ENTERTAINMENT (THE THEATRE COMPANY, NOT A UNIVERSITY LECTURE…)

    Yesterday I had the good fortune of seeing the British theatre company Forced Entertainment http://www.forcedentertainment.com here in Barcelona’s CCCB… and for just 7 euros!!! What a luxury, and what a beautiful way to close the great experience that teaching contemporary British theatre has been this semester. In case you’ve never heard of them, Tim Etchell’s…

  • RAISING MY QUIZZICAL EYEBROW (ABOUT A LITERATURE QUIZ)

    Yes, I’m always complaining, I know. I wish I could say that all the first-year students that took the English Literature quiz last Thursday passed it with flying colours. The truth is, mark this, that only 16 out of 59 managed to score at least 50 points (out of 100). What was the quiz about?…