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 from https://ddd.uab.cat/record/116328, 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 WRITERS’ BIOGRAPHIES: THE ELUSIVE ESSENCE OF THE IMAGINATION

    I am currently reading Ruth Franklin’s 2016 biography of American author Shirley Jackson, subtitled A Rather Haunted Life, and I’ve come across a couple of passages in Chapter One (“Foundations: California 1916-1933”) I would like to comment on. Franklin informs us that Samuel C. Bugbee, “San Francisco’s first architect and Jackson’s great-great-grandfather” built in the…

  • LAS BIOGRAFÍAS DE ESCRITORES Y LA ESENCIA ESQUIVA DE LA IMAGINACIÓN

    Estoy leyendo la biografía que Ruth Franklin publicó de la autora estadounidense Shirley Jackson, subtitulada A Rather Haunted Life (2016), y me he encontrado con un par de pasajes en el Capítulo Uno (“Foundations: California 1916-1933”) que me gustaría comentar. Franklin informa que Samuel C. Bugbee, “el primer arquitecto de San Francisco y tatarabuelo de…

  • AFTER THIRTY YEARS: THE X-FILES (AND MY CELEBRATION, LA VERDAD SIN FIN)

    The X-Files, one of the most important television series ever, was launched 30 years ago today, on 10 September 1993. The series, created by Chris Carter, narrated in 218 episodes broadcast along eleven seasons (1993-2002, 2016, 2018), and two films (1998, 2008), the cases investigated by FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully…

  • HACE TREINTA AÑOS: EXPEDIENTE-X (Y MI CELEBRACIÓN, LA VERDAD SIN FIN)

    Expediente X, una de las series de televisión más importantes de la historia, se lanzó hace treinta años, el 10 de septiembre de 1993. La serie, creada por Chris Carter, narró en 218 episodios emitidos a lo largo de once temporadas (1993-2002, 2016, 2018), y dos películas (1998, 2008), los casos investigados por los agentes…

  • SETTING UP A BOOK CLUB: WILL IT WORK?

    Happy new academic year! May it brings plenty of positive energy for teachers and students, and dispels all the dark clouds of anxiety and depression that plagued so many people last year. My first post of this new year deals with my Department’s book club. We have been running a club for a few years…