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)).

  • WHAT LIES BEHIND LITERARY THEORY: NOTES ON THE DISCUSSION OF CHARACTER

    I’m beginning to read (and in some cases re-read) the bibliography for my future book on secondary characters. I wish I could jump straight into the matter that interests me, for which there is relatively scant bibliography, but I need for my theoretical framework in the introduction an overview of the secondary sources discussing the…

  • LO QUE HAY DETRÁS DE LA TEORÍA LITERARIA: NOTAS SOBRE LOS PERSONAJES

    Estoy empezando a leer (y en algunos casos a releer) la bibliografía de mi futuro libro sobre los personajes secundarios. Me gustaría poder entrar directamente en el tema que me interesa, y sobre el que hay escasa bibliografía, pero necesito para el marco teórico de mi introducción una visión general de las fuentes secundarias que…

  • I DON’T LIKE YOUR LIFE: JUDGING MEMOIRS

    I haven’t started reading yet the bibliography for my subject on the memoir as a literary genre, to be taught next year, though I have already a substantial bibliography. G. Thomas Couser’s Memoir: An Introduction (Oxford UP, 2012) seems to be the right text to begin reading. I don’t think, in any case, that academic…

  • 5 mayo 2025 / NO ME GUSTA TU VIDA: LAS MEMORIAS A JUICIO

    Todavía no he empezado a leer la bibliografía de mi asignatura sobre las memorias como género literario, que impartiré el año que viene, aunque tengo una bibliografía ya copiosa. El libro de G. Thomas Couser Memoir: An Introduction (Oxford UP, 2012) parece ser la lectura adecuada para comenzar. No creo, en todo caso, que las…

  • THIS GLARING MEDIOCRITIY: AWARDS, OVERHYPE AND THE STATE OF STORYTELLING TODAY

    [Sorry about the long three-week absence, I have four books in my hands (two collective volumes, a monograph, a translation of a collective volume) and a journal issue, and no energy left to write. Also, blame Donald Trump for absorbing my mental energy with so much fretting about the appalling consequences of his random decisions]…