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)).

  • LOOKING BEYOND THE NOVEL: THE OTHER PROSE

    My post today continues from the last one in the sense that I want to consider here why the novel occupies the first position in the ranks of all the literary texts. In fact, I want to consider how come we have confused narrative with literature, additionally reducing fiction only to the novel, the novella,…

  • LEER MOBY-DICK SIN DISFRUTAR EN GRANDE (COMO UNA BALLENA)

    NOTA: en el original en inglés de esta entrada juego con la expresión ‘having a whale of a time’ que sólo se puede traducir como ‘disfrutar a lo grande’ (o ‘pasarlo bomba’). Aquí me invento ‘disfrutar a lo grande como una ballena’ para estrechar la distancia lingüística. Michael Quinion explica en su hermoso diccionario en…

  • READING MOBY-DICK WITHOUT HAVING A WHALE OF A TIME

    Michael Quinion explains in his beautiful online dictionary of idioms World Wide Words the origin of the expression ‘having a whale of a time’, meaning enjoying yourself enormously. The idiom originates, as it easy to surmise, in the idea that whales are big animals to which big things can be compared. Apparently, Quinion informs his…

  • CÓMO NO CONTROLAR LAS CARRERAS QUE ESCOGEN LOS ESTUDIANTES: EL CASO AUSTRALIANO

    Tengo una estudiante de doctorado australiana que es inmensamente talentosa y cuando le pregunté si había pensado en solicitar un trabajo en una universidad de su país, me sentí muy confusa porque comenzó a decirme que las tarifas de las matrículas han aumentado muchísimo, y esto complica las cosas. Claro, respondí, pero me refería a…

  • THE FAILURE TO ENGINEER THE STUDENTS’ CHOICE OF BA DEGREES: THE AUSTRALIAN CASE

    I have an immensely talented doctoral student from Australia, and when I asked her whether she has considered applying for a job at a university back home, I got all confused because she started telling me that fees have gone up dramatically, and this makes things complicated. Sure, I replied, but I meant applying for…