THE FUTURE OF MEN BEYOND PATRIARCHY: MY NEW BOOK ON SF BY MEN

Happy new academic year! May it brings plenty of positive energy for teachers and students, and the thorough defeat of patriarchal darkness in all fronts and nations (yes, I’m thinking of those awful guys). I’ll begin my sixteenth year as a blogger (how time passes!!), with a reminder that the all the yearly volumes can […]

OMINOUS PROPOSALS: AI-DEPENDENT STUDENTS CANNOT BE OUR EDUCATIONAL PARTNERS

Today I’m reading an article by, I quote, “Mary Curnock Cook CBE, who chairs the Dyson Institute and is a Trustee at HEPI, and Bess Brennan, Chief of University Partnerships with Cadmus, which is running a series of collaborative events with UK university leaders about the challenges and opportunities of generative AI in higher education.” […]

WHY VICTORIAN NOVELS ARE SO LONG (AND WHY WE LACK PATIENCE TO READ THEM)

You might think that Victorian novels are so long because of their serialization in weekly or monthly instalments, sold either as part of periodical publications or independently. However, this business practice, introduced by Charles Dickens’s publisher, Chapman, with the serialization of The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (19 instalments between March 1836 and November […]

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 […]

POLITICS IN CLASS: PRO-HUMAN RIGHTS

I was told yesterday that I must bear in mind that not all of our students agree with the left-wing political position I defend, as a feminist and a socialist, and that some actually support right-wing policies. This is hardly surprising if we take into account voting statistics and the growth of the extreme right […]

TWO PROJECTS WITH STUDENTS: MINISERIES AND REVIEWS

I have published this week not one but TWO books gathering works written by my students. As I have been narrating here, I started publishing students’ work back in 2013-14, when I edited two volumes on Harry Potter. I became then hooked on project-oriented teaching for BA and MA subjects, mostly electives, and these new […]

THE ONSLAUGHT: THE WEEK IN THE US PATRIARCHY

My weekly posts have become almost fortnightly posts because I am distressed by the events happening in the USA and I can’t focus. Since the beginning of the year I am having serious difficulties to concentrate and read books; the very few I have read (Kidnapped and Catriona by R.L. Stevenson) are novels I needed […]

RETHINKING INTRODUCTIONS (AGAIN)

I have written here at least twice about introductions. Back in 2011 (how time passes!!), I wrote a post about the introductions to British drama, which I was then teaching, and then in 2017 another post about Scottish literature. My point was similar and it is still similar today: no matter how brief the introduction, […]

WILL I EVER WRITE A NOVEL? (I DON’T THINK SO)

[No, I’m not writing about Donald Trump’s victory. I don’t agree with any of the analyses I have read and there will be time enough to consider the catastrophes that his cabinet will cause in the USA and around the world. If we survive.] A couple of my students asked me how come I have […]