I was interviewed a few days ago by the Colectivo Cala of Alburquerque (Badajoz, Extremadura) for their radio segment (available as a podcast) ‘Hombre tenías que ser’, in which they comment on diverse aspects of masculinity. I was asked to comment on ideal masculinity, men and cinema, a topic which I had not considered in […]
I was going to start writing my projected book on secondary characters, but then I realized that since it is not exclusively focused on English-language literature but on a selection of European novels in different languages, I might have problems presenting it in my next research assessment exercise (the board might value negatively my straying […]
I’ve been busy these past weeks finishing the edition of a new e-book with 96 book reviews written by my undergrad students in the subject Contemporary English Literature, whose publication I’m very proud to announce: Reviewing Contemporary Anglophone Fiction and Nonfiction, vol. II. You can check here the post I wrote last year about producing […]
I’m reacting much belatedly to an article by George Monbiot, a noted environmentalist and Guardian columnist. The article is called “The fact that humans can only survive on Earth doesn’t bother Trump – and I know why”, and was published on 5 March this year. The subtitle announces that “Vengeful nihilism is a big part […]
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 […]
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 […]
WARNING: SPOILERS The British Netflix miniseries Adolescence, created by Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, has taken the world by storm, finally starting a long overdue general conversation on the influence of the manosphere on the aggressive, misogynistic behaviour of teen boys. The four-episode series only maintains a minimum of suspense in the first episode until […]
I don’t know what the etiquette is in these cases, but I shared with my master’s class the reason for my absence last Thursday: my father, 87, died suddenly of a heart attack the day before, Wednesday 23. He had just got off the bus mid-morning, felt dizzy and, the neighbours have told us, collapsed […]
This has turned out to be a weird week in terms of gender, particularly in Scotland and in Spain. I’m writing this specially for my international MA class in the subject ‘Body and Gender in Narrative’ as they might miss either one of the two events I wish to discuss here: the complete withdrawal from […]
Even though I have been teaching H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines (1885) for a few years now, it seems I have not written about this novel here. A bit odd. Since I am most likely saying goodbye to it, this is perhaps the right moment to discuss its racist, colonial content, the issue on […]