This is the second in a very short series of blog posts (there are only two of them) that share reflections on studying English Literature at the OU. In this more structured post, I share sets of related thoughts across a number of related themes.
Technology
I don’t think I could have succeeded without technology. In my previous post, I mentioned that I used revision cassettes to help me to prepare for my GCSEs. Those cassettes, and my Walkman were helpful bits of technology. Whilst studying English as an undergraduate, the most useful bit of technology (other than 'the book', of course), was my eBook reader. I used an Amazon Kindle Scribe (other devices from alternative suppliers are, of course, available).
The eBook reader allowed me to upload most of the set texts, along with pretty much all the module materials, which was available in ePub and PDF formats. When I got down to writing my TMAs and EMAs, it was necessary to go through a lot of secondary readings. I would go to the library, search for resources, save resources as PDF files, and then send those resources to my eReader.
The eBook reader I’ve been using has some pretty useful tools. Like a pen and paper, I can underline and highlight sections. With any highlighted sections, it is possible to add a handwritten note (which I would ultimately find indecipherable). There was then a button that I would press that would collate all my annotations together into a set of pages that I could look through. If the eBook was an analogue of a paper book, the page numbers should ideally be the same. Interacting with the text in this way, and the creation of handwritten notes (albeit electronically) really helped to consolidate my understanding of each of the texts.
A neat feature is the vocabulary builder. If there’s a word that I didn’t know, I could select it, and a dictionary definition might appear. When this happens, the word is added to a vocabulary builder list. Looking through this can be quite interesting, since I remember the texts I’ve been reading from the words I didn’t recognise.
Another really useful feature is the search facility. I’ve lost count of the number of times when I have said to myself, ‘I’m sure this book had something about …, but where is it?’ Putting words into a search box enables you to interrogate your text directly. It can be useful when trying to find new connections too.
Depending on what you download, some eBooks can have accompanying audio book. I haven’t really used the feature where I can read, and listen to a well-produced audio book at the same time. What I have done, however, is listen to audiobooks on very long car journeys. You obviously miss huge chunks when you’re navigating through a series of complicated roundabouts, but somehow bits of what you hear does say with you when you get back to the text.
When it comes to writing (I’ll come onto assignments in a bit), I’ve made good use of the in-built Word spell and grammar checkers, which has often saved my blushes. I have almost completely avoided the use of AI, except for one use case, which is to ask it for suggestions about what other books might be good pairings with some of the module texts. After getting an answer, it is then, of course, up to me to find out whether or not is a sensible suggestion or not. Also, a machine can’t read the books for me, and it certainly can’t tell me what I should think (or feel) about them.
I can’t mention technology without mentioning the internet. I’ve mentioned the OU library, which is huge. I’ve found the OU library’s English collections really helpful; I’ve spent hours browsing it. There are also other really useful resources. For the set texts, a good place to look is Project Gutenberg, an online library of 75k eBooks. I’ve also found a lot of really useful resources on BBC Sounds. There are also innumerable podcasts out there. A personal favourite is Approaching Shakespeare by Emma Smith. (Have a listen to how she frames her lectures, and how she draws on secondary sources; they are really very impressive).
It is also worth mentioning the module website. The module calendar, where you can tick off individual weeks as you go is really helpful. It also pays to spend time exploring the resources section of every module website. This is where you can find the ePub version of your module materials.
A final note on technology is that it is important that you keep everything organised. When everything becomes electronic, everything can become easily lost. When using my eBook I make good use of categories, making sure that everything is given correct module codes. On your laptop, use directories to keep everything in its place.
Tutorials
Once upon a time, tutorials were face-to-face. Now, they all take place online, but there is one exception: an annual arts and humanities day school, which is a real pleasure to attend. I do feel that face-to-face tutorials would have been a lot better, since there is a very human need to discuss what we think about the books that we are reading. I feel that having opinions about texts, and being able to express those opinions represent an inherent part of studying English. In contrast, we may only hear the voice of single tutor within online tutorials, which is shame.
At the start of every module presentation, we are able to book onto a set of tutorials, or ‘learning events’, as they are sometimes called. Since I’m a geeky swot, I book myself onto all of them as soon as they are available. I remember once, a tutor said, ‘to thank you for attending my tutorial, I’m going to share a really useful tip that will help you with the forthcoming assessment’. Ever since, I’ve tried to attend every tutorial, in the hope of picking up useful hints and tips. Also, different tutors can, of course, present topics in different ways. A diversity of opinions, and a diversity in the way that those opinions are expressed can be really valuable when you’re beginning to form your own perspective.
When you sign up to a tutorial, you often get sent a pack of resources; tutors often share either PDFs or copies of their PowerPoint files either before or after a scheduled tutorial. By the end of my last level 3 module, I counted up having downloaded 43 resources.
Assignments
Typically, the assignments start easy, and then get more difficult. I remember three broad types of essays or assignments that we had to complete. The first one was often about close reading. This is like a warmup that is also about skills development. We were then asked to complete a compare and contrast essay. I quite liked these, since you had to be creative to do them well. Finally, there is the thematic essay; the type where you have to make an argument about one thing or another. I didn’t like these, since they often needed a lot of figuring out. A big bit of figuring everything out relates to what your own position on what something means.
The texts
We’ve studied the joyful and the darkly tragic. We have wandered (like a cloud) over the pastoral, and then dived into wretched urban environments, populated by people struggling to get by. There were books that I have become to love (Rhys; Wharton), and others that I wanted to throw across the room (Smith; Woolf). We had texts that I recognised to be classics, and texts that were recent and entirely new to me. There were poems that revealed their secrets, and others that remained closed. Some texts talked to me, but others didn’t. Along the way, there were some delightful surprises, some of which I’ll share here in no particular order.
Firstly, there were the big classics that I had always known, but had never read. We were introduced to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, followed by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. We later studied Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. During our second level, we found our way to literary modernism and James Joyce’s Dubliners.
A significant surprise was Sam Selvon’s, Lonely Londoners; a novel that unexpectedly resonated with me. I immediately recognised many of the areas of the city that his characters inhabited. Over a decade earlier, I had returned to London to try to restart my life after it had been turned upside down. Selvon seemed to depict a fizz of excitement and opportunity; it was a feeling I recognised.
Keeping with London, there are a couple of other texts that are notable. Mayhew’s ethnography was an eye opener. This was conceptually linked with Dicken’s mammoth Bleak House, which I could only digest, in part, through an audiobook. I found Bleak House a curiosity, since it touched another aspect of my own biography. Its narratives were split between London and Lincolnshire; two places where I spend my time.
Lincolnshire is reflected by two other writers. George Elliot’s The Mill on the Floss depicts a version of Victorian Gainsborough. Although I tried to steer a course through my study that avoided poetry, a poem by Tennyson really resonated. His depiction of a spin-wash cycle of grief has really stuck with me.
I raised an eyebrow when I realised we were studying Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. My first response was ‘why are we studying a kid’s book?’ It wasn’t too long before I realised it was so much more than that. Found within one of Swift’s proto-sci-fi worlds was a description of something called The Engine (Wikipedia) that I found astonishing. Swift had written a satirical description of that can only be termed GenAI, or generative artificial intelligence. Replacing the environmental burden of electricity, he depicts lads turning handles. Could this be an unexpected allegory for the way in which AI uses creative labour?
Before we go to Swift’s proto-sci-fi, we were introduced to The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. I used to be sci-fi fan when I was in my teens, but then I realised that life is pretty weird anyway, without adding furry aliens and space travel into the mix. The thing that I really liked about The Dispossessed was that it was less about futuristic technology and space, but more about politics and society. This text reminded me of something: how literature can be used to create new worlds, and ask questions about different ways we might live our lives.
Turning to a very different text, The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton was a glorious surprise. It took me a bit of time to get into her style of writing, but when I got there, I found myself in a mesmeric world inhabited by characters who were wonderfully awful. From The Custom of the Country, I sought out The Age of Innocence, which unexpectedly had me in tears.
During our second level, we found our way to Edmund Blunden and the war poets. I was initially perplexed by Blunden’s prose, finding it hard work, but rewarding. I was attracted to Blunden since I have a distant awareness that my grandfather served in the First World War. I don’t know any of the details, but I remember that my mother once mentioned he kept a diary, which has since been lost. Apparently, there a bleakly concise entry that read ‘over the top today’. There was a surprise in store that made me feel closer to the text. I received an email from a former OU colleague who said that he had lived next door to Blunden’s wife. I sometimes think of writers as being distant and ephemeral. This unexpected message felt like a nudge from the past to the present.
The thought of nudges from the past takes me to Shakespeare. I like Shakespeare. We studied a good number of plays: A Midsummer night’s dream, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Othello, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. They’re all difficult, but thoroughly rewarding. What I really liked in the module what a supplement about Elizabethan rhetoric. To complement my studies, I was given a birthday gift of Stephen Greenblatt’s biography of Shakespeare, which was a thoroughly good read, and is certainly needs a second reading.
All this has led to an unexpected increasing obsession with early modern plays. A friend asked me why I was especially interested in early modern literature. After a bit of reflection, I now know the answer. In 16th and 17th century theatre, there is little in the way of special effects. There is no special lighting, sound amplification, or digital screens. There might be the rolling of cannon balls to simulate thunder, the creative use of costume, and the use of shutters and doors, but that is it. What provides special effects is, of course, language. The language has to do all the heavy lifting.
From the second level onwards, I started to feel haunted by a writer: Aphra Behn. We were first introduced to Behn in a level 2 module through Oroonoko, an early English novel. I had initially wanted to throw it across the room (with to join the texts by Smith and Woolf). I found it interesting, but really didn’t like it. I found it difficult, and hard work.
Behn’s name made an unexpected appearance when we were introduced to some gloriously filthy poetry. I found it curious that she had been both a novelist and a poet. After a bit of reading, I then realised that she had also been a successful playwright, which I found astonishing. It was at this point that my interest was thoroughly piqued. I did a bit more reading, and I continued to be surprised. Behn was a playwright, novelist, poet, and an international spy! Behn is, without question, ‘a bad ass’ (not my phrase, but one that is entirely appropriate).
During our studies we were sometimes encouraged to select our own texts. When studying restoration plays (from 1660) I asked my tutor whether I could choose Behn’s The Rover, her most popular play. It was a hard read. Not because of the language, but because of the themes. I realised that she was depicting (and lampooning) a 17th century version of toxic masculinity. My reading about Behn has continued. I found my way to a fascinating biography by Janet Todd, and I’m slowing working through her plays. They can be quite hard to follow on the page, since there’s a lot of dressing up and disguises. I want to see a biopic about her. Someone needs to write one.
Another writer that I really like is Jean Rhys, who wrote the enigmatic Good Morning, Midnight. I initially struggled with this text, but after three reads it thoroughly got under my skin. Reflecting on this, I seem to be attracted to texts that try to make sense of trauma.
When we had another free choice, I settled on Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell. I first read this novel when I was 17, just after finishing my GCSEs. After having studied Animal Farm, I was curious about what else Orwell had written. It was also quite curious re-reading a text 35 years after I had first read it. Reading with older (if not wiser eyes), there’s a whole lot more I was able to understand. There were bits of the plot I distantly recognised from my youth. It was unremittingly bleak. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Orwell’s book was one of the last that I read. In some ways, it reflected a fitting end; a return to where I started my studies of literature.
Penny dropping
I chose to study English Literature for some really simple reasons: I enjoy language, reading, and stories. When I arrived at the third level, I felt that I still wasn’t quite ‘getting’ the bigger picture. I sensed that I didn’t quite understand why English Literature was an important subject to me.
As I repeatedly read texts and write essays, the penny started to drop. It isn’t only about reading and stories. It is also about being able to express your understanding and your ideas clearly. English Literature is as much about writing as it is about reading. A key part of this is, of course, the notion of an argument – or, developing a point of view, which you then evidence using whatever literary text that you’re studying. Your own critical voice and your opinions being important.
Reflecting on assignment feedback, I shared the following words in an earlier blog post: “the big takeaway point is to work harder to integrate everything together – secondary sources, the text that is the focus of the analysis, and my opinions about everything. Also, it is important to make my opinions clear – do I agree or disagree with other critics? All this is good academic practice which I was never formally taught in my study of computing.”
This links with another point that I picked up on a couple of years ago that now seems blindingly obvious; the view that ‘English’ is a radical subject. It is about challenging existing norms and conventions. It is also about figuring out identity and opinions. It is about making convincing and compelling arguments. This point reminds me of something a tutor said in an essay preparation tutorial. She said that the examiners want to see evidence of how we are thinking.
Put more simply, through all our study we begin to appreciate what it means to study English Literature from an academic perspective. We start to become familiar with the academic rules, or literacies, which take time to become familiar with. In doing so, we get better and reading, and get better at writing.
Disciplinary differences
My ‘home discipline’ is, of course, computing. In my day job I support the delivery of a software engineering module. It is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on the disciplinary differences (and similarities) between the literature and computing, and the differences in the teaching across the two faculties.
Looking at differences in a simplistic way, there is a strong strand of individualism in computing, evidenced through the concept of the personal computer. The role of capital also plays a role. Capital is needed build and design computers which, in turn, can (in theory) give us practical economic benefits. Computing is a topic or discipline where there are (currently) tangible jobs in software engineering, networking, cyber security and artificial intelligence. One of the reasons why I studied computing was that I imagined that I could get a job ‘using computers’, which would allow me to find a way to earn a way, to contribute to wider society.
English Literature is different. Whilst individual skills are, without a doubt, undeniably important, the texts that we study are shared communal artefacts. We study to perpetuate understanding of texts that others consider to be important. Our texts have ideas, stories and characters that contribute to a collective culture. Knowing about, and talking about texts enables culture to continue to be perpetuated and shared.
Here lies the key (and very clumsily articulated) difference. Computing is often about what to do to master a machine. On the other hand, English is about helping to develop, reflect and maintain a cohesive culture, whilst at the same time giving us skills to constructively critique the cultural environment in which we inhabit. Computing allows us to do more, organise data, and to connect with others. Studying literature give us critical tools and skills to enable us to interrogate and imagine the consequences of the technologies that we create.
Faculty differences
Turning to differences between faculties, the School of Arts and Humanities ran a series of UK wide face-to-face events during my studies. I attended a couple of these, which were really enjoyable. No equivalent face-to-face events are run by Computing. Although I’ve highlighted the importance of face-to-face over the last few years, I’ve been singularly unsuccessful in raising interest. I’ll keep trying.
It was also interesting to see that the School of Arts and Humanities ran a series of study skills tutorials which helped students to transition between modules and levels of study. These made good use of something called a ‘subject site’. Could we do something similar in Computing? Perhaps. It all comes down to money, and will.
A really enjoyable ‘non-module’ series that I attended was called Poetry for Lunch, where a tutor facilitator to us through the work of a different poet every week. Some of the poets highlighted were featured in our modules, while others were completely new. We did a deep dive into close reading, which was very helpful, since practically every literature module began with a close reading exercise. I can’t remember the name of the tutor, but she was very good. I felt that these additional ‘glue’ tutorials really fostered a connection between the discipline, and the institution.
I also found it curious and interesting that I found myself in the minority in all tutorials; there were always more women attending than men, which is the exact opposite to what happens in Computing. The most striking imbalance was on one the Poetry for Lunch events. Out of 70 participants, 3 appeared to have male names; just over 4%. I later had a dig into the statistics, comparing English Literature and Computing, and whilst differences are clearly significant, they are not nearly as stark as illustrated in this single sample. In fact, the gender imbalance appears to be worse in Computing than it is in English Literature.
I’ll conclude this section by sharing some of the good things I noticed from the School of Arts and Humanities. There is a really useful variety of different types of materials. I don’t mean texts; I mean the effective use of audio and video, and pointers to online repositories and resources. Significantly, it was interesting that GenAI guidance prepared by the school for literature students was more comprehensive than what was initially produced for Computing students.
Bits missing?
Before formally studying English, I had some expectations about some of the texts and writers that we might be introduced to. I wondered whether we would be introduced to the works of Geoffrey Chaucer I have forever heard of his Canterbury Tales, and was looking forward to learning more. I seem to remember that he was mentioned briefly in the second level modules, but we didn’t spend any time studying any of his texts. We did, however, spend a bit of time studying Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which was of a similar era. I did like it, but I think I would have liked Chaucer more.
Another writer that I thought would study was John Milton. I remember that his work got a brief mention in the Shakespeare and his Contemporaries block of my penultimate module, but we didn’t do a deep dive into his work. I also wondered whether we would study the works of Joseph Conrad. In our studies Conrad was briefly mentioned alongside Ford Maddox Ford, but we never got stuck into his Heart of Darkness. It is, however, worth mentioning that both Milton and Conrad are required reading for all MA students.
Although we were introduced to the work of David Henry Thoreau (who I had never heard of before) I was expecting a few more American writers to make an appearance, such as Herman Melville and Henry James. James did, however, receive an honourable mention alongside the very memorable Edith Wharton. Jumping ahead in time, I was secretly looking forward to re-reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Kerouac did make a brief appearance during one of the level 2 modules, not long after an introduction to the poet Langston Hughes. Moving further across time, I would have also liked to learn a bit more about James Baldwin. There is quite a list of American writers that I have heard about but have yet to read, such as F.Scott Fitzgerald (I have in my possession a yellowing Penguin paperback of The Great Gatsby which I’m definitely going to read), Ernest Hemmingway, Henry Miller and John Steinbeck. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is edging towards the top on my To Be Read (TBR) pile. A notable characteristic of this list is that almost all of these writers are males, which is a point that I’ll come back to in a couple of paragraphs.
Turning to an entirely different continent, I was expecting to hear some Russian voices. I was expecting to learn about the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, stories and drama of Anton Chekov, (I have since discovered that Chekhov also features in the MA) and the trials endured by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn is especially significant, since he depicts the brutality of a dysfunctional and inhuman Russian regime.
I really enjoyed studying the dramatists we were introduced to, but I did feel there was an opportunity to go further. Obviously, more Aphra Behn plays should be covered, but that is a personal preference. We did, however, study the Irish playwright John Millington Synge and his Playboy of the Western World which was glorious for all the wrong reasons. From Synge could have then been taken on a journey that might have taken in the works of Oscar Wilde, led us to the works of Bertolt Brecht and then into the baffling world of Samuel Beckett. I’ve struggled to understand Wating for Godot, but perhaps that is the point; in life, nothing much happens, and it is all ultimately confusing, absurd and pointless. In keeping Irish writers, I am thankful that we were not confused by James Joyce’s Ulysses.
Given the breadth and depth of the literary canon, and the necessity of considering a broader range of texts, the module teams have had to make practical decisions about which texts and authors are covered, and which are not. Balance across multiple dimensions is a necessity. The module chairs must have had to adjudicate over some really vigorous debates. Importantly, we were also given opportunities (within contraints) to read texts that were of interest to us. From my perspective, I really appreciated being introduced to the short stories of Jhumpa Lahiri and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Advice
Now that I’m at the end, what advice would I offer to anyone who is considering studying English Literature at the OU?
Here are my thoughts:
- Don’t be afraid of technology. Make it your friend. Make it work for you. It enables you to do stuff. Ask for help and advice since technology can be difficult to get your head around.
- Read ahead. I always tried to get a lot of reading done over the summer. Even if I didn’t know what I was reading, or why it was important, getting the feel for a text and its language, and what it contained was always helpful.
- Go to as many tutorials as you can, even the ones that you think you don’t need to go to, or the ones that you think you won’t like. You can often be surprised. You are paying for them, so you might as well try to get your money’s worth.
- Find resources that work for you. Listen to different podcasts. Read different articles. Go beyond the module materials. Spend time in the (virtual) university library.
- Avoid AI. There are two reasons for this. The first is that assignments are asking you what you think about a text. You are infinitely more original than a machine can ever be. Your tutor wants to know what you think, not what you think you ought to think. Secondly, referencing the use of AI is a pain. Your time is better spent reading and writing than it is trying to figure out how to reference any AI tool you might have used.
- Clever people can sometimes feel really stupid when they read something new for the very first time. Difficult texts can take time to understand. Smart people know this.
- Writing is a process. Embrace the idea of multiple drafts. Edit aggressively. Cutting almost always improves the quality of what you have written.
- Make notes using a pen and paper. It ‘goes in’ better. Underline stuff. Type out quotes that you find interesting. Make sure that your notes are organised. Use post-it notes.
Onwards
As I was approaching the end of my studies, I asked the question: ‘what next?’
I’ve already signed up for the MA, which I’m expecting to be both fascinating and difficult. We have already got down and dirty into Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I’ve also started an A893 study blog.
Another question to ask is: how am I going to use my new qualification? Since starting all my study, I’ve been properly introduced to a cross disciplinary topic which is called the Digital Humanities. The big idea is to harness computing technology to carry out research into humanities subjects. I’m coming at everything from a slightly different perspective, thinking about what a humanities subject, like English Literature might be able to tell us about aspects of computing, such as software engineering. How, for example, may stories and narrative help us to understand and think about the software products we use and create? I think I have found a new research project.
I must go. I have another TMA to get on with. Wish me luck!
Acknowledgements
I would like to personally thank all the tutors who I have met during my 6 years of study. Your tutorials, forum replies and patient feedback comments have all helped me to become a better student. In turn, my experience would have helped me to become a better tutor, staff tutor and module team member. Thanks are also extended to the module team members who have contributed to the following modules I have studied: A111, A112, A230, A233, A334, and A335.