Personal Blogs

7 October 2024

Three days in, and I feel that I’m getting behind!

This said, I’ve just made a couple of forum posts. One related to the notion of ‘the author’, the other was a summary of musicals I’ve recently seen. I have, however, tried to link my post to theme of the module. I even shared a link to a famous song from Kiss Me Kate. 

13 October 2024

Last night was our first tutorial. I made notes of a number of points and tips:

• Review Section 3.3 What your mark means, and Section 4.7 Using the Critics, both from the assessment guide. Another tip was to have a read of the English Literature Toolkit, which offers some comments about what an English essay is all about.
• From TMA 2 onwards, it is useful to connect your independent study to your essay and text choices. A point here is that you don’t (of course) have to do all the independent study options. Study strategically. Do what is useful for you.
• When writing your essay, beware of summarising articles or points that are shared by critics. It is more important to apply what they say within an argument. Use what you need to use to answer the question that is being asked.
• When looking for materials, consider the diversity of materials. If you’re discussing a play, you might want to consider productions of plays at different periods of time. This enables you to gain a wider perspective, which can be useful for discussing critical points of contrast.
• Use peer reviewed sources and articles, rather than using informal articles that you might find in blogs.
• If you find articles which present opposing views, choose your own position, and don’t be afraid to state what this is. How you relate to a text is important.
• Don’t make excessive notes. Make notes with a purpose, which is to help with answering of the assignment questions.
• Avoid generative AI. It makes things up, and it isn’t transparent about the sources it uses.
• Use the module glossary, which is a really useful resource, and read the optional Introducing Renaissance Rhetoric resource.
• When doing close reading, consider the effect of what is done; don’t just identify the technical effects that are applied.

A really useful tutorial!

With these summarised, it’s back to the tutor group forum, and then a brief look at the module materials to remind myself of where I got to, and the TMA 1 submission date. After then, it’ll be back to looking at the materials for the module that I’m chairing.

A quick update: I’ve emailed the Introducing Renaissance Rhetoric resource to my Kindle. As I’ve done this, I’ve written this short blog: Studying with the Kindle continued…  The convert option is really useful.

Another quick update, a few hours after the above edit: our tutor has sent a link to a useful site, the Writing Centre, which is a part of the Undergraduate arts and humanities study website (There is one of these for the Computing and IT programme, but I’ve not looked at it for a while).

The key resources have the following headings: writing for assessments, skills toolkits, Write now! (which appears to be a bunch of tips), Referencing and Developing academic English. 

Clicking into the Study Skills Workshops takes me to a page which presents a whole range of events I’ve never seen before; events that relate to academic practice, planning and researching, quoting and paraphrasing, and writing skills. It looks like there are loads of recordings available.

14 October 2024

I’ve been properly reading chapter 1, and I’ve looked ahead to the independent study materials for chapters 2 and 3. I’m starting to think about the independent study options, and there’s a lot that I want to do. I want to watch a Drama Online production of Titus Andronicus (and read the play at the same time), find out more about Thomas Kyd (I remember reading that he shared a room with Marlowe, and was a scribe as well as a playwright), and listen to the additional audio materials that are on the module website. Decisions decisions.

I need to properly read chapter 2.  I’ll try to do that tomorrow.

I also need to get back to my day job.

15 October 2024

I’ve had a proper go through of chapter 2, but I’ve not spent as much time on the activities as I should have done, but I can always go back to them if it looks like they might help with the TMAs. 

There’s some useful pointers to read the introduction of that Hattaway edition of As You Like It, particularly with respect to its interpretations.

I was curious about references to Johnson’s play Every Man in his Humour (Wikipedia). It looks like there isn’t a production of this available through Drama Online (there is only a production of Volpone, which I know nothing about).

I’m just about to go off-piste with respect to my independent study. Although I did mention that I might watch Titus Andronicus through Drama Online, I have booked to see Coriolanus tomorrow at The National. After hearing a rumour that it wasn’t very good, I’ve skim read some reviews and by the looks of it, it doesn’t sound too terrible.

Next up, the online materials for the following week, chapter 3, and the independent study activities.

16 October 2024

I’ve had a quick read of chapter 3, but it really is a quick read. I remember bits of it from the even quicker read through that I did over the summer. I know what I need to do next, which is read The Spanish Tragedy again. There’s a lot of action that I don’t really follow.

I went into one of the independent study activities; looking up Kyd’s biography in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, making a few notes. There was also a suggestion to read a bit of a biography of Marlowe, but there’s another bit of a study activity that I want to do. 

Kyd and Marlowe shared lodgings. Kyd was arrested (I think along with Marlowe) and was possibly tortured. He died in 1594, not long after getting out of prison. He was buried at St Mary Cole Church.

I looked this place up. It doesn’t exist anymore, having been destroyed in the great fire of London in 1666. There is, however, a plaque which is reminder of its location, which can be found on the corner of Poultry and Old Jewry, not too far from Bank underground station.

His biography suggested a few firsts: the first Machiavellian villain in a play, the first play within a play, and use of ‘robust blank verse’.

Another memory of my morning reading is that Shakespeare may have contributed a bit of text to a version of Kyd’s play. I haven’t got the connections and the detail secure in my head just yet.

In all this distant history, there’s some suggestion about Kyd may have written an earlier version of Hamlet, but I’ve heard that all this is speculation. I think we’ve got this to come in the module materials.

17 October 2024

Okay, I enjoyed the production of Coriolanus that I saw last night.

Pretending to be a grumpy critic, I did feel that the production didn’t really know what it wanted to be. It was broadly supposed to be set in a museum, but made use of video effects too, and there were these later scenes which I didn’t really understand where there were these weird costumes, and lots of fire going on in the background. The play was hugely political, in the sense that it was all about keeping people onside. I guess there’s a strong link to the dangers of the use of rhetoric. I’m glad I saw it. I’ve read a couple of reviews, and they’ve been mostly positive.

Anyway, back to the module materials. This morning, I went through the module team’s selected recordings of The Spanish Tragedy, making a bunch of notes. I’ve not (yet) read it properly, but I might have another listen of the Radio 3 production, and have a good read of the introductory notes. I really like Kyd’s use of language. I’m struck by the poetry he uses in the seduction scene in act 2. I do feel that I’m quite a long way away to really understanding it properly, but I’m making steps towards figuring it out.

I kind of want to watch Titus Andronicus, but it might leave me mildly traumatised, like the time I watched Dr Faustus. 

A final reflection: I’m really enjoying this first bit of the module, which made me have the opposing thought of ‘I’m really not looking forward to the part when we get to Austen’.

20 October 2024

On Friday 18 October, I took a trip to the 2024 arts and humanities study day, writing everything up yesterday evening. At around the same time of doing this, I also tried to get my lever arch file together. Over the last few days or so I’ve been trying to listen to The Spanish Tragedy. I’m still a long way from figuring out what is happening to whom.

22 October 2024

I’ve started to listen to the tutorial that I missed on the 17th. Its focus is on close reading and the use of the OED. I made a note of the first two points, before I had to stop; I’m too tired. It’s been a difficult day. Balancing work and study is challenging.

28 October 2024

My study continues to be fractured due to personal circumstances (I’ve been helping my mum). It has taken me three goes to listen to the second introductory tutorial, which was very helpful. It covered two things: close reading skills, and the use of the Oxford English Dictionary. On the subject of the dictionary and accessing resources from the OU library, our tutor directed us to a useful browser extension, which saves us from having to access article databases without having to go via the library website. After an earlier listen of the tutorial, I installed it. I’ll see how I go.

On the subject of close reading, I noted down the following points: first impressions, identification of words that led to the first impression, what words most significantly contribute towards the theme of a passage, consider the style of language, and to critically make use of checklists. Some other tips included try reading it out, try copying the text, and make use of the set text edition.

I picked up on the suggestion of the set text, and in my independent study time I’ve been reading through the introduction of As You Like It. It’s very dense and hard going, so I’m just skim reading it at the moment, just to get a feel for it. I don’t think I like it; it’s work.

A final note for today. I like the look of the forum activities that were started over the weekend. I think it was these that made me realise that I’ve got a whole lot of learning to do.

This month has been challenging for a whole host of personal reasons (which I’m not going to be going into). Amidst my personal challenges, I did manage to get away for a two week break, which much needed. During those two weeks I went cycling, tried to do some swimming (I’m not good at swimming) and do some reading for A334.

One of the first things I managed to do was to finish an audio book of Pride and Prejudice. I feel as if I did rush listening to it, since there are bits of the story that I don’t quite grasp, but I do appreciate that there were all kinds of shenanigans happening in Brighton.

I was given a lovely gift for my birthday: a text called Will in the World, by critic Stephen Greenblatt. You could say I devoured it in a couple of sittings. I don’t read many biographies, but when I do, I really enjoy them. This text is what you might call a biography that extensively draws upon Shakespeare’s plays. I really liked it.

I managed to find a BBC Radio 3 production of The Spanish Tragedy, which I listened to whilst reading the recommended course text. The radio production was abridged, which meant that I regularly got lost. I have no idea (yet) what to make of it, but I quite liked what I read, and what I listened to. I have yet to make any notes, or to buy any extensive amounts of stationary to facilitate the making of my notes.

Next up was reading though a version of The Country Wife by William Wycherley. I got completely lost and had no idea what was going on. The most I understood was that there was some cross dressing going on. I’m hoping the module materials (when I got stuck into them) will help me to figure it all out.

Before my holiday, I managed to download a copy of Gulliver’s Travels by Swift. Although I think there is a bit of guidance from the module team about which books to focus on, I found myself reading the whole text. Whilst reading, I remembered a recent television documentary which caused quite a sensation (BBC culture website). Whilst reading Gulliver’s Travels, I remembered of the tone of the documentary, and how its enthusiasm and energy reminded me of Swift’s writing.

What I really loved about Gulliver’s Travels was his summary of academia; there was a lot that I could recognise. A real surprise was that the text has something to say about generative AI, which can be found in his description of something called The Engine (Wikipedia). All this took me on a short journey to Swift’s Wikipedia biography, which was fascinating.

Two texts that I did want to delve into (but didn’t have the time) was The Turkish Embassy Letters (but I had forgotten that there wasn’t a Project Guttenberg version I could download to my Kindle), and the Arabian Nights’ stories.

Since I had watched a production of As You Like It and Julius Caesar before travelling away, I next gave these plays a read. It was interesting reading these plays almost back to back; a contrast between light and dark. Shakespeare really ratchets up the tension in Julius Caesar a bit at a time. I don’t think I would have been able to get as much out of reading the plays if I hadn’t seen two really good productions.

I did have a plan to read Hamlet on a very long train ride, but I found that I had run out of mental energy.

One of the other things that I did was download an audio book version of Persuasion. I think I got up until chapter 5 before losing track of what was going on. I have some very long drives ahead of me in forthcoming months, so I’m sure I’ll be able to find the time, but I might restrict myself to just the bits I need to read for the module materials.

Another thing that I managed to do is to briefly look through the blocks. I have mixed feelings about the poetry in the second block, and was mildly shocked at some of the more racy verses that we have in store a bit later on.

A few days after getting back from my holiday, I finally found my way to the module website, where I started to look at the module guide. I was surprised by the bit that said there was 40% of our weekly study time is going to be spent on independent study. There was also a mention of (potentially) using a blog too. This is going to be interesting.

Perhaps my time spent reading Greenblatt was time very well spent.

I’m worried about one thing: the need to find both the quiet and the time to study everything. I’m in a situation where I can’t get “quiet time” easily, since there’s such a lot going on. Reflecting on this, my approach might well be to get up early in the morning.

My next steps: continue to read the module guide, watch some of the module videos, and start to find my way around the module website.

In some ways, this short blog follows on from a blog I wrote last year, which has a similar title: Preparing for the summer: A233 reading list.

I’m writing this blog after having my registration for A334 English literature from Shakespeare to Austen confirmed. I'm probably getting ahead of myself since I still have a quite a lot to do on A233; one more TMA and an EMA, which I'm not really started to think about. 

Just like last year, to get ahead, I’m going to try to do a bit of reading over the summer. What follows is a reading list that I’ve liberated from the module information page. Where possible, I’ve provided a link to a version from Project Guttenberg which can be downloaded to an e reader (which is something that I’ll just before I go on holiday). Do note that the version that is linked to is, of course, different to the text that is referenced.

If you do make use of the Guttenberg version, do note that there may well be significant differences between the text that is officially recommended by the module team, and the downloaded version. The editorial that the officially recommended is often useful.

I’m clearly not going to get through all these in one summer since some of these texts are unfeasibly long. One thing that I have learnt from the study of the OU literature modules is that the reading is often quite directed. In this list there are some novels that I have always wanted to find the time to read; I’ve started reading the Austen novels a couple of times, so that is probably where I’m going to start.

I’ve adjusted the format of the reference to make them a bit more like the official CiteThemRight Harvard format which the university adopts.

Montagu, M. W. (2012) The Turkish Embassy Letters. Edited by T. Heffernan and D. O'Quinn. Broadview Press. ISBN 9781554810420

Kyd, T., (2009) The Spanish Tragedy. Edited by A. Gurr and J.R. Mulryne. (New Mermaids) Methuen. ISBN 9781408114216

Swift, J., (2002) Gulliver's Travels. Edited by A.J. Rivero. Norton. ISBN 9780393957242

Wycherley, W. (2014) The Country Wife. Edited by T. Stern, (New Mermaids) Methuen. ISBN 9781408179895

Molière (2008). The Misanthrope, Tartuffe and Other Plays. Edited by M. Slater. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199540181

Austen, J. (2019) Pride and Prejudice. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780198826736

Austen, J. (2008) Persuasion. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199535552

Mack, R.L. (ed) (2009) Arabian Nights' Entertainments. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199555871

Daniell, D. (ed) (1998) The Arden Shakespeare: Julius Caesar. Methuen. ISBN 9781903436219

Shakespeare, W. (2009). As You Like It. Edited by M. Hattaway. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521732505

Rousseau, J.J. (2008) Confessions. Edited by P. Coleman. Oxford World's Classics. ISBN 9780199540037

Thompson, A. and Taylor, N. (eds) The Arden Shakespeare: Hamlet. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781472518385

Additional note: judging by the reading list it does look like both Hamlet and Julius Caesar may well be studied. I have no idea what the two Arden Shakespeare study books contain. To prepare, I’ve provided links to ebooks for both of these plays:

Shakespeare, W. (2019) Hamlet. Project Guttenberg.

Shakespeare, W. (2023) Julius Caesar. Project Guttenberg.

A final note is that I'm sure whether the link to Arabian Nights' Entertainments is correct, but I'm sure I'll figure it out when I get to the study materials.

Acknowledgements

This reading list has been directly liberated from the A334 module website. I have no connection with the module team, and it is entirely possible that this reading list may change. Always rely on the recommendations from the module team, rather than any materials that are mentioned in this blog.