Personal Blogs

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.