John Lye, of St. Catharine's, Ontario's Brock University (known to most undergrads as 'if you can walk and talk, you can go to Brock') has a neat breakdown of theoretical perspectives with relation to reader reponse criticism and theory:

Phenomenological view:
The text functions as a set of instructions for its own processing, but is as well indeterminate, needs to be completed, to be concretized. The 'reality' of the text lies between the reader and the text: it is the result of the dialectic between work and reader.

Reader Online also has a lot of information, including essays and articles. Extra neat because it is not limited to just literature.

So. Back in school at last. What I'm actually doing this year is a little different from what's on the list below, specifically regards to my Gender class, which I've swapped for one on trauma theory instead. That's not til next term, however.

This term is Intro to Lit Theory and Criticism, currently focusing on Reader-Response Criticism, Post-Colonial Lit: Southern Africa, Studies in Genre: Detective Fiction, Honours Seminar: Timothy Findley and good old Canadian Social History.

I'm also working as a research assistant for one of the new profs, and will be researching how universities in Ontario approach literacy and ensure that their students are capable of writing at a university level.

Okay. So I'm lame. A lot. I'm hoping that next year, things will go more smoothly as I tackle my final year of my degree and get to take some pretty neat English courses, and also have more of a sense of what I want to be doing with this blog.

So. Next year:
+Literary Theory and Criticism: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
+Literary Theory and Criticism: Gender **
+Post-Colonial Literature I: South Africa
+Post-Colonial Literature II: the Carribean
+Studies In Genre I: Detective Fiction
+Texts and Intertexts II: Images of the Underworld
+Honours Seminar III: Timothy Findley
+Honours Seminar IV: Paris and Modernism
+Themes in Canadian Social History

**Because I haven't studied gender enough already. (Gender is one of the primary foci of our English department)

I have the same prof for both Post-Colonials, the Paris Honours seminar and Detective Fiction. She's gonna love me.

W. W. Norton's 18th century site

Woo! Back at school, post-reading week break and ready to sink my teeth into the last six weeks of my third year here at Nipissing. Or, conversely, be sunk by missing the better part of the two weeks prior to my break as a result of producing a play and catching 'the wrath of' virus.

So. yeah. Sixteen days until my 20th century essay is due, and I decided to change my topic today. This actually isn't that bad as I have not reallly even started to work on it yet, aside from some cursory forays into postmodernism, and I have to do a presentation on that anyway, so it's a total waste.

Except now I have to write about the commentary that the 'text within a text' makes on 'art' and 'the artist' in Woolf's "Between the Acts" and Stoppard's "Travesties". That should be fun.

Blogging from a Graphic Design computer lab at my boyfriend's college, where I am hanging out for the day and thinking about postmodernism. And Macintosh computers. And why I don't really like Macs.

So. Trying to ascertain where exactly postmodernism diverges from modernism is not exactly the most simple task, but there is a certain amount of fun in the challenge. Professor Mary Klages has a pretty neat article here (snaps to Steve for that one). Unfortunately, thus far most of the articles I've accessed through Nipissing's online resources have been somewhat less than helpful, and I left my Abrams' Glossary of Literary Terms in North Bay. It's Reading Week, at long last.

Anyhow, I'm trying to put together both a presentation on post-modernism as well as a comparative research essay using Krapp's Last Tape and Tom Stoppard's Travesties to explain the break between modernism and postmodernism.

Does anyone else want to hyphenate 'postmodernism'? Perhaps that's a postmodernist tendency in and of itself.

We're doing Samuel Beckett in 20th Century literature; specifically "Krapp's Last Tape". While I didn't really care for it, even after watching a video taped performance of it, it did spawn an interesting discussion about memory, posterity and why we save things.

Why do we write? (Or tape record, or whatever). A sense of posterity, of immortality, perhaps? That certainly comes into play for me, I think. It's also useful as an organizational system; a way of tracking notes and thoughts and impressions. For some, like Tinka, it isn't about what is written, but about the physical act of writing. I think it helps me to contextualize my life; to place things in perspective: looking back, it is interesting to see what I once considered important and to evaluate if it still is.

More later, and a new poem of the month.

Gah. I've been really lazy with this this term. Probably because I'm naturally a very lazy person. It's almost time to start picking classes for next year--what fun!

Updating from the school, which is kind of a neat change from being in the natural disaster that is my room. On the Canadian history front, we did treaties and Canada's aboriginal people this week, which was extremely interesting. Duncan Campbell Scott, who was also a poet that I studied earlier this year in Canadian Literature, was the deputy minister of Indian Affairs at the time, and he was responsible for the majority of policy concerning Canada's aboriginal people. The effects of these policies are still felt today. They resulted in residential schools where children were taken from their families and forced to learn 'white' ways. At these schools, tuberculosis ran rampant and killed more than half the children that came through that system. DC Scott was aware of the problem but unwilling to spend the money to fix it.

Ironically, his poetry shows a more sympathetic view of the native people in Canada, and contrasts quite sharply with his political record.

Native peoples did not have the right to vote in Canadian elections until 1960.

I have been slacking lately on the blogfront, no? Well, today I think I may be back in the saddle, so to speak. We're currently studying Virginia Woolf in 20th century, and more specifically Between the Acts and our prof showed us the film version today, and it was fascinating. I don't think of myself as much of a "feminist" (as a friend put it today, "I'm a small-f feminist") but the movie was quite well done--Eileen Atkins was quite neat, and did a good job of conveying the fire and wit of her character--and it really made me think. It is definitely a work that still manages to retain meaning today, and it makes me sad because I will never be that good of a writer.

So instead of wasting your time with more prose, here are some links: a response to / critique of the essay and a Canadian literature magazine for women named after the piece.

Going back to school is always strangely exciting for me. New paper, new pens...what's not to like? I mean, aside from expensive school books, lengthy line-ups to pay tuition, the administration's decision to hold back scholarship and bursary cheques until next Monday, and of course, the English department's decision to revamp all of the degree requirements 3/4 of the way through my university career.

In all seriousness, I like school again, which is a good sign. I'm thinking of taking out a subscription to one of the journals on Canadian lit that the University of Toronto Press publishes (special student discount) because I have a feeling that grad school for me will end up dealing with post-colonial literature, particularly Canadian.

I got some of my marks back today, and they're about what I expected: 78 on my "tarot in Eliot's The Wasteland" essay (which apparently is good for that prof, and she wants a copy of it for her files); 81 on my Canadian lit midterm; and 82 final mark in my pre-Confederation Canadian history class (post-confederation starts tomorrow). There's room for improvement, but I think I did alright for myself.

New comments system has been implemented as Haloscan appears to have crapped out on me, damn them. Let me know if it's okay.

The second term of my third year of post-secondary education starts at 10 a.m. tomorrow. As I handed in a number of assignments and midterms and such prior to the break, I am hopeful that at least some of these will be returned to me tomorrow. Since everything was due at the end of the term, I don't have any 'real' idea of how well (or poorly, as the case may be) I'm doing in any of my classes except the 3-credit Canadian history I took last term (the second half is this term). My mark for the should be available tomorrow, come to think of it. I also get to go pick up my scholarship money, which is going to be about $500 more than I expected--the school sent me a letter announcing that they're giving me a bursary, which is welcome news. And then, of course, I get to go pay my tuition, which will not be fun.

All in all, I think it will be good to get back to school.

My sister is busy making out her university applications this week, and is rather unbearable as a result. Apparently I was much the same three years ago, though I don't remember it that way. She is looking at taking Early Childhood Education, Gender Equality and Social Justice, and social work-type programs. She is (hooray!) applying to Nip (for Gender Equality and Social Justice) which I find a bit funny, as I hadn't realized that it was something she'd be interested in, and also because, well, GE&SJ was better known as Women's Studies until this year. The more I think about it, though, the more it makes sense--although I'd still rather blind myself than take Women's Studies. (It's just not my bag).

University selection is such a funny thing. I applied to Queen's and York as well as Nip, and was accepted to all three for English...things certainly would have turned out differently had I not chosen Nipissing. I wound up at York earlier this year for a Canadian University Press conference and was amazed by the school: it seems unlikely I could've survived even one year there. It was so big. Most people go to high schools bigger than Nipissing is.

I think, for the most part, I am happy to be where I am, although I do find myself wondering about the possibilities, sometimes...

The CBC's Canada Reads is trying to choose a book that all Canadians should read. Their choice for last year was Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion, which is something of a precursor to his more famous The English Patient although I think I like it more of the two. I just find it interesting because I know that until I started actually listening to the CBC on the radio, I would have scoffed at the idea of CBC being all that influential--because really, who listens to public radio? And yet, and yet...once Ondaatje's novel was chosen as the novel that Canada should read, it went right on to the bestseller's list.

I'm still trying to figure out which books and authors I think a Canadian lit course should look at. It isn't so much that I have quibbles with what we are studying, but there are still a lot of thing I wish that we would study: Robertson Davies, Ann Marie MacDonald, Farley Mowat, Gabrielle Roy, to name only a very few.

My pick for the novel all Canadians should read? Either The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood or Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.

History exam went well, I think. I hope. I'm not sure. Actually, I'm reasonably certain that I did fine.

But the good news is that I got an 88 on the essay on Who Killed Canadian History? Which is worth 30% of my final mark. Boo yeah. And since it's above an 85, I think I might ask the prof to submit it to Hindsight, which is a new undergraduate history journal that's been founded at my school. *knocks on wood*

I hope things turn out as well in my other classes.

bleh. studying for exams in first year courses really sucks. Why do I do this to myself? Oh, right, because I figured that if I wanted to teach history at a secondary school level, I needed to know something about Canadian history.

I'm taking my BA in English Studies, but I'm also in a program stream called "Orientation to Teaching" that is unique to my school. In essence, it's supposed to help figure out if I want to teach, and also provides me with courses that (theoretically) will help me as a teacher. I'm in the secondary stream because I want to teach high school. Now, in order to qualify for the Faculty of Education in Ontario in what's called an I/S program (Intermediate/Senior; grades 7-12), you need to have two teachable subjects. You can do your degree in anything from Sociology to Astrophysics to Basket Weaving, but you still have to come up with 30 credits (5 full courses) in your first teachable subject and 18 (3 full courses) in your second. If you want to teach in Junior/Intermediate (grades 4-10) you only need to have 30 credits in one teachable subject, and if you want to teach Primary/Junior (kindergarten to grade 6) you don't need anything aside from your regular BA.

You have the option of doing either the 3 year general and 4 year honours BA. I've chosen the 4 year, for a variety of reasons relating to a) it keeps me from haivng to grow up for an extra year; b) it leaves open the door to grad school; and c) I'll make more money (substantially more money) if I end up becoming a teacher.

Anyhow, I guess the point of all this is that English is my first teachable subject and History is going to be my second. I took Europe Sine 1500 in first year and Early Modern Europe last year, and I figure that since a big part of high school history is Canadian history, I ought to have a better basis in it if I'm going to teach. Which is why I'm in a first year course.

I have to take four more English courses in order to satisfy the requirements of my degree next year, which leaves me with one free course...if I take another history, it'll give me an official minor, which I like the idea of. I'd like to do another Canadian history, too, I think...

Scary, scary concept: In checking the site stats (you can check them at the bottom of the page, if you'd like), I noticed that someone had come here from 'turnitin.com'.

As I'm sure most of you know, turnitin.com is designed for teachers to discourage plagiarism in their students. As far as I understand, it works almost like a search engine: the prof types in key sentences from the student's work, and it searches its database for works that contain those key phrases. This, of course, implies that someone, somewhere has hit this page when searching for plaigarism.

I suppose the logical inference is that my 18th century prof has checked out my paper on Swift's Houyhnhnms and right reason, since the thesis statement is blogged a few entries below this one. And that's not plaigarism. I have the right to post my own work, right? Don't I?

Despite this, part of me is scared that somehow, I'm going to get in trouble for blogging about my academic life at Nipissing, or that I will, somehow, have inadvertently plaigarised something. Because that would really suck.

Having almost forgotten to post a Poem of the Month, I will now rectify that. this is actually a song, and not a poem. The band has a soft spot in my heart because they're from the same small town in Scotland that my dad grew up in. I seem to keep coming back to it this time of year, too, just as I begin to get swamped with schoolwork.

I've never seen you look like this without a reason
Another promise fallen through
Another season passes by you
I never took the smile away from anybody's face
And that's a desperate way to look
For someone who is still a child

In a big country dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside
Stay alive

I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered
I'm not expecting to grow flowers in a desert
But I can live and breathe
And see the sun in wintertime

In a big country dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside
Stay alive
Stay alive

So take that look out of here it doesn't fit you
Because it's happened doesn't mean you've been discarded
Pull up your head off the floor—come up screaming
Cry out for everything you ever might have wanted

I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered
I'm not expecting to grow flowers in a desert
But I can live and breathe
And see the sun in wintertime
In a big country dreams stay with you
Like a lover's voice fires the mountainside
Stay alive
--Big Country

The essay for my 20th Century Lit class is now finished. I have exmained and dissected the use of tarot imagery in the Waste Land to good effect, I think , and this is one of the essays I've felt best about this year. To me, it feels solid. Of course, in the often arbitrary world of English Studies, this likely means I will end up with a 63 on it, but I remain hopeful that the Professor will welcome my ideas, and hopefully not see them as wrong or pedestrian. I really want to do well, and I know this is a good essay. I just don't know if it's what she's looking for.

But it's done, and that means I have only my Canadian history exam on Saturday left to worry about, which is a good feeling indeed.

Steph and I had our marks returned to us for the Brebeuf: Hero or Madman? presentation we did, and we scored an 83 on the presentation and a 90 on the process report we did for it, which means that things are well within the realm of Canadian literature.

I've been amusing myself during boring classes as of late by trying to reimagine the syllabus for Canadian lit. It's not so much that I have any real problems with the syllabus as it stands--everything on it is worthy in its own way, I suppose--but there is a lot more to Canadian literature than simply what we've studied, and there are definitely a lot of books and plays and poems that I would like to study within the class.

Perhaps I'll post further thoughts on what I think should be taught in a Canadian Lit courses later. Any suggestions? Who is the quintessential Canadian author?

I seem to be having a problem with ridiculously alliterative sentences in essays and midterms these days. Sample from 18th century midterm: "...scathing scatalogical satire of Shadwell's shortcomings..."

How do I come up with this stuff?

I'm about to start writing my Canadian midterm (we're in the computer lab, which always leads to panic) but I have a cue card with a thesis statement, so I think I'm in good hands.