Third Year
Introductions
Posted by victoria in English on July 13, 2014
Hey, my name’s Viki, and I’m going to be blogging about my time as a final year English student here. I’m currently away in Germany, studying in a little town called Heidelberg at Germany’s oldest university, founded in 1386. I’ve actually been blogging about my Erasmus year since September, so you can have a look […]
Posted in Studying, Uncategorized | Tagged Bramhall, English, Erasmus, Heidelberg, Manchester, Third Year, Year Abroad | 3 Responses

The Waste Land: Inception
Posted by Richard in English on May 3, 2014
‘APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.’ So begins ‘The Burial of the Dead’, the first part of The Waste Land, and so too begin thousands of books, essays, and articles on T. S. Eliot’s infamous poem. The Waste Land […]
Posted in Leisure, Revision, Studying | Tagged English, English Literature, English Poets, Final Year, Modernism, Poetry, Third Year

Easter Exploits: Night of the Lepus
Posted by Richard in English on April 19, 2014
I always post the workload I’m dealing with on here in the holiday weeks. I like to think it balances out the fact that most of my regular posts seem to obfuscate rather than explicate the day-to-day life of my English degree. See, I couldn’t even write that sentence without sounding like a poorly-written scientist […]
Posted in Essay, Exams, Holiay, Studying | Tagged Easter, English, English Literature, Essay, Essays, Exams, Final Year, Holidays, Third Year | 4 Responses

The Battle of the Books III: There and Back Again
Posted by Richard in English on April 12, 2014
As promised, here’s the conclusion to a competition that has cost me some sleepless nights: the best texts of the second semester of my final undergraduate year. I narrowed the competition down arbitrarily to five, and each one is a masterpiece in its own way. But now it must end. Along the way we’ve laughed, […]
Posted in Leisure, Studying | Tagged Books, English, English Literature, Final Year, Texts, Third Year

The Battle of the Books II: The Desolation of Smaug
Posted by Richard in English on April 4, 2014
Last week I set up a competition to decide my favourite book out of all those I read in the Autumn/Winter Semester. It started with a list of five, ranging from Medieval Visions to Scientific Romances. At the time, it appeared to be the right thing to do. We make lists all the time, don’t […]
Posted in Leisure, Studying | Tagged Books, English Literature, Final Year, Texts, Third Year

The Battle of the Books: Over the Top
Posted by Richard in English on March 29, 2014
I have just finished the last core text on my undergraduate degree. It was Sarah Kane’s play Blasted (1995), which seems fitting enough. If the Post War to Postmodern module had gone backwards instead of forwards it would have been Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair (1951). That would have been appropriate too. Now […]
Posted in Studying | Tagged Books, English Literature, Final Year, Texts, Third Year | 1 Response

Postmodernism Explained: Dude, Where’s My Car?
Posted by Richard in English on March 18, 2014
Last week I used the short story form to try and explain just what Modernism looks like, exactly. Now I’m going to do the same to Postmodernism. After all, if you can’t distinguish between the two, do you really know what they are? And if you don’t know what they are, you’re going to find […]
Posted in Leisure, Studying | Tagged Creative Writing, English, English Literature, Final Year, Postmodern, Story, Third Year
Modernism Explained: Spellbound
Posted by Richard in English on March 11, 2014
Please enjoy this short story about Modernism, written in the Modernist mode. *** He is going to a lecture about Modernism. It’s complicated, he thinks, But I want to understand. A butterfly is circling in the air like a half-remembered dream. At that moment the steps to the Attenborough Building plaza resemble the teeth of […]
Posted in Leisure, Studying | Tagged Creative Writing, English, English Literature, Final Year, Modernism, Third Year | 1 Response

Post War to Postmodern: Scream
Posted by Richard in English on March 3, 2014
I’ve been putting off this one for a while. Why? It’s hard to explain. Perhaps I feel more comfortable when the authors I’m studying are dead — or long dead. I like the Victorians. They’re dead. I like the Augustan poets. They’re dead. I like the Middle Ages. They’re definitely dead. If you were writing […]
Posted in Essay, Studying | Tagged English Literature, Essa, Essays, Final Year, Post War, Postmodern, Third Year

Victorian to Modern: The Importance of Being Earnest
Posted by Richard in English on February 10, 2014
It had to happen some day. The Victorians had to shake off the shackles of respectability and give in to the social forces of modernity. They had to cast away their inhibitions and go skinny-dipping, and so forth. This is where I come in and point out that, yadda yadda yadda, the Victorians weren’t so […]
Posted in Exams, Studying, Uncategorized | Tagged English, English Literature, Final Year, Modernism, Third Year, Victorian Literature, Victorian Studies
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