Bloggence, Cunning, Exile

Another semester in Taipei

Busy at the start of a new school year. I'm teaching 3 classes:

* Current Events discussion in English.
Students study a news article of their choice and practice talking about it in class. This leads to my ranting about how we're all going to hell in a handbasket. It also keeps me up to date on what the heck in the world is going on. Just in case you want to know.

*Survey of British Literature for English Minors
600 years covered in 16 class sessions! From Chaucer to Salman Rushdie, using the Norton Anthology "Major Authors" edition. It's like trying to taste 100 wines in 1 day, so the students pass out, inebriated by poetry. Minor league though, lit lite.

*Graduate seminar on trans-atlantic interconnections in literature. Transnational emphasis in new literary studies, transforming American Studies. Main books are Paul Gilroy's _The Black Atlantic_ and Paul Giles' _Virtual Americas_. One idea is that culture flows and interacts regardless of national boundaries. Nationalism was the disease of the 20th century (see WWI and also WWII). Nearly all of American lit is transatlantic is some manner.

Meanwhile there's the publish or perish pressure. I'm supposedly "writing a book" about something. But first there's a paper to prep for the big conference in Philadelphia at the end of December. I'm presenting a paper about Henry Adams and science. "The Proto-complexity of Henry Adams". I'd tell you a lot more, but I haven't written the essay yet. Then there's the faculty study group about globalization and culture to keep up with.

posted by E. Heroux @ 11:21 AM