All art is quite useless

There has been an incredible lack of all the posts I wanted to do thanks to my modules starting up this year. I attempted to do a vlog, but all that is audible is laptop noises, so this will need to be fixed. Anywho this is the first free(ish) evening I've had to actually write about studies, rather than study(ish, I should really be writing about The Cherry Orchard). 

Some of my books arrived today prompting this update...

This year I'm taking Children's Literature and 20th Century Literature and figured I'd tell you how I came to pick them. Sorry for the crappy iPhone photos, my camera is still broken from China (and yes I will get to those too...)

Last year my favourite part about my broad lit module was the 20th Century, something that I never thought would be as I've never been interested in modern history. However I discovered I am a BIG lover of colonial and post colonial history and texts and everything that encompasses modernity. So this year, it really was not a hard choice on what to do. The 20th Century is such an exciting time for literature as new techniques are being tested, revolutions are occurring, empires expand and shrink, audiences are changing, classes are changing. EVERY happens in such a short space of time and I know that know a days there are a lot of technological and other discoveries but nothing compared to how it used to be in such a short space of time. It's such a key time period that contributed to us now that there's nothing not to find fascinating. Geek over on that one.

The reason I chose Children's literature was kind of a last minute choice to be honest, it was between that and Advance creative writing which I had also registered interest for. Last year I did the first Creative writing module and it sucked the life out of me. I don't know if it's because I didn't get on with my tutor or because I felt it should have been either a) really structured or b) not at all. Like surely to get a good mark you need to have a structured assignment requirement so you know what you should be writing to get the marks for, rather than a very open, 'Write about one of the following prompts in autobiographical form, of make up your own'. I wrote to them and suggested they do a genre focused assignment, like, write a short horror story, using the conventions you have learnt about. Because then you could use knowledge you have learnt and apply it and it can easily be graded. If you're being asked to just write something I don't see how that can be marked fairly for every individual student. I might sound bitter because I got a low grade, but I didn't, I just think it's a very subjective module that needs to be fine tuned.

Rant over, long story short, I picked Children's lit instead. I still feel like a kid myself, I still read books that are aimed at 'young adult' or children themselves, I'm not ashamed to admit it. If you haven't read The Power of Five series by Anthony Horowitz, you are seriously missing out. I'm actually really looking forward to this module, it's half literature, half childhood studies. I get to look at Locke and Rousseau yet again!

Read this, seriously. I had to wait 5 years for the last one to come out. 

Anyways small update. I am planning on writing about the books I study as I study them and also doing a round up book review. Aside from working and studying I've been sorting out my room, catching up on all the tv online. Patiently waiting for Supernatural to start and getting hooked on Game of Thrones. I guess I should get back to Chekhov/clearing my bed of everything in the world.

PEACEEEEEE

LB