Two Weeks of Classes Remain
Today marks the two-weeks-remaining point of the school year. In two weeks, I’ll be finished classes. This is crunch time! When I look at my calendar, the list doesn’t actually look so bad:
Class Period:
- March 24th: Canadian Literature Quiz
- March 25th: Censorship and Fiction Presentation
- March 26th: Scandalous Life Term Paper
- April 3rd: Censorship and Fiction Term Paper
Exam Period:
- April 6th: Canadian History Exam
- April 14th: Restoration and 18th Century Literature Exam
- April 14th: Canadian Literature Term Paper Due
- April 22nd: Scandalous ife Exam
Yes, Scandalous Life is actually a legitimate course at my university, hehe. Between Scandalous Life and Censorship and Fiction, I’ve read more shocking novels than I ever thought I would! Now when people scan over my bookshelves, they’ll look kind of shocked that books like Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure are there.
This one situation was actually kind of hilarious. The other day in Canadian Literature, I had one of my novels from Censorship on the table because I was planning to go to the library after class to work on my presentation. The book I’m studying is Dirty Weekend. Apparently, this is a cultural term that refers to a weekend getaway that a couple (most likely adulterous couple) take for the pure intention of convenient sex. I had no idea until I was researching. The novel isn’t about this at all – it’s actually more of a feminist text about a woman who has always been manipulated by men. She ends up revolting against her passive role and murdering any man who tries to manipulate her.
So I have a book with this title on my desk, and the cover looks very much like a horror / action flick movie, with a woman holding up a gun with expressive eyes. The professor came by to talk to my group in seminar, and I saw her eyes glance at the cover of the novel and judge me, haha.
Really, I think some of these professors are too concerned with what is “literature” and what isn’t. While I was disgusted with a lot of the content within Dirty Weekend and it isn’t something that I would choose to read on my own, there is a lot of interesting discourse in the book. It’s really interesting in relation to the topic of censorship, and discussing what is culturally acceptable and what isn’t. If you limit yourself to the Literature section of the bookstore, you could be missing out on some great texts which can expand your perspective . That section is so arbitrary anyway.
I went to the library today and worked on the presentation with my partner. Today is going to be focused on finishing Les Liaisons Dangereuses for my Scandalous Life term paper. Yay for being somewhat scholarly.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:54 am
I guess reading different kind of books does expand our own perspective a little. Literature is in a way a psychological study. I myself have done Eng. Hons (3years Graduation) in which I had to read the most terrible things. I don’t understand why your professor would judge you when you are actually doing what they want us to do. Research on our own. The topic was censorship, what did she expect?
March 21st, 2009 at 8:28 am
Man, your classes sound interesting. I wish I could take literature classes like that! Good luck with it all!
And fellow English majors unite! XD