(no subject)
Jan. 13th, 2010 02:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedlamsbard*flails* OMG, I forgot how much fun it is to have classes I actually care about. I'm sure I had a really disturbing expression of pure joy on my face all through Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization from Constantine and the Crusades, because omg omg AWESOME. And Art and Mythology in Ancient Greece! I love ancient Greece this much. And the Romans. I never knew the Romans were this awesome. And we're talking about the decline of the Roman Empire here, so -- omg omg omg.
Still kind of ambivalent on Natural Resource Conservation, although I'm relieved that the public service is really tightly integrated with the class, since it's one of the older public service classes, and thus does not require me to work with small children, but instead with the National Forest Service or Fish and Wildlife or something along those lines, we'll see. I'm hoping for the Park Service, myself, since I think that might be the easiest to get to without a car.
Medieval England, yesterday morning, made of awesome; my professor is adorable and Scottish and excited about her subject matter, and medieval England! Starting at the tail-end of Roman occupation of Britain and carrying on from there. Then I have a three hour break between that and Early Major Authors: Edmund Spenser, which I actually really hate -- on MWF, I have all my classes over with by one o'clock, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Medieval England at 9:30-10:45, and then Spenser and Fairy Tales from 2:00-4:45, and I hate it, I hate it so much, I hate having late afternoon classes with the fiery power of a thousand burning suns, and I really hate that three hour break, because I just don't know what to do with myself (yes, I know studying is the answer, and that is probably what I'll do if I don't futz around with my schedule). Spenser also seems like it's going to be really cool, although I am pissed about the $63 giant edition of The Faerie Queene we had to get, but that rant will follow in a moment, but I am kind of weirdly ambivalent about Grimm Reckonings: The Development of the German Fairy Tale, which you'd think I'd be all over like white on rice. Like, here is the course description:
GUYS. The construction of childhood. Children's literature as a category defined by the audience! The concepts of epic, fable, and myth! The folklore of childhood! Why am I not flailing about this like I should be? Instead I am just kind of blah about the class, which makes no sense, since the professor seems really excited and the syllabus looks really interesting -- lots of different versions of fairy tales (German and otherwise), a fair number of movie screenings, a visit to the Disney exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art. It might just be because it's a late afternoon class, and by late afternoon -- I don't handle late afternoon well; I work about five times better if it's in the morning, which is why my MWF classes are all mornings. I am vaguely considering switching this class for History of Islam to 1600, which is in the hour and a half before Spenser and would have me done for the day by 3:15, but still -- fairy tales. Fairy tales! (Both of them count for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, so no choice there. Fairy Tales is in Germanic and Slavic Studies, History of Islam is in History.)
And then there is the book situation. Oh, gods, the book situation. I have thirty textbooks. THIRTY. I have only been able to get four of them used from the bookstore, I currently have three books out from Howard-Tilton Library, and two of them new from the bookstore because I need them immediately and the library doesn't have them. I need thirteen books for Fairy Tales alone, which isn't helping with my attitude towards the class. My Natural Resource Conservation textbook my professor has kindly told it is okay to get illegally online if we don't want to buy it, and it is mostly up on Google Books, so I probably won't bother getting that one, and the rest of my books I'll order online, somewhere cheap and used. Anyway, I don't have that much of a problem buying my enormous amount of Byzantine and Medieval England textbooks, because did I mention made of awesome? But there are THIRTEEN BOOKS I need for Fairy Tales. Thirteen! THIRTEEN. So -- that's not helping with the way I feel about the class. And none of them are used; the only used books came out of, I think, Byzantine History.
Also, yesterday was my twentieth birthday.
Still kind of ambivalent on Natural Resource Conservation, although I'm relieved that the public service is really tightly integrated with the class, since it's one of the older public service classes, and thus does not require me to work with small children, but instead with the National Forest Service or Fish and Wildlife or something along those lines, we'll see. I'm hoping for the Park Service, myself, since I think that might be the easiest to get to without a car.
Medieval England, yesterday morning, made of awesome; my professor is adorable and Scottish and excited about her subject matter, and medieval England! Starting at the tail-end of Roman occupation of Britain and carrying on from there. Then I have a three hour break between that and Early Major Authors: Edmund Spenser, which I actually really hate -- on MWF, I have all my classes over with by one o'clock, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Medieval England at 9:30-10:45, and then Spenser and Fairy Tales from 2:00-4:45, and I hate it, I hate it so much, I hate having late afternoon classes with the fiery power of a thousand burning suns, and I really hate that three hour break, because I just don't know what to do with myself (yes, I know studying is the answer, and that is probably what I'll do if I don't futz around with my schedule). Spenser also seems like it's going to be really cool, although I am pissed about the $63 giant edition of The Faerie Queene we had to get, but that rant will follow in a moment, but I am kind of weirdly ambivalent about Grimm Reckonings: The Development of the German Fairy Tale, which you'd think I'd be all over like white on rice. Like, here is the course description:
This course examines fairy tales in the broader context of children’s literature and the construction of childhood. Students will investigate different cultural inflections of canonical stories (e.g., “Bluebeard,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella”), explore how the tales evolved as they were appropriated by a literary culture, and identify strategies for reinterpreting fairy tales and producing a new folklore of childhood.
We will also look at the origins of some of the most popular tales (investigating the concepts of “epic,” “fable” and “myth”) and discuss how the transmission and translation of the works led to changes in the reception of the stories.
The degree to which the voice of the child is suppressed or authorized will figure as an important concern. Questions concerning the relationship between author and audience will be especially acute, since children's literature is a category defined by its audience and since children are generally excluded from the official production of texts. The second half of the course will contextualize our understanding of fairy tales by addressing what is at stake in producing children’s literature, in constructing the culture of childhood, and in developing theories of child-rearing and education. The course concludes with a discussion of contemporary children’s literature and of efforts to rewrite fairy tales or to produce a new folklore of childhood.
GUYS. The construction of childhood. Children's literature as a category defined by the audience! The concepts of epic, fable, and myth! The folklore of childhood! Why am I not flailing about this like I should be? Instead I am just kind of blah about the class, which makes no sense, since the professor seems really excited and the syllabus looks really interesting -- lots of different versions of fairy tales (German and otherwise), a fair number of movie screenings, a visit to the Disney exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art. It might just be because it's a late afternoon class, and by late afternoon -- I don't handle late afternoon well; I work about five times better if it's in the morning, which is why my MWF classes are all mornings. I am vaguely considering switching this class for History of Islam to 1600, which is in the hour and a half before Spenser and would have me done for the day by 3:15, but still -- fairy tales. Fairy tales! (Both of them count for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, so no choice there. Fairy Tales is in Germanic and Slavic Studies, History of Islam is in History.)
And then there is the book situation. Oh, gods, the book situation. I have thirty textbooks. THIRTY. I have only been able to get four of them used from the bookstore, I currently have three books out from Howard-Tilton Library, and two of them new from the bookstore because I need them immediately and the library doesn't have them. I need thirteen books for Fairy Tales alone, which isn't helping with my attitude towards the class. My Natural Resource Conservation textbook my professor has kindly told it is okay to get illegally online if we don't want to buy it, and it is mostly up on Google Books, so I probably won't bother getting that one, and the rest of my books I'll order online, somewhere cheap and used. Anyway, I don't have that much of a problem buying my enormous amount of Byzantine and Medieval England textbooks, because did I mention made of awesome? But there are THIRTEEN BOOKS I need for Fairy Tales. Thirteen! THIRTEEN. So -- that's not helping with the way I feel about the class. And none of them are used; the only used books came out of, I think, Byzantine History.
Also, yesterday was my twentieth birthday.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-13 10:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-14 02:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-14 03:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-14 12:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-14 03:01 am (UTC)SO MANY BOOKS. *twitches* (I just wish I knew where my copies of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Wizard of Oz were, because I know I had them at one point in my childhood.)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-14 04:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-14 03:06 pm (UTC)Man, if there was any Robin McKinley on the syllabus, I would be set, since I have all her books except A Knot in the Grain, and I just want an excuse to buy that.
Huh, have you read Malinda Lo's new book Ash? Retelling of Cinderella with a male fairy "godmother" and Aisling/Cinderella falls in love with the royal huntress instead of Prince Charming? I read it over break, and I really liked it.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-01-15 01:15 am (UTC)