(no subject)

[icarus]

I got my books for school today. My World Literature professor looks to be a twisted sort, reading list:

Heart of Darkness
God of Small Things
One Hundred Years of Solitude
The Bone People
... and one other I can't recall.

This is gonna be cheery.

Comments

[cursive.livejournal.com]

This isn't a bad list at all - Heart of Darkness is not so bad if you remember when it was written and how many books, changes to writing style, films, etc it comes before. I'd never claim to enjoy it, but it is interesting.

God of Small things is smart and well written. I don't think it's brilliant, I'd rather read Joyce, Rushdie, Naipaul, Rhys and the other influences on her, but it's not bad.

I adore the GGMarquez book, it's one of my favourites.

Kerri Hulme is a very singular choice for an American college reading list - I couldn't be more surprised. I've taught a course that included this (it was a co-convened course with a World Lit person) and in general the students found it hard to get into. But it's a book that would have to look and feel very different in the U.S. than in Australia.

Love to hear what the other one is, just for interest's sake.

PS. It always amazes me to see the immense difference between reading lists in Australia and the States, which is mostly less about the texts -- the above combination could definitely happen in Australia -- but the amount of reading. Here a lit course usually has one book per week, and two if it's a two lecture course and they're not long novels. No wonder American students are shocked when they come here on study abroad.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm rather relieved myself. This is a night class and I suspect half the people in it are working full-time as they go to school. In Buddhism you may spend a year studying two works, the Dom Sum and the Bodhicharyavatara and feel as though you skimmed them both.

It's all rather dark though, don't you think? Never been a big fan of Joyce myself, I lean more towards the whimsy of Lewis Carroll. Though even Carroll I find rather cynical, despite the fact he was light for his time.

Icarus

[cursive.livejournal.com]

I'm a big Joyce fan, although I don't like A Portrait however much I appreciate its role in the history of Lit in English. I think you have to come at Joyce the right way - I was lucky to have a great Joyce teacher.

Dark? Well, Marquez and Small Things contain humour, and I think it's only healthy to laugh at Heart of Darkness but yes. The thing is, like most World Lit courses this is a course partly on the literary aftermath of European colonialism and thus there's a lot of dark.

Don't forget to tell me what the other text is, I'm all curiousity about it.