Yesterday my online classes started again. After a week without classes, I am now easing into the second period of this year. If I think about how fast this year is going I almost cannot believe it. Even though I follow my studies online, I am so busy every week and I do not have many days off. From this month I decided to work fewer hours at work to make sure I keep my sanity and so that I have more time for schoolwork and for myself. I still need to plan things ahead, but I hope that it will be a bit more manageable. In today's post, I wanted to talk about the next courses that I'll be following, and also talk about the books I'm required to read.
Okay so first let's start with the courses. As so all (hopefully) know by now, I am studying English language and Culture and specialising in literature. The first year of my studies is already set, meaning that every first-year student follows the same course. In a year we follow a total of 8 courses, of which 4 were literature last year, and 4 for linguistics (aka grammar and the 'science' of language). I wasn't that good in linguistics and it was not something I wanted to specialise in so I choose literature. As the book nerd that I am. In the second year of my studies, I had to choose one of 4 specialisation programs (2 devoted to literature and 2 to linguistics). In every period I need to follow the course that belongs to the specialisation that I've chosen. Besides these courses, I needed to fill the other four. Two are totally free, so I could follow a course on psychology or history if I wanted that (I didn't, but you get what I mean). The last two needed to be filled with two research courses that fit the specialisation. One of these I followed in my last period. So here you have a summary of my studies, I hope you get the concept.
The course I will follow from my specialisation program is called "Adapting to the novel". This is a course that goes into the way books are adapted into a film. So for every week I must read a book and watch one or two films that have adapted the novel. I am excited to follow this course because it sounds very interesting, but I'm also a bit scared because I have to read a lot and also watch the selected films. Which seems as if it will take a lot of time. We are starting the course on Peter Pan, so I've already watched the old Disney film of 1953. Which was interesting because I remembered it differently from when I watched it as a child.
The books (and films) that I must read are:
- Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (Disney 1953, Hogan 2003)
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Giles 1983, Rozema 1999)
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Stevenson 1943, Fukunaga 2011)
- Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Coppola 1979)
- Trainspotting by Irvin Welsh (Boyle 1996)
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Kubrick 1971)
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre (Alfredson 2011)
This is already a pretty long list, so I hope that I'll be able to read everything. It will be a challenge though.
I also decided to follow a free course on Irish Literature (this course is from the other literature specialisation program). I wanted to take this course because my tutor recommended it to me because I want to follow a Celtic literature course. So, this would be a good combination of both. I am a little afraid because we have to do presentations and I am not really good at that. Also, we follow this course online, so I am a little sceptical on how well these presentations will go. But we will see I guess.
The books I will be reading for this course are:
- Translations by Brian Friel
- The Playboy of the Western World by John M. Synge
- A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man by James Joyce
- Company by Samuel Beckett
- Milkman by Anna Burns
For this course, I will be reading more but those texts will be distributed by the course teachers. Which means that they probably won't be entire books, so that's why I don't put them on this list. I am happy that some of these books are not too long, so I have hope of completing this reading list. But still, it's a long list.
I will definitely put reviews of some of these books on my blog. I'm especially excited for Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park, so I'll be sure to review those. If you're want to hear my thoughts on other books of this list, let me know and I might review those too!
See you soon,
Julia
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