a first!

good news! check out this table of contents for a forthcoming book on adaptation and pedagogy:

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Deborah Cartmell

Introduction
Dennis Cutchins, Laurence Raw and James M.Welsh

Section 1: Mapping the Field
How To Teach Film Adaptations, and Why
Thomas Leitch

Section 2: Adaptations in the Classroom
Frankenstein’s Monstrous Influences: Investigating Film Adaptations in Secondary Schools
Nathan Phillips
Adapting Composition, Arguing Adaptation: Using Adaptation in the Composition Classroom
Natalie Jones Loper
A Monster Course and a Course of Monsters
Anna Bennion
Oh My, They’ve Killed Socrates! Teaching Adaptations via South Park
Katrina Bondari
Sighting the Whale and the Rights of Man: Teaching with Film Adaptations of the Novels of Herman Melville
Robert McParland
Teaching Adaptation via Intertextuality: The Stepford Wives, Post-Feminism and Avant-Garde Cinema
Walter Metz
Life Without a Primary Text: The Hydra in Adaptation Studies
Jennifer M.Jeffers

Section 3: Adapting in the Classroom
Pedagogy in Intermedial Adaptations
Freda Chapple
Adapting Wilde for the Performance Classrom: No Small Parts
Frances Babbage
“It Must All Change Now:” Victor Hugo’s Lucretia Borgia and Adaptation
Richard J.Hand
Never Seek to Tell Thy Love: E-Adapting Blake in the Classroom
Richard Berger
Adaptation and Creative Writing: Brokeback Mountain on the London Underground
Mark O’Thomas
Towards a Pedagogy for Teaching Adaptation
Laurence Raw and Sevgi Şahin
Writing the Adaptation: Teaching an Upper Division Course for the Screenwriter
Diane Lake

Section 4: Adapting the Classroom
Why Adaptations Matter to Your Literature Students
Dennis Cutchins
Adaptability: Questioning and Teaching Fidelity
James M.Welsh
Teaching Adaptation, Adapting Teaching, and the Ghosts of Fidelity
Peter Clandfield
Whose Life Is It, Anyway? Adaptation, Collective Memory and (Auto)Biographical Processes
Suzanne Diamond
The Numbers Game: Quantifying the Audience
Alexis Weedon
Teaching Radio Drama Adaptations
Elke Huwiler
The Pleasures of ‘Theatre Film’: Stage to Film Adaptation
Milan Pribisic


my first publication!! what, what?

A couple more thoughts

It's fast sunday. I wish I were better at fasting. I mean, I do it. And I even believe in its power. But I don't feel like I often (maybe ever?) get the experience Isaiah describes. We're giving it another try today. Which makes me happy.

I turned in a paper. I'm a little bit tender about it. I'd really really like it if my prof liked it. But I don't feel great about it--I don't think that I made the argument in the end. I pretended like I did, but I didn't really. I'm pretty sure my prof is going to pick up on that and it will probably confirm that prof's worst fears about me. Sigh. Just when I'm recruiting teammates. Sometimes it stinks to be one's only teammate. Good thing I'm fun.

I reread part of my master's thesis because I'm returning to some of its ideas. Was pleasantly surprised by the writing.

How did I miss the "know all the cool music" boat? I am very uncool when it comes to music.

I'm not loving my blog colors I don't think.

Two Thoughts

I'm cheating right now because I'm not supposed to be on the internet. I'm supposed to be writing my papers. But these thoughts just keep bugging me and I want to stick them someplace so that I can come back to them later. Also, I suspect that the reason they are in my brain right now, begging to be thought about, is some form of sneaky procrastination. And then when I don't have papers to procrastinate they will promptly leave. This way I'll have them for later.

1. What kind of scholar am I? What kinds of questions are interesting/important to me? What is my academic constellation of ideas/stakes?

2. Writing is hard. I had something cool about this earlier today and now it's gone. Maybe it'll come back... oh well! I'm sure it'll return as I still have things to procrastinate.

PCAACA

Following our tradition, Brooke, Alexis and I went to the Pop Culture Conference (feel free to join our yearly party; next year St. Louis and a baseball game). This year it was in New Orleans and we had a great time. New Orleans is a crazy city--kind of Disney Land + prostitutes and voodoo and bourbon. We hung out with our professor and walked around the french quarter, ate some beignets (lots of powdered sugar), saw some great street performances, ate some great food, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Oh, and we presented papers and didn't even really get attacked this year during the Q&A (which was a first--it almost didn't feel right). And we attended some panels. And one of the presenters in our panel *almost* wore a Frankenstein mask while reading his paper.

We really missed Lizzy G and Sarah--next year, girls!

Here are some picture highlights:

Some pretty sweet street performers.

Me, Alexis, and Brooke at the Mississippi R.

Trying on masks

Us and Cutchins at the graveyard--they bury everybody above ground.

Cuties!

say hello to my little friend

I thought I'd get a little fresh air this evening. South Carolina is lovely in the spring. So, I opened the front door, minding my own business, and there he was. I changed my mind and went back in.

I think I've mentioned before that little green frogs chill around my front door. They freak me out. I was happy, though, to see this little guy today because I've been wanting to get photographic evidence. It took some courage to take these pics (hovering inside with the door cracked just enough to take it)--I was afraid he would jump at me. But, happily, he stayed put for the full photo shoot.



And don't even think that my fears are unfounded. One rainy day Melanie and Aimee and I were heading out to get some dinner. We were in the car when I realized that I had forgotten my wallet inside. My way back in the house was blocked by one of these guys (not this one, though, since he seems pretty tame). I opened the door really quickly, found my wallet, and was rushing back to the car when the frog JUMPED AT ME! Worst case scenerio! I screamed really loud and leaped off the porch. My roomies, watching from the car, were laughing too hard to defend me.

Tagged

For you, Sarah, anything.

In no particular order...

8 Favorite TV Shows.
1. American Idol
2. XFiles
3. Project Runway
4. Criminal Minds
5. 24
6. Biggest Loser
7. Gilmore Girls
8. Without a Trace

8 Things I Did Yesterday. (yesterday is a bad day for this)
1. Slept
2. Watch TV
3. Got crack from Sonic (ie. Diet Coke w/ Vanilla)
4. Jogged
5. Read chapter about Orwell
6. Wrote paper about Orwell
7. Made dinner (sort of)
8. Stayed up super duper late

8 Things to Look Forward to.
1. PCAACA in New Orleans
2. Beach this summer
3. David's wedding and seeing family
4. This spring break week--getting some studying done
5. Going to UT or wherever at some point to hang with my lovely friends
6. Santa Cruz this summer
7. Figuring out how to live in the UK and executing that plan.
8. Very, very cool 18C class in the fall

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Settebellos
2. La Fuente
3. Five Guys
4. River Cafe
5. Mac Grill and Mimis with my peeps.
6. Cheesehouse
7. PF Changs
8. Rodizio Grill
9. The Roof
10. Emilio's Pizza
11. Cafe Rio
12. Zupas

8 Things I Wish For
1. I lived closer to family.
2. I lived closer to friends.
3. I played tennis.
4. I were artistic in the painting/drawing way.
5. I had a well stocked kitchen.
6. I had a longer attention span and were a faster reader.
7. I had a job lined up for the summer.
8. I could fly.

Tag: my dears who read this thing. you know who you are xoxo

Happy St. David's Day!

Or, really, Hapus Dewi Sant in Welsh.

St. David is the patron saint of Wales and today, March 1st, is St. David's day! Wear your leaks and your daffodils, Cymru am byth, and many happy returns.

To celebrate the day, this blog would like to share the Welsh national anthem (as sung in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff before a rugby game) and some Wales photos.

the anthem (which I can also sing):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqtIlaHIqrs

Castell Caerfilly:

Countryside:
Caernarfon:
More Caerfilly
St. David's flag:

hobbies

i feel like i need more hobbies in my life. so, i'm going to brainstorm some hobbies, sleep on the list, and make a choice.

i could...

use this blog to write film reviews so i could be like this guy some day:



and at the same time i could actually be writing things that i might have to revise before posting. how weird would that be??

i already do quite a bit of reading, but maybe i could read this religiously:



and find some cool books not in the 19C. and then i could tell you about it on this blog and corrupt young gradstudent minds like octavia dreamed the other night.


i could ride this:


and then do triathalons, because i have always wanted to. except for that i need a bike first, but whatever. details.


i could... (i'm not posting more pics, but you get the idea)

*find recipes and prepare cool food
*get a calligraphy for dummies book and give it a try (always wanted to do this one, too)
*take up welsh again. (ok, this one needs a pic)
*i could learn to quilt (something else i've always wanted to do. i LOVE quilts)
*i could learn to draw (ditto)
*i could explore all the parks in south carolina

out of creative juices. and i need to go read.

will sleep on it (eventually) and let you know.

a new all-time low

ok, probably not really. i think i've been lower than this before. but still. i need to go work out. but i really have no motivation to do so. or to do anything, apparently, for that matter. i almost don't have enough motivation to post this post. but i am going to do it.

and somehow, i'm going to boost my motivation. i'm tired of living in the nothing. get me out of here. so, i think in order to break through the nothing i'm going to have to start doing daring things. so watch out.

crusade against procrastination

so, today was my first day back to school. i'm sad to say that my fight against procrastination wasn't totally successful. however, i did manage to go to the grocery store on the way home from class, rather than putting it off until later like i wanted to. and i started rearranging my room--something i also wanted to put off.

and this post is helping me put off finishing cleaning my room, sleeping, and finishing my lesson plan.

welcome to the new year

i notice that i follow lots of other blogs and never write on my own. pretty lazy of me. typical, really.

so, a few things on the mind:

1) secret: i really really liked the history of love. but i don't know that i loved it. well, maybe i loved it. but i don't know that i loved it as much as i thought i was going to. more on this.

2) when one says "i know something is true," what does that mean? i mean, i buy into it, for sure. i know some things are true. but what do i mean by that? what are the qualities/powers of true?

3) one goal this year: abdicate my dictatorship of procrastinators for life. i can do it. but it will probably take the entire year. this means using my time better. *sigh*

4) i probably have more goals than this one, though. that's just the big main one.

5) back to the history of love:

i guess i didn't know that i loved it until the end. i keep thinking about it, particularly about the parts that were the book the history of love. i feel like i need to read it again to really appreciate it. i thought the end was fantastic when the narratives come closer and closer together. and i thought the character of the brother and his role was great. and the style, and the different styles and how different they were, was amazing. and this is really crappy writing. i hope i can use more to be verbs and lame adjectives. one thing: i don't know how i feel about the "but." and "and yet." i also keep thinking about leo's need to be seen and watched. and the different relationships and threads and how they come together. it's pretty intense, thinking about it now. anyhow, my own writing is starting to embarrass me. so i'll stop.

qualified!

i am now officially a phd candidate.

the question i answered: which theoretical model do i think is most useful/important in studying 19C british lit?

questions i didn't answer:
compare and contrast romantic and victorian poetic constructions of the self. (nope--don't really do lots of poetry. also hadn't reviewed lyrical ballads)
how do issues of empire manifest themselves in romantic and victorian literature? (nope--had decided beforehand not to do the empire question in the event of one)


to do:
finish course work
get dissertation chair
publish something
take and pass language exams
take and pass comprehensive exam
write a prospectus for diss.
write diss.
defend diss.
get job.

my first romanticism conference

although i've been to a couple of conferences at this point in the gradschool career, i've never been to one that actually focuses on my primary area.

until october. i went to the ICR conference in MI. on the plus side, it was really great to see fall colors on the trees! i forgot how much i like the fall season and how excited it makes me feel at the beginning of the school year. also, i had a great time hanging out with grad students in my area from usc. and it was, of course, great to see nick--who was totally supportive as always.

on the other side, i can't even believe how stinking nervous i was to present my paper. i was really afraid that i might do something ridiculous in the middle of it--like cry, or wet my pants, or something. i didn't do either of those things, fortunately (go ahead and chalk that one up on the plus side). also, it just didn't feel right to be at a conference without brooke and sarah. and i discovered something rather unfortunate--it seems to me like i'm somewhere in gothic limbo land. i don't really know the 18C, but i also don't really know the 19C either. i really felt a lack of "expertise" in the romantic period, and as a result did not feel comfortable chatting with people about their projects--which was not that fun to find out as i'm hoping to both examinate and dissertate in that period. oh well! better go pull out the old poetry books...

booyah.

according to facebook

i am a reincarnation of ghandi.

for some reason (perhaps a fantastic, very busy, and emotionally exhausting weekend) this is so funny to me and i can't stop laughing. good old facebook quizzes.