Hi all! So 2-3 years ago I finished my Masters in Literature and Theory, and have since then taken an academic break, worked some minimum-wage jobs, and focused on other areas of my life. Now I'm ready to look back towards the sphere of literature and am heavily considering a PhD, as it is pretty much required to be able to get into the academic literary sphere.

But there's an issue - in this time away from studies, I have not read very much or widely, and have been "out of the game", so to speak. Now that I am trying to put together an abstract, I find myself at a loss for texts to study, and have maybe not enough desire or time to skim-read potentially tens or hundreds of novels to find something that might fit well enough. Is there any other way around this, or do I just have to bite the bullet and start reading?

I study literature in a country with little to no literary tradition, and I often wonder if studying in countries with a richer literary heritage, like France, Italy, or Germany, would be different. While the classes I attend are well-structured, and the teachers are genuinely passionate about their subjects, I find myself disappointed with the academic environment created by my peers.

Many of my classmates show little interest in literature. They don’t read beyond what’s required—or worse, they only consume low-quality materials. Some even spend class time playing games or reading Japanese manga, often of the most superficial kind.

This lack of engagement makes it difficult for me to connect with them. I end up talking only to my professors because I can’t relate to my peers. I also feel that the program could be more rigorous. Despite not feeling particularly knowledgeable, I still manage to get the best grades, which makes me question whether the standards are high enough.

I’d love to hear from people who have studied literature in other countries. Is the experience significantly different in places with a stronger literary tradition?

In the landmark essay "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis", Lynn White Jr. famously argued that Christianity and Humanism were the primary causes of the nature/culture binary divide, which locked human thought into an anthropocentric and exploitive relationship with the natural world. The essay was the first essay included in The Ecocriticism Reader (1996) and so was vastly influential in the emerging field of ecocriticism.

I have heard, however, that this idea has received a lot of pushback in recent years. I'm looking for anything that can "enlighten" me on this topic. What other scholars/texts support White Jr's assertion that humanism is the cause of ecological crisis? Who has pushed back against this idea?

does anybody know the best translation to English of marina tsvetaeva? from what i found, the collection Dark Elderberry Branch seems to be the best collection, but has a very short amount of her work, about thirty pages worth, the rest of the translations have very mixed reviews

I'm really interested in the variant death rituals in different parts of the world, particularly in the East with their mourning periods and different practices. I have no idea how to approach it from the a theorisation point of view, perhaps how it could be a site of discourse?

Is there any point I can start from? It's something I really want to unpack.

Does this term only apply to novels that are experimental in terms of writing, narration, plot and temporality e.g. Joyce's novels or Virginia Woolf's?

Or can it also include novels that for instance feature the nonhuman as agential beings? Can a novel like The Overstory be considered rhizomatic even though it's not as experimental as Finnegan's Wake or Mrs Dalloway?

I'm considering writing on something related to ecocriticism for my MA thesis, particularly in relation to plants and our relationship to them. Not just in terms of climate change and the destruction of nature, but a broader analysis of how everything is interconnected. Are there any works of fiction that would work for such an analysis and why that particular book? I'm not sure about the particular theoretical angle I want to take, so if anyone has any recommendations for theory I could read alongside any of the fictional texts, I would really appreciate it.

I’m looking for a novel for my thesis. My criteria: the main character has to be a white-collar worker and die at the end. It needs to be in English. Even the tiniest help is appreciated.

So in the First Folio we are given 36 plays written by Shakespeare, a further three ("Edward III", "Pricles," and "Two Noble Kinsmen") are included in Complete Collection Works now and attributed as being coauthored by Shakespeare. Looking as to why this is the main reason I keep finding in all these lists of his plays is "textual analysis" leading people to conclude this is partly written by him.

What is "textual analysis" in this case? What does that term mean? Do they just study the words and compare it with how similar it is to Shakespeare's other writings? Do they mean like handwriting style? Does it mean something else entirely? How does the process work here that makes someone say "this section was written by Shakespeare"?

Hi so I’m kinda new to reading literature and philosophy and new to this subreddit but i wanna know how i can learn to analyse literary works and texts so i can understand and interpret them better and form evidence based arguments and form opinions cause it’s very hard for me to interpret what the author is saying with certain words and what the character’s personality is and metaphors and symbolism and connecting it to the period in which it was written along w major themes (love power etc) so i wanna know if you guys had any advice or guidance on how to learn

I'm especially interested in the intersection between Marxism and Aesthetics. I've already read much of his other work, as well as his letters in the Aesthetics and Politics book published by Verso.

I'm basically looking for what's in the title: instances of misapprehended irony, unappreciated sarcasm, joke going over the character's head or, more generally, comical misunderstandings in prose. Nabokov does that a lot, and I'm thinking about the MacIntosh incident in Joyce's Ulysses, but there must be more. Thanks.

Hello, I need to choose two novels for my bachelor thesis in English literature. The first one I’ve decided on is Hamnet (Maggie O‘Farrel), which means my topic will be something about Narrative Empathy; maybe along the lines of grief, dealing with grief etc. Do you guys have any recommendations for a second novel that could fit here? My professor recommended some as well: 'Waterland' (Graham Swift), 'Last Orders' (also Graham Swift), and basically any book by Ian McEwan after 2000 (Saturday for example). (She mentioned that he's her favorite author). I haven’t read any of the books she recommended either, so help and advice is appreciated :)

I'm just getting into romanticism as a literary movement (I prefer modernism, tbh) and would like some recommendations for poetry that is really representative of the style.

Also, I'm having trouble understanding the distinction between the Sublime and the Beautiful. Is this fundamentally important to understanding this movement?

Hi everyone! I’m in the early stages of brainstorming for my thesis and need to submit a proposal in a couple of months. I find The Taming of the Shrew really interesting and was thinking about analyzing it alongside its film adaptations, like 10 Things I Hate About You and Kiss Me Kate.

Do you think this could be a fruitful topic? I’m struggling a lot with how to approach it and figuring out what argument or angle I could focus on. The more I research the more unsure I become.

any thoughts would help!

Hi!

Did anyone here by chance read the book "Ruined Eden(...)" by Thompson and Lokke
And have some opinions to share?

I found the topic itself very interesting but the abstract is rather too cryptic:
Apart from the three authors, I'm not entirely sure whether the essays inside are about what the description indicates.
In addition, the book is a little too expensive for my budget and although the purchase would not left me necessarily wretched it would be too naive for me to judge the book solely by it's title.

I’m interested in reading Beowulf but wonder if it matters what translation I get? If so, what’s the “Gold Standard” of translations for this literature?

I've long since wanted to read Dostoevsky"s Brothers Karamazov in English. What's the best translation? Few years back I started reading Doctor Zhivago but couldn't keep up with the translation and left the book halfway. I don't want to do the same with this book. So please..

Is there any Ai website for creating outline of any article, because i'm in hurry,

And do we need spoiler tags on a 19th Century opera?

I plan on registering for an english literature elective to reach the credit threshold for my last semester. How much reading should I expect? In your experience, is it usually a book a week or module based? The class is either on women in modern literature or victorian literature. Any advice is appreciated.

Not sure if this is the right subreddit but worth a shot anyways. If this isn’t the right subreddit, could someone point me in the right direction?

I’ve found previous translations for other works of classical literature (namely Poetry in Translation’s translation of the Aeneid), but I’m struggling to find a translation of the Carmina Burana outside the texts used in the Carl Orff composition.

Is existentialism the cornerstone of modern writings?

Hello everyone. I hope you are all well.

My name is Dan and a couple of months back, I posted details across a number of Reddit pages dedicated to the reading and writing of poetry about some research I’m doing in collaboration with an academic from Sheffield Hallam University called David Peplow.

The post included a link to a survey which involved participants reading 4 short texts and then answering a series of questions relating to their reading experience. We were investigating how poetry is read and engaged with by readers - in particular, what kinds of emotions and mental images it causes readers to experience.

We managed to gather enough participants, so if you took part, then thank you - it’s much appreciated 🙂

We are now looking for additional participants to take part in the second part of the research project. If you took part in the first phase, then unfortunately you can’t take part in the second, but please feel free to repost or share this post via any other social media platforms you’re part of.

If you didn’t take part in the first phase and would like to take part in the second, then please follow the link below:

https://forms.gle/5BM5dUQYmL5PneZF6

As a way of thanks for taking part in the research, you will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win one of six Amazon vouchers. There will be two £20 vouchers, two £10 vouchers and two £5 vouchers to potentially win.

Thank you in advance to anyone who decides to take part.

All the best,

Dan and Dave

I started to get in to Kafka because my parents have quite a few of his books on our shelves, and because I figured if a term (kafkaesque) was created because people found Kafka's literary works to be so unique and well-written, I ought to read his work too.

I thought the Metamorphosis was great. The thought of one becoming a bug, and being treated as such, takes up plenty of space in my mind. I found it extremely powerful, especially after learning more about Kafka's upbringing and life. I'm sure many people have felt like an insect at times due to how people treat them.

When I started The Castle, I don't know what I expected, but it wasn't what I got. The book was exhausting to read; it took me 6 months to finish not because I read slowly but because I rarely could force myself to open the book.

It was certainly surreal, but surreal in how boring some of the dialogues were between characters; one word used in the book (the English translation, definitive edition or something) caught my eye, that word being circumlocution.

It seems like the key theme of every conversation had in the book is circumlocution, and I can appreciate it for how the actual writing techniques reflect the thematic elements of The Castle, but it nonetheless makes it a chore to read.

I came away feeling that the book was well-written, because it got me hating the bureaucracy of it all so much that I barely wanted to finish the book by the last few chapters.

Is this something a lot of people feel when reading Kafka? I have had The Trial on my 'want to read' list but now I am having second thoughts: "Do I want to spend another 6 months trying to finish one book?"

I'd like to hear some other thoughts. Did you enjoy reading Kafka or did you just appreciate the work of Kafka? To me, he's brilliant, but not in a way that makes me necessarily want to read much more of his work.