#lit. recontextualised

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

been some radio silence from me, i apologise! i've been pretty unwell for the last few weeks and am only really just back on my feet.

i've submitted all my assignments for this half of the semester, and i had a test yesterday which i think went okay. literature recontextualised is going well -- my professor is incredibly lovely and completely happy to work around my illness which is amazing. she's been the best with it so far of all my lecturers (to the point of making a private zoom class for me because i missed something important!).

i have a tutorial for gothic lit. tomorrow so i'm catching up today with a lecture and finishing up the book we're studying right now (justified sinner, james hogg), and i'll have a little bit of work to catch up with next week -- which i have off!! -- just to get myself ready for the second half of semester. we start up again with carmilla, though! which i'm incredibly excited for, because it's possibly my favourite novel of all time? in any case, we have a good selection, like jekyll and hyde and dracula as well, so right up my alley.

the cold has kicked in, and so i'm a lot more tired and sore already, and i've definitely slipped in my work but i'm hoping i can keep up once i'm more used to the weather.

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

okay! busy time recently

so we had my partner's birthday on saturday, where we went of a picnic and it was lovely (photos to come!), and then sunday we had an event at our local museum called medieval family day.

at the medieval day, we went to a talk by my medieval studies lecturer, and then wandered around (we got to do tapestry weaving!! very fun, i might try it at home...). there was also a showing of the princess bride, which was super fun! overall a good day, tainted a little bit by some ableist stuff about me being in a wheelchair (fun fact: asking someone in a wheelchair why they're in a wheelchair is a shit thing to do, and definitely don't follow up with a 'can you walk?')

then we were due to have a flat inspection today (so everything is clean and tidy!), but unfortunately our property manager is ill, and so it's been postponed til a (as of yet unknown) future date.

i have two assignments due at the end of the week, one is finished, which is a character analysis thing for chaucer, the other i'm still procrastinating (whoops) and is a passage analysis for the castle of otranto.

unfortunately i spent sunday night and most of yesterday feeling like utter garbage (yay for doing waaay too much). i spent sunday evening curled in a ball of exhausted pain for several hours before spending the entire night feeling like i might throw up, which was great fun and we love that for me, and monday morning was slightly better (as in i could walk) but still shit.

plans for this evening are to make a plan for the passage analysis -- pick themes to focus on and make an outline ect, maybe pick quotes, and then tomorrow actually start writing, then i'll finish it up thursday.

and finally! thursday is my birthday! i'm actually not super excited, i haven't had a good birthday in a few years (since... 2019, i think?) so i'm really just. waiting. it's just another year, i guess? dunno. i'll be going to visit my parents though, which will be nice.

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

okay! three lectures down for english lit recontextualised! still on chaucer -- though shakespeare's sonnets are next -- it's all been really easy, so i'm hoping that the tutorial is more interesting? really we've just been going through the text, and i get that it's helpful for people who haven't done middle english before, but also, i'm bored and i want more information. going to ask for extended readings, i think, because i want more!! it's good though, i studied sir orfeo last year and so i'm familiar with middle english as a start.

going to a museum after my tutorial too! catching up with my sister and my grandmother, and going to wander around for a bit! will try to take some photos (might bring a sketchbook and try to draw too?)

[flowers-ferns-and-feathers]

oooookay! two lectures down for week one!

literature recontextualised was more admin than work, though we got to start with chaucer and had a recap/introduction to middle english, as the paper has a mixture of people from first to third years and some haven't dealt with middle english before. i know all the lecturers, and i'm looking forward to the content though i need to kick my ass into gear and get further through the reading list. less notes were taken here than i'd like but most of the lecture was stuff i solidly know and will remember so i'm not too upset.

gothic literature was great!! i was pretty much vibrating in my seat for the entire lecture because it's one of my special interests and autism go brr. we were specifically talking about the context for the gothic and it's content and history. a wider list of texts were brought up and i've read most of them already. almost the only ones i haven't are ones we're studying, which was fun. there's actually an extended reading list in my course outline specifically focusing on academic texts which is awesome and i'm going to comb through our library and see if i can find them. i took pretty solid notes too which i'm happy about!

i didn't go to today's lecture in person, nor will i go to tomorrow's (i'm very tired and i'm in a fair amount of pain, so i think having some days off will be good). i took good notes for both, and i feel good and prepared for the semester.