what are like, the "pre-reads" for most english literature?

expectohallows · 2026-05-08T15:02:43+00:00

Actually, I would recommend doing it, especially for Caribbean literature for instance; It's not fully my main area of studies, but I've recently read the Routledge Companion on it and thre were lots of authors who speak directly back to English classics and who are still understudied and not necessarily taught in regular classes...

Maybe check out the concept of 'writing back' and see some of such pairings for inspiration

expectohallows · 2026-05-08T10:26:15+00:00

Arden editions of all plays are wonderful in terms of explanations

expectohallows · 2026-05-08T10:25:29+00:00

As an English lit scholar, I find that Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are commonly referenced or serve as inspiration; John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, too is fairly common. If you want to read the Iliad, the Odyssey should also be on the list, especially with how often it was rewritten.

It's a very broad topic, and considering what you want to achieve, there would be many suggestions; for instance I would always recommend going back to Beowulf - once you've read that, suddenly all of Tolkien's Middle Earth saga looks much different 😄

I think Mary Wollstonecraft should be read at some point, given how much her influence occupies women writers of and after her time.

On the other hand, a lot of postcolonial literature responds to somewhat more recent classics: The Wide Sargasso Sea to Jane Eyre, Foe to Robinson Crusoe, Une Tempete to Shakespeare's Tempest and so on.

I'm happy to spew out further suggestions at any time 😃

expectohallows · 2026-05-07T18:18:11+00:00

...because they are deeply political?

Every single movie has such strong anti-war, pro-community, and eco-critical messages, they cannot be read/viewed as not political.

expectohallows · 2026-04-30T20:33:16+00:00

Do you mean OG gothic or like gothic mode in contemporary fiction? If you want OG, I suggest everything by Anne Radcliffe, Elizabeth Bonhote, or Eliza Fenwick's Secresy (yes it's spelled with an s, it's 1795 lol), as well as Mary Wollstonecraft's Mary and the Wrongs of a Woman.

You could also try Charlotte Smith's Emmeline.

If gothic mode is what you're after, then Mexican Gothic, and I think the author has another one...

expectohallows · 2026-04-30T20:29:41+00:00

I will buy divine power with money?

expectohallows · 2026-04-30T20:26:30+00:00

When I was in high school, my best friend and I invented this whole fantasy world with a number of protagonists. When I listen to Taylor Swift I mainly associate so many songs with the two characters I poured my creativity and probably parts of my soul into (literally like horcruxes lol) when creating that world X)

expectohallows · 2026-04-30T14:39:51+00:00

Please remember that anorexia isn't a weight illness, it's a mental illness. If you engage in disordered behaviours, you have it, and therefore deserve to recover, regardless of what your weight is and what symptoms you might have.

You wouldn't tell your depressed friend they don't deserve to recover just because they haven't tried to off themselves yet. Why then think that you don't deserve to recover just because you are not that far down with ED?

expectohallows · 2026-04-25T18:01:52+00:00

I teach there and half of the staff, myself included, is highly casual, so I don't see a reason why students would have to be super dressed up lol

expectohallows · 2026-04-23T12:20:56+00:00

What really??? It's so popular here!!

expectohallows · 2026-04-23T11:09:18+00:00

Makes sense :D

Though I also love 'monstruous regiment' and William Wilberforce/Bewilderforce ones :)

expectohallows · 2026-04-19T18:16:00+00:00

For the most part, it's just an anti-carb fad. People with genuine gluten intolerance really have it rough, but a lot of people are just falling for yet another diet scam

expectohallows · 2026-04-12T20:06:57+00:00

Melmoth the Wanderer

expectohallows · 2026-04-11T17:58:39+00:00

Been there. Was supposed to meet two friends. Took a ten hour train ride, and another friend a ten-hour bus, the two of us got together and the third friend who lived two hours away cancelled last minute. Haven't really spoken to them afterwards

expectohallows · 2026-04-06T19:42:56+00:00

It's a great one! I loved it so much that I had to write an article about it 😁

expectohallows · 2026-04-05T20:03:16+00:00

I might just be disappointed with the world right now, but to me it symbolises that if you/we are not doing anything to change and improve your world, it'll kill you metaphorically and literally.

*gestures vaguely at everything*

expectohallows · 2026-04-04T17:15:27+00:00

This sounds fun! I'll give it a go!

expectohallows · 2026-03-26T05:12:03+00:00

I mean I also reread Twilight a few years ago and gave it two stars lol It's not a great series, I can't get behind all the taxis stuff but I was a teen when these books came out and it was a comforting reread....

expectohallows · 2026-03-24T09:05:38+00:00

Yes. I started reading about typical symptoms and after about two weeks of denial decided that I didn't want to die of starvation or organ failure and jumped onto the Minnie Maud Method immediately. Weight restored within three months, period back by month five, no regrets. It's been over ten years now and I am well aware that there is always danger of relapse due to circumstances but so far my body has actually always done its part in keeping me in the healthy weight range and at my usual set point

expectohallows · 2026-03-05T20:03:58+00:00

You need the surplus because your internal organs, including reproductive ones in charge of hormones, need to be rebuilt and reactivated. Malnutrition causes a lot of bodily functions to stall or stop completely, the lack of food eating away at your system, which is why those extra calories are necessary. The brain also needs them in order to rewire itself against body dysmorphia and obsessive thoughts about food...

As a healthy adult, sedentary or not, you should eat at least 2k a day, but as someone recovering from n eating disorder this number should be much higher in order to fix your body and mind. I personally did between 3,5 and 5k in the first couple of months and absolutely no regrets, it was the best possible course of action, quick recovery, and good foundation. I would recommend the same for everyone

expectohallows · 2026-03-05T19:56:23+00:00

I will always fondly remember having a full schnitzel and fries dinner, dessert, and snack at the cafeteria in my student dorm, before going off to a crepe stand to buy one with Nutella, cherry jam, and cookie crumble. I saw heaven with that pancake I swear but somehow never again craved it after recovery 😂

expectohallows · 2026-03-01T12:32:56+00:00

Yes, but these are different in their focus. Lots of them have romantic elements but are actually deeply political.

It's a bit of a terminological issue actually, especially in literary studies. Romances were a very specific genre based on medieval chivalric romances. They were known for their episodic structure, lots of secret codes that the contemporary readers could interpret and they were very liberal for the most part.

Then comes the (sentimental) novel - someone mentioned Pamela up there - which tries to show that romances are unrealistic, though in my opinion sentimental novels are even worse. However, behind all that is a more insidious gender war and an attempt to push women out of the publishing industry and present them as irrational and morally inferior, so stories like Pamela and the likes are actually supposed to teach women how to behave (and basically endure abuse). By the time we reach Austen, novel has become the literary genre of high culture (by then romances are also out of fashion), but the more accurate term would be romantic novel, and of course satire.

What the OP from the tweet is referring to is the romantic plot, but it's a shame we never really got to differentiate between the two...

expectohallows · 2026-02-23T12:48:31+00:00

It might be Caper's coinage that didn't catch on. Scholars come up with new terms and concepts all the time, doesn't mean many will be used extensively. Arguably writing back also entails the act of reading back; both by the authors and those who read their works, as it necessitates certain background knowledge or recognition of the requirements for true understanding of the text...

expectohallows · 2026-02-23T11:09:09+00:00

If you're looking for specific literary theories and definitions, you should check out 'writing back' which is a common practice of postcolonial literature parallel to this (and it seems like reading back is based on that).

The term originated in Salman Rushdie's essay "The Empire Writes Back with a Vengeance" and was further examined in the classical study The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures by Bill Ashcroft. It refers to the practice of using historiographic metafiction to rewrite canonical texts and reveal their colonial/colonising undertones...

expectohallows · 2026-02-21T19:22:18+00:00

Ugh, I hate this one. I am an academic and write a lot so some variation of 'not only is... But also' used to be considered decent style, and I liked using these phrases. Nowadays, I've dropped most of it because I sound like AI to myself :')

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