This book recreates in written form seventeen of the most popular, frankly personal and engaging lectures on literature given by the award-winning teacher Richard Jacobs, who has been working with students for over forty years. This is a book written for students, whether starting their studies or more experienced, and also for all lovers of literature. At its heart is the conviction that reading, thinking about, and writing or talking about literature involves us all personally: texts talk to us intimately and urgently, inviting us to talk back, intervening in and changing our lives.
These lectures discuss, in an open but richly informed way, a wide range of texts that are regularly studied and enjoyed. They model what it means to be excited about reading and studying literature, and how the study of literature can be life-changing - perhaps even with the effect of changing the lives of readers of this eloquent and remarkable book.
By:
Richard Jacobs
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 390g
ISBN: 9780367189341
ISBN 10: 0367189348
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 13 February 2020
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
,
A / AS level
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction The myth of the Fall and its impact: Pullman, Lewis and others Claribel’s story: a few thoughts on gender, race and colonialism in The Tempest Wuthering Heights: myth and the wounds of loss Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: transforming lives Great Expectations: intertextualities, endings and life after plot Emily Dickinson: ‘And then the windows failed’ Emma: rhetoric, irony and the reader’s assault course Dorian Gray: ‘queering’ the text The Fallen Woman: Emma Bovary and (many) others Two transgressive American women: Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman Hamlet / Lear: realism / modernism John Keats: three (or is it two?) poems and thoughts on ‘late style’ Republicanism, regicide and ‘The Musgrave Ritual’ Jean Rhys: her texts from the 1930s Twelfth Night: Dream-Gift Please read Proust Paradise Lost: radical politics, gender and education
Richard Jacobs is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Brighton, School of Humanities, where he was subject leader for literature and Principal Lecturer for many years and where he received teaching excellence awards. His publications include A Beginner’s Guide to Critical Reading: An Anthology of Literary Texts (Routledge), Teaching Narrative (Palgrave), chapters on the 20th century novel (Penguin and Palgrave), editions for Penguin Classics, articles on literature and the teaching of literature, and several reviews.
Reviews for Literature in our Lives: Talking About Texts from Shakespeare to Philip Pullman
This is a beautifully-written book that makes the study of literature an adventure that should matter to all of us. --Sean McEvoy, author of Shakespeare: The Basics and Tragedy: The Basics In this intimate, accessible and passionate book, Richard Jacobs shows us why reading literature matters and how it can change our lives. -- Will Norman, University of Kent Richard Jacobs' lectures give personal warmth to critical expertise. Literature in Our Lives is a wonderful model of how to think about literature. This book provides an approachable introduction for beginners and a stimulating companion for advanced literary scholars. -- Rachel Trousdale, Framingham State University The studies published here, while impeccably rigorous and forensic, have a deeply appealing thread of personal memories and enthusiasm...Literature in our Lives is a reminder of the best tradition of literary criticism, an ongoing conversation, and recalled for me the memorable lessons, tutorials and lectures that helped me to find the place that literature has in my own life. I would warmly recommend the book to anyone wishing to see the kind of directions literary discussions can take. Malcolm Hebron, The Use of English 72.2
