My First Week of 2012

I have been wanting to post for some time now, but every time I am at my computer, I think I should be working. And really, I should because I have a draft due tomorrow and my article which is getting published at the end of the month - *stressed* However today being what it is, I thought I would get the ball rolling with a post about the new term. Last week was the first week of classes, and boy did I have a few surprises in store for me this term. As I mentioned before, I am only teaching one class because I need to have time to work on my own work for a change. So imagine my surprise when I find out that my class has been capped at 8 students! 8 students for a survey literature class? What? Come to find out that the campus I am teaching at has too many students on it at any one time, so they capped the classes. Now most teachers would love this because of course it means fewer papers to grade, etc. And for that reason, I do love it. But it does change the dynamics of  a class. I am used to lecturing to a room full of people, not just the front row. So far, though, I am adapting to it well. My students seem eager to learn, interested, and willing to participate. Admittedly, I have been distracted with my own work this month, so I am relying almost entirely on my materials from last semester. Not to worry, I have a plan to work all weekend with the aim of evaluating my lesson plans. The other surprise I had on the first day was the the publisher who bundled my course books this term bundled the wrong anthology! My students said "professor, it says American Literature on it" - what? This is the first time I have gone through the publisher directly and I am more than a little disappointed. So off to the university bookstore to sort it all out. Of course they have to return the bundles, order new items, and our first novel - Frankenstein - is on back order! I am hoping it gets shipped this week or I may have to do some reshuffling on the syllabus. In other news I am still trying to figure out a schedule that works for me - taking into account a new campus, new parking situation, and new office (but I still have my old one too). In spite of all this, the past two classes have gone quite well, and I was surprised to learn that many of them are either English majors or contemplating an English major (this is often not the case with a survey class).

In addition to the above-mentioned deadlines and work, I have been slowly preparing to apply to a couple fellowships that would allow me to conduct some summer research. I do not have time to go into it right now, but if all turns out well - I could spend up to a month in the Rushdie archives! That would be so cool - in a nerdy kind of way.

I admit that I could have used my winter break much more productively than I did. I am not sure why, but I was in a kind of slump. Things are much better now - I think I am affected by the whole winter dark/cold thing more than I realize. Anyway, I just finished a new book on my nightstand - Arranged Marriage by Chitra Divakaruni. I also wrote about her novel Palace of Illusions here. Arranged Marriage is a short story collection, and a very well-written one. It does kind of remind me of Jhumpa Lahiri (although I think Lahiri has slightly superior prose). Basically each story traces an arranged marriage (mostly between Bengali Indians). Unlike Lahiri, however, it includes Indians from many socio-economic classes. Most of them involve diaspora characters (living abroad in the "west"), but some stories reach across the world to India or Pakistan as well. They are very beautifully written, and I feel they capture the nuances and complexity of relationships - showing a range of realities and probing the cultural parameters of arranged marriages. I would highly recommend this collection (be warned - some of these stories are quite sad).

And now I think I am ready to move on to the monster waiting on my nightstand - A Suitable Boy. 1488 pages long and written by Vikram Seth, it poses a unique reading challenge to me. I will keep you updated on my progress through this tome of literary genius. Now, back to work!