Spring Break?

So it's "spring break" but I'm still in my office, most of the day, trying to catch up on grading and other administrivia. You know what I'd love? A healthy four-hour chunk of class preparation. Now THAT sounds like fun. (I know, I know, my life is pathetic.)

This is my rebellion against "the system," against "the man": I'm catching up on reading blogs that have gone unread for nearly a month. And (in these short, sad paragraphs) I'm contributing my (admittedly unimportant) voice to the blogosphere.

What's happened: we've made our hires, and we did indeed hire the cute girl--scratch that, wonderful potential colleague--we interviewed earlier in the semester. I'm psyched. I spent a lot of time trying to recruit her to campus, even though she's not exactly in my field, and I think we'll be great lovers (er, scratch that, colleagues) in the future.

Just kidding!!!

Nervous Energy

I'm teaching a text today that I don't know well. This always happens in the survey as the semester moves on. I wonder if my life would be different if I were, say, and eighteenth-century specialist who taught the first half of the survey: in that case we'd be moving all semester into material I would become more and more comfortable with. Because I'm at the "beginning part" of the "second half" of the survey I quickly crescendo to my favorite and best-understood material... and then find myself in the midst of modernism. We're not there yet, so I don't have to freak, really. But why did I put Swinburne on the syllabus?

Candidates in Town

Like many English Departments, mine is doing some hiring. (I've been obsessively looking through the Chronicle's forums and the wiki trying to find out what people are saying about "us," but no luck so far.) We have a candidate in town today, and I met with her after teaching my class.

She is very cool! Which is the following correct response to a job candidate's visit to your institution?

a) This person can be my friend
b) I can't wait to have reading groups with this cool person
c) She is hot and I want her to be my girlfriend
d) She will be a great teacher
e) Yuck! Don't hire her!

Of course I'm only using the pronoun "she" as a place-holder, and I'm not saying that today's candidate is actually a "she." Of course he might be! I'm just trying to keep things anonymous here.

My own answer, based on the teaching interviews and a coffee I had with her/him today would be: b) and d). She/he isn't hot, although quite charming, and anyway I think that might be an inappropriate reaction in any case. And I don't really see him/her as a friend, although that might come. (I'm quick on the draw with potential romantic partners, but somehow friendship takes a bit longer with me.)

Anyway, good luck to all the job candidates out there. It's a tough market, but I can tell you from my vantage point of having been highly successful on the job market that it's worth the effort. I love my job! Yay me!

It's all about the stories...

Where did this last week go? That's a rhetorical question, since I know where it went. I've been hanging out (and am doing so now!) in a campus-area coffeeshop, just enjoying myself and watching the world (read: attractive people) go by. There are so many stories out there.

My younger brother has a saying: "it's all about the stories." That sentence seems to justify the most unjustifiable behavior (mostly revolving around drinking, followed by uncouth acts performed in public).

But I've been considering what makes successful teaching, and I think I can summarize it with what my brother says: It's All About The Stories. I use stories--stories about Dickens and his dick, or Eliot and Other Georges, for example, to structure lectures in which I try to convey information about my period and its literature. And I use personal anecdote. Sad to say, when I was a grad student instructor, not only did the students enjoy it when I would delve into my personal history, but would seem to remember more of that than the so-called "subject matter" of the class. I really, really believe that what's crucial in what I teach (which includes factual information as well as ways of reading and writing) comes across most successfully in narratives that capture attention.

Now, as a good poststructuralist, I'm wary of narrative, which inherently leaves gaps, fissures, aporias. Narratives are grounded in what old-fashioned critics call "point of view," and although I think I'm omnipotent, I wouldn't claim to be, say, the omniscient narrator of Adam Bede. So my stories, themselves, are only partial, and I have to remind myself (and my sometimes adoring students) that this is the case.

But for all of you--(I'm trying to spark some debate and therefore some traffic on this site)--what kind of stories work and don't work in your classes? How can narratives--about your subject matter or from your subject positions--be used to site knowledge? And can we do this without making unfair impositions upon our students' insecurities (let alone attention span)?

clarification

Okay, in response to all the comments I had on my last post. It's true that at this point my bisexuality is largely theoretical: it's a way that I position myself for political, social, and academic purposes. When I was in high school, I ran cross-country (it was the easiest sport to get away with, and participation in at least one sport was mandatory at my fascistic school). One of my teammates, Zeus (as he called himself) slathered up my back with ben-gay one afternoon to help me relax a few muscles that had tightened, and I do believe he got off on that. So that's sort of close to an actual experience. So I don't have any current boyfriends, but I'm contemplating putting an ad in craigslist and seeing what happens.

Regarding my "poly" relationship. Well, LSW did catch me about six months ago--I had met a woman at a bar one night and couldn't help myself. We ended up smooching, right there (I know, stupid, stupid, but fun). It was only that--a bit of kissing. But one of LSW's colleagues was there, unbeknownst to me, and that colleague ratted me out. LSW was not understanding (and I don't blame her for that). She suggested I find an apartment, that we might be able to work things out in our marriage, and our family, if she didn't have to see my ugly mug (and, yes, she used those words) on a daily basis. I do see the kids every day, though. And I'm hoping LSW will take me back soon. As is, though, I have been taking advantage of my "freedom." I don't generally have sex with other women (I have a mortal fear of exchanging bodily fluids), but I love sucking face.

Okay. I just felt I needed to clarify things a bit, as my last posting may have been misleading. I'm looking forward to doing more of the "real work" of the blog in upcoming days--I want to talk about my interests in academic work, in the life of the university, and in the "real world" outside our plastic ivory tower. (I call it a "plastic ivory tower" because only pianos made many years ago use real ivory. The plastic veneers on most keys are just fine, and my university, a converted "normal school," is more than just fine, and I want to use this blog to think about what it does as an institution, and what we do as its teachers.)

out with it

Okay, I'm going to come out with it: I'm bi, and poly, but in a committed relationship with a woman I'll just call "Long Suffering Wife" (or LSW, for short). Yeah, we're married--did it originally for health benefits but now we've kind of grown used to it. LSW lives here in town, although in a different house, and we spend a lot of time together as a family (since we have two kids). I'll detail my complicated domestic relationships in another posting--a little at a time, I say to myself, the turtle wins the slow race.

LSW is a colleague, too, in another department, and we can expect that she'll "guest blog" here on occasion, as she's perhaps even more opinionated than I am!

I'm itching to get to substance, rather than exposition, but it will have to wait.

waiting for school to start up

What should a conscientious assistant professor of English like myself do while waiting for the semester to start up again? We begin on the 22nd, and I've already got my syllaboi in place and my books all ordered. (Got it done in October: Yay Me!). I'm teaching a survey of British literature from 1789 to the present, a class on "Victorian Squalor" for upper division students, and a sophomore writing seminar. (I was smart enough to get some professional work--and some training--in technical writing, which made me very appealing to Midsized U.)

So I have a couple of options, and I'd be interested in getting the views of the entire blogosphere (or at least this tiny corner of it: professor bloggers with expertise in the literary fields): should I a) revise an article I've been trying to work on for six months? b) work on my book proposal (natch, a revision of my dissertation), or c) kick back an enjoy a couple of stress-free weeks?

Success at the MLA

Hi--let me introduce myself. I won't use a real name, but I will call myself by my pseudonym, the Self-Congratulator. Basically, I will use this blog to discuss major political and intellectual situations and ideas, all with a trademark enthusiasm and brilliance. I hope to make the blogrolls or many other famous bloggers. The pinnacle of success would be making the blogroll of Michael Berube, although I have some other favorite bloggers, including Bitch, PhD and Dr. Virago.

I want to say here how much fun I had at the MLA in Philadelphia (yes, I'm yet another assistant professor of English investigating this fascinating "new media"). I met some of the most famous faculty members across the disciplines. and a full professor in my sub-discipline at any Ivy League university told me she had read my work--and found it useful. Yay me!!!

Classes start here at midsized U, my employer, in a few weeks. Before then, though, I hope to let all of you in on that little thing called "my life." This is going to be an exciting ride!