I mentioned earlier that I had applied for a summer seminar on decolonizing comparative rhetoric. I want to read some articles that might be relevant to this topic before then, but I have also come across some talks on YouTube that might help fill me in on the conversation. This video, for instance, is a lecture by LuMing Mao, a famous scholar in comparative rhetoric:
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Homework for ... some point in the near future
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Interview with Jonathan Lerner, author of Lily Narcissus, published
bookish.asia has published an interview I did with Jonathan Lerner about his new novel Lily Narcissus. I had fun talking with him about his writing process and how he does research for his writing. As someone who isn't a fiction writer, I'm fascinated by the differences in how their novels come together. Lerner used the word "unconscious" a few times, telling me, “I only found out what was going to happen to these characters as I unfurled the story.”
The interview is accompanied by some nice color slides of Taipei that Lerner's father took between 1957 and 1959, so check it out--and then buy his book!
Thursday, October 13, 2022
Jhumpa Lahiri video about writing in Italian
This video about Jhumpa Lahiri gets into her experience of writing in Italian; I think I'll suggest it to my first-year writing students. One thing she says that I found interesting and might inspire some conversation is this:
I like being at the beginning again as a reader and as a writer. I like that I'm limited. I like that I only have a certain vocabulary and certain tools, and I can only go so far. That appeals to me.
I wonder what my students might think about that perspective...