The critical reading lectures have certainly been challenging and has no doubt broadened my reading material which up until now has been limited to fiction with the odd biography and history book thrown in. I can't say I will be diving into these texts for fun but there is a certain redeeming factor to them that have added excitement to what is out there in terms of theory and philological thought.
In truth, I'm not sure I understood all the texts, some where just outright confusing and offered no light of a conclusion and so it was left to me to decipher a meaning, a point, a reason. I believe sometimes I failed and I tried to write about my experience of reading the text rather than the text itself as a way of still trying to communicate. Over the 10 weeks there were highlights, in particular Ginsberg's "Howl" and Waugh's "Decline and Fall" - both I really enjoyed reading and will definably encourage me to read more of its ilk.
I'm desperately looking forward to writing my dissertation next year, the last dissertation I wrote was possibly the best academic experience of my life, I did think it was the best thing I ever wrote (until I read it a years later and turns out my dissertation about Julia Margaret Cameron's use of feminine beauty in her work was actually just one big love letter about the woman herself, but even so, it was great to write).
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