I have always had a fondness for the personal literary analysis. The kind you see in novels. Someone is talking about a work of literature, but they’re really talking about themselves. In my opinion, all literary analysis is personal. Nobody picks a subject of study unless they’re not just interested but invested in it. Yes,…
Tag: reflections
Rebirth: The Day I Became a Writer
We often mark time in our lives with rituals and rites of passage. Moments of birth and rebirth. Baby showers, weddings, funerals. There were a couple of years in junior high school where many weekends were taken up with b’nai mitzvot for friends or family members, followed a few years later by sweet sixteens. We…
It’s Caturday and We have Questions: Distractions
So Erika (a.k.a. Human-Mom) was doing some typing the other day with her three cats sitting on her like tiny royalty. Every time she tried to reach the keyboard it seemed like there was a cat’s butt in her way. Distractions, am I right? Such are the tribulations of a writer. And yet. Erika loves…
An Archaic Concept of Me
Incremental Delivery #2 Editor’s Note: This is the second “Delivery” in the series. If you would like to catch up, you can do so here. The opening: I was young; I was anxious; I was bound to an archaic concept of me. She smoothed my mind and body with her sunny day thoughts and yoga…
London Letters #4: “That Serene and Blessed Mood”
This was to be my final letter; the one in which I told you what it’s like for me, as a scholar of 16th and 17th century English literature, to visit Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. I hardly mentioned Shakespeare in my dissertation; but my connection with his writing goes back to childhood. Being able…
I’m Queer. Please Pass the Peas?
By Erika Grumet A few weeks ago, a thirteen year old I know showed up at my house wearing a t-shirt that read:“Bisexual Trash Panda.” Even before I was a parent, I knew adolescent sexuality pretty well–years of teaching about HIV and STIs, contraception and LGBTQ101 gave me a lens into that topic long…