Author Archives: quicklytothepanopticon

Monk Maps!

Posted on September 18, 2021 by quicklytothepanopticon

We’re reading The Monk by Matthew Lewis in the Gothic Seminar class I’m teaching. Space is an important element in much Gothic fiction, and it is very significant in The Monk. I asked my students to draw maps or cross-sections … Continue reading →

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Posted on September 4, 2021 by quicklytothepanopticon

I’m returning to this site after a long absence mostly as a place to post the reading list for my Senior Seminar course on The Gothic. I’ve had a few people on the Twitter machine request it, and I thought … Continue reading →

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The Experience of Reading Poetry Part 2: “vex one like dronings of the shuttles at task”

Posted on March 9, 2017 by quicklytothepanopticon

In my last post I discussed Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “Lady Lilith” and how the experience of reading the lines actually mirrors the poem’s content. Another excellent example of a poet using the form, in this case repetition and specific diction, … Continue reading →

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“soft sleep shall snare”: caught up in the language of poetry

Posted on March 7, 2017 by quicklytothepanopticon

One of my courses this semester is knee-deep in Victorian poetry. One way that I’ve been trying to dig in with my students as they try and tackle what is often very difficult work, is to focus the actual experience … Continue reading →

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2016 Books

Posted on January 8, 2017 by quicklytothepanopticon

Every outlet in the world has been doing their best books of 2016, which I skim voraciously and make superficial notes of. I figured I’d add my voice to the mix with the stuff I’ve read this year that I … Continue reading →

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“in your sphere”

Posted on December 31, 2016 by quicklytothepanopticon

By Chapman & Hall – Heritage Auction Galleries, Public Domain, Link Had Trotty dreamed?  Or, are his joys and sorrows, and the actors in them, but a dream; himself a dream; the teller of this tale a dreamer, waking but … Continue reading →

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You had me at “the empowerment of human beings as language-using creatures”

Posted on January 5, 2016 by quicklytothepanopticon

I’ve just started reading Danielle Allen’s Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality. I saw Allen speak at Loyola University Maryland’s “Democracy and the Humanities Symposium” last September. Her presentation “On Participatory Readiness: Why … Continue reading →

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Folkways in Thomas Hardy (a cursory review)

Posted on January 26, 2015 by quicklytothepanopticon

A big chunk of my current research project is centered on Thomas Hardy’s novels and folklore. Hardy famously utilized various folk-customs and beliefs throughout his work. They function in a variety of different ways, as literary devices such as foreshadowing … Continue reading →

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The return of the return of the blog

Posted on January 25, 2015 by quicklytothepanopticon

I’m knee deep in teaching and research, which clearly means I need to distract myself from those noble goals to talk to the void of the internet. The reading I’ve been doing for a current project has really struck me … Continue reading →

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Slang, rhetorical situations, and a ridiculous school policy

Posted on October 16, 2013 by quicklytothepanopticon

The inimitable Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing has linked to a BBC news story about a school in Croydon (South London) that has banned students from using slang. Here is the original article and here is Cory’s post. Students … Continue reading →

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