What is Literature?

I've decided to begin this post with a "shout out," i.e. a brief note of gratitude, to my professors at William Jewell College (who will almost certainly never read this blog). Regardless, I think my friends and family who are keeping up with some of my adventures at Oxford might be interested to know how (so far) I find the difficulty and subject matter of the academic work to compare to my classes in the States.

     I went to a lecture today that is "strongly recommended" for all of the first-year English students. The title of the lecture was "What is Literature?" (hence the title of this post). Essentially, the speaker gave a brief description of several different literary schools of thought (new criticism, russian formalism, reader-response, ect.), and outlined the rise of literature as a category of academic study, much in the same way that Terry Eagleton does in his book, Literary Theory. Anyway, the point I want to make is that I've already been thoroughly taught everything that was covered in this lecture by my professors at Jewell. In fact, I had even read most of the excerpts from texts that the speaker cited during her talk.
     Of course, this is not to say that I have nothing more to learn at Oxford or that I feel advanced beyond all of the lectures I have attended, which is not at all the case. For example, yesterday I went to three lectures that all introduced new complex and stimulating concepts about specific literary works, genres, and formal techniques. The lecture I attend this afternoon, "What is Literature?," was different because it was directed toward first-year students who are new to collegiate literary studies. Any third year English student at Oxford would certainly be expected to find this lecture to be a review of concepts he or she already understands, which is why I think it's important for me to express how grateful I am every time that I sit in a lecture and realize that my professors at Jewell have indeed prepared me for my studies at Oxford. I am able to engage with the more complex, specific lectures because I already have a firm understanding of the basics of literary studies and literary criticism.
     I've found my studies at Jewell over the past two years to be incredibly stimulating and rewarding. However, I did not realize before how well prepared I was becoming for my future literary studies. I had assumed that coming to Oxford would be a little bit like starting from scratch. But it's not. I've realized that I already possess the fundamental academic knowledge to enable me to jump straight in to deep, challenging literary studies. I'm certainly not trying to suggest that my studies here will be a breeze. I can tell already that I'm going to be consistently challenged and that I will learn a ton in this year. At the same time, I feel confident that the experiences that I've had in my tutorials at Jewell over the past two years have made me well-equip to take on these challenging lectures and tutorials at Oxford. This year is going to be especially invigorating and rewarding precisely because I've spent two years cultivating the skills that I need to get the most out of my studies at one of the best universities in the world, and that is entirely thanks to my professors at Jewell. In the end, I just wanted to express how exciting it is to realize that I really am prepared for Oxford (something that I've been doubting for the past two years), and how thankful I am that I've had the chance to study under such brilliant, caring, and inspiring professors at Jewell, who have prepared me for the incredible opportunity of being an Oxford student. And I know that when I return to the Hill next fall, they will be there to help me synthesize and expand my understanding for one final year, which is also an encouraging thought. Access to good education is such an amazing privilege, and I do not ever want to take for granted how extremely fortunate I am to be studying at Oxford this year and how blessed I am to be a William Jewell College student as well.

Now, moving on to other incredible, though slightly less academic, things. Have I mentioned that Oxford is about the most beautiful city that I've ever seen? I took some more photos around the city this week:

Below is a photo of the library that I studied in for several hours today. Unreal, right?

Every Wednesday and Friday night Mansfield hosts "formal hall," which are fancy meals that you have to sign up for online several days in advance, and there are only 70 places, so they sell out pretty quickly. It's quite a bit more expensive than normal cafeteria style dinners in hall, around 8 pounds instead of 3 pounds. However, it's a served, three-course formal dinner including dessert, and the food is excellent. If you were to go to a restaurant, the same type of meal would cost at least twice as much, probably a lot more. Something else about formal hall, gowns are required! Carl and I attended formal hall on Friday night, and here we are before the dinner, in our gowns:

The gowns mainly just seem to blend into everyone's outfits. Most people don't like them. I think they're kind of neat though. Here's a photo of a big group of us, mainly first year British Students + Carl, Heather, and Me, right before we went into the dinner:

Dinner itself: 

I sat next to two British freshers, Ollie and Tom. They're both really nice!

I certainly won't be attending formal dinner every week, but it'll be a fun occasional treat and a good way to make new friends!

In other news, my first official day of  rowing practice is Friday, at 6:50a.m. Yes, A.M. This term is especially for novice rowers, so everyone in my boat (there will be eight of us) have never rowed before. There are practices twice a week on the river and once a week at the gym. Here's a photo of the rowing tank session that I went to on Sunday.

Clearly, the tank session is not "real" rowing, as it is not on the river. It's a cement "boat" in the middle of a pool of water at the gym that is specifically for practice. Because the boat is stationary and has space to walk in the middle and sides, rowing instructors are able to help more closely with technique, and you don't have to worry about balancing the boat. I'll try to take some photos of real rowing on the river soon and post them, to show what I will soon be doing!
During first term, sports (like rowing) aren't taken particularly seriously. It's mainly a time for new students to try them out and decide if a certain sport is worth dedicating a lot of time to. I thought rowing would be a good way to make more new friends, and a healthy study break from academic work a few times each week. I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Tomorrow at 11:00am at Pembroke College, I have my first real tutorial for Modern Japanese Literature! I think it's going to be a really good course. My tutor is enthusiastic and a leading scholar in the field. I still have a couple articles to read and some reviewing to do before tomorrow though, so this is the end of my blog posting for now.
Next time, I'll try to write about my Japanese language and writing classes that have just started up and about the clubs and organizations that I've been introduced to. One of the hardest things about Oxford so far is realizing that I'll never have enough time to get involved in all of the worthwhile activities that the University and the city have to offer!

Thanks for reading!

p.s. Lucas, I've taken your advice on the bike safety gear! My helmet and backpack are now quite reflective! You can see me coming from a mile away at night :-)
And it's so sweet of you to want to send me love at Halloween time!
Here's my address:
Paige Bolduc
Mansfield College
Mansfield Road
Oxford
OX1 3TF
United Kingdom

However, I think mail can be quite expensive, so if it turns out that you just want to send me caring thoughts via the web, I will be still be more than grateful!