As a second-year English Literature student, I can proudly say that this year I have read a lot of books. I made a particular effort to read (almost) all the texts this year, and, in doing so, each week became defined by the text I was reading and studying.
Here in Edinburgh, the second year focuses on “English Literature in the World,” spanning from 1380 to the modern day—a pretty ambitious task to cover in just one year. I enjoyed most of the works featured—some I expected to hate but loved, some I expected to hate and did hate, and some I just got through as quickly as possible.
The first text that defined my year was one that completely surprised me: Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale. Although it is a given that, as a literature student, you will most likely have to read Chaucer at some point in your academic career, I was still hoping to avoid it. However, as a complete shock, I adored it. The original love triangle is a simple romance: in classic chivalric fashion, the men fall in love at first sight, while the woman remains entirely unaware of their existence. I was struck by the aching language of the lovers and realised that some feelings really are timeless.
Towards the end of the first semester, Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews is a text that seems to dominate chatter among literature students, and not necessarily for a good reason. I absolutely hated it: I hated the 18th century satirical style, I hated the story, I hated the didactic interludes, but equally I was kind of mesmerised by the extended passages of Mrs Flip-Flop calling women all sorts of profanities. I found myself reading out these passages to all my friends, completely baffled by the ridiculousness of the text.
Semester two started with another ridiculous novel, but one that I found much more pleasant to read than Joseph Andrews. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, a satire about a 17 year old girl obsessed with Gothic literature, who very much lives in a fantasy world. The naïvety of Catherine Morland’s awe at the Gothic and disappointment of the modern reality of life has shaped the way I walk around Edinburgh this year. Walking around Old Town and studying in New College, I feel as wide-eyed as Catherine. But, walking past the Futures Institute, I feel the same distaste for the clinically redeveloped architecture.
If I had to pick just one text that defined my year, it would be Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale. It really demystified older books for me and broadened my taste in literature to study. Though we did not cover all of “English Literature in the World from 1380,” I was certainly introduced to a huge variety of books out of my own bubble of reading and am excited to maintain this broader personal canon.
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