I’m just writing to tell you all a little bit about the position of Secretary, which is now open. Anyone wanting to stand as Secretary of English Soc should come to the open meeting on Thursday, Week 3 (see our previous post), where we will hold the elections. Being Secretary, you have the chance to get really involved in Committee meetings and as part of the Committee, would be in the team at the helm of this exciting, new society.

The position involves taking down minutes at meetings and typing them up, calling meetings (in conjunction with the Chair) and taking responsibility for correspondence.

It’s a great way to get involved in student life!
Best wishes and the best of luck,

Kerris

(current Secretary)

Hope everyone had good hols, and that the return to work wasn’t too much of a shock to the system!

I’m calling an open meeting for Thursday week 3, 24th January at 6pm Langwith Bar! This, of course, means that everyone can come along! There’s a position open on the committee, so this is your chance to get involved with the society even more. Also, this meeting should be a chance for everyone to have their say about what they want from the soc! As it is still brand new, there are even more options open to us than with an established soc, so come along, make it your own!
All the best!!!

Mads

x x

KATE ATKINSON, winner of last summer term’s poll for Level 3 visiting
speaker, will be reading at York in WEEK 8.

Tuesday, 27 November
6.30 p.m.
P/L/002

Kate Atkinson is the author of highly acclaimed – and highly
entertaining – novels including the recent Case Histories and One
Good Turn (shortlisted for the British Book Awards Crime Thriller of
the Year) and Behind the Scenes at the Museum (which won the
Whitbread Book of the Year).

The reading will be followed by a reception for third-year students.

TFTV MASTERCLASS

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 9 AT 2.00 P.M.

DIXON STUDIO THEATRE  WENTWORTH COLLEGE

The director MAX STAFFORD-CLARK, TFTV’s Visiting Professor of
Theatre, will conduct

a public masterclass on

‘THE OVERWHELMING’ by J. T. ROGERS

a play about the Rwandan massacres,

which he premiered at the National Theatre in 2006,

and the first American production of which he has also just directed
in New York.

Details about the play and its original British production

can be found at http://www.outofjoint.co.uk/prods/overwhelming.html.

The masterclass will focus on three key scenes.

Photocopies of those scenes will be available from TFTV from Tuesday
of next week.

PLEASE DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO COME ALONG TO THIS SPECIAL EVENT.

Geoffrey Hill is coming to York. Hill’s worldwide reputation exceeds that of any other living
poet. Indeed, A. N. Wilson describes him as ‘probably the best writer alive, in verse or
prose’, while George Steiner sees him as ‘among our finest poets’. Recent reviews of his
work include Alan Marshall’s comment that Hill is ‘the one certain genius now at work in
the English language … he is busy putting together, in the eighth decade of his life, a body
of late poetry such as we have scarcely seen’.

This is a very rare opportunity to see Hill reading from his own work, and I warmly
encourage you to come along. Details are as follows:

Wednesday 21 November
7pm

Room ATB/056-7
Seebohm Rowntree Building, Alcuin College
University of York

All welcome, admission free, no ticket required.

Department Event 

On getting away with it

A lecture by Adam Phillips, Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis and Literature in the Department of English and Related Literature. This is the first lecture in a series ‘On missing out: Three lectures on the experiences we don’t have’.

All are welcome, admission free.

Wednesday 24 October

6.00pm, SEEBOHM ROWNTREE BUILDING, ALCUIN ATB/056 & 057.

Department Event

The Booker prize winning novelist and short-story writer Graham Swift
(http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth93) will be giving a reading in Vanbrugh V/045 at 3.00 pm on Saturday 27th October. All are welcome to attend, and there will be a book-signing after the reading. For a glimpse of Swift’s writing space you may like to visit http://books.guardian.co.uk/graphic/0,,2136459,00.html. (Contact: Helen Smith)

University Event

“The Department of Art History is delighted to announce that Distinguished Professor Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (Graduate Centre, City University of New York) will give a lecture, ‘Proust, Cavafy and the Queer Little Gods’ in L/N/028 on Thursday November 1st 2007 at 5.15pm. The lecture will be followed by a wine reception. All welcome. (Contact: Jason Edwards)”

For those of you who may not know, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick is one of the most eminent academics in the field of Queer Theory and Gender Studies. For anyone interested in gender and sexuality, especially in relation to literary criticism and theory, this is an incredible and un-missable opportunity!

Edit: Well, I have to make a correction on this event, as it was not the stated talk — Proust, Cavafy and and Queer Little Gods (though the lovely Proust did pop up a little) — but on ‘Making Things, Practicing Nothing’, which was on Sedgwick’s work with textiles.

To join our society, you can sign up at Freshers’ Fair, which is held on the first Saturday of the first week. All you have to do is find our stall, scrawl down a few details and pay a miniscule sum of £4. Yes, for £4 you can feed your hungry literary soul with academic and social events for an entire year. If you miss Freshers’ Fair or can’t find our stall, all you have to do is contact a member on the committee or come to one of our events, and we’ll sign you up!

As York’s English department happens to be mind-bogglingly huge, English Society is an apt way of meeting others on your course. Even if you’re not studying English, but have an interest in literature, do feel free to join and engage with those who share your love of literature.

If you’re a Fresher welcome to the University of York and enjoy the fabulously enriching ‘Approaches to Literature’ module. If you’re a returning student, welcome back and enjoy whatever you have chosen to study this year!