Bibliography
Dec. 6th, 2009 10:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyUncle Fred in the Springtime - P. G. Wodehouse
This is the next in the Blandings series, and introduces a new character to the scene - Uncle Fred, an old friend of the Hon. Galahad (who, alas, does not appear on this occasion), usually kept on a tight leash by his wife at his country estate, but as the wife is in France, is now attempting to collude in the latest plot of pretending to be someone else to occur at Blandings Castle. Once more, the plot is romantic; money is needed to purchase an interest in an onion soup bar so that the young pair in question might be wed. There is also the question of the Empress of Blandings, that prize pig, who is being threatened with the piggy equivalent at a health spa, against Lord Emsworth's wishes. Yes, she does get kidnapped again, how did you guess?
Anyway. Wodehouse has managed to take the Same Formula and jazz it up once more, with the introduction of some new characters and different approaches to life, as well as the familiar set-pieces. I am getting the sense of a rhythm here, where Wodehouse will realise he needs to inject some extra verve into the series, and then when he feels he can rest on his laurels for a book; this is most definitely a verve-injection moment.
Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic - A. M. Keith
I note this more for completeness than from any expectation that a non-classicist will pick it up. Keith's purpose is to put women back into Latin epic, from whence (in her time) they had been quite thoroughly expunged. I can't help but wish for a bit more about how women fit into the educational system of which epic is such an integral part as consumers rather than as characters, but I may just not have read the right kit yet - and if not, then that is an interesting question to consider further.
For those of you interested in this sort of thing, there's full-on discussions of the usual suspects like Virgil and Ovid, as well as Lucretius, Valerius Flaccus and Statius where appropriate. Part of me can't quite believe that this was only published in 2000, as the introduction makes it clear that it felt itself a rallying-call to the inclusion of women in this kind of poetry - that's always been part of my methodological landscape with this sort of work. But it strikes me that this is a good work to come back to in order to refresh perspectives and reconsider sensible questions about what we can make of women and their function in these texts which seem to be so dominated by social masculine norms.
This is the next in the Blandings series, and introduces a new character to the scene - Uncle Fred, an old friend of the Hon. Galahad (who, alas, does not appear on this occasion), usually kept on a tight leash by his wife at his country estate, but as the wife is in France, is now attempting to collude in the latest plot of pretending to be someone else to occur at Blandings Castle. Once more, the plot is romantic; money is needed to purchase an interest in an onion soup bar so that the young pair in question might be wed. There is also the question of the Empress of Blandings, that prize pig, who is being threatened with the piggy equivalent at a health spa, against Lord Emsworth's wishes. Yes, she does get kidnapped again, how did you guess?
Anyway. Wodehouse has managed to take the Same Formula and jazz it up once more, with the introduction of some new characters and different approaches to life, as well as the familiar set-pieces. I am getting the sense of a rhythm here, where Wodehouse will realise he needs to inject some extra verve into the series, and then when he feels he can rest on his laurels for a book; this is most definitely a verve-injection moment.
Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic - A. M. Keith
I note this more for completeness than from any expectation that a non-classicist will pick it up. Keith's purpose is to put women back into Latin epic, from whence (in her time) they had been quite thoroughly expunged. I can't help but wish for a bit more about how women fit into the educational system of which epic is such an integral part as consumers rather than as characters, but I may just not have read the right kit yet - and if not, then that is an interesting question to consider further.
For those of you interested in this sort of thing, there's full-on discussions of the usual suspects like Virgil and Ovid, as well as Lucretius, Valerius Flaccus and Statius where appropriate. Part of me can't quite believe that this was only published in 2000, as the introduction makes it clear that it felt itself a rallying-call to the inclusion of women in this kind of poetry - that's always been part of my methodological landscape with this sort of work. But it strikes me that this is a good work to come back to in order to refresh perspectives and reconsider sensible questions about what we can make of women and their function in these texts which seem to be so dominated by social masculine norms.
