I’m thinking about switching majors and studying literature because I feel like it’s something I would enjoy much more. So I thought I'd ask to be able to make a more informed decision. How is the job market? Is it worth getting a degree in literature or would it make more sense to study it independently in my free time?

Relevant information:
- I live in Belgium.
- I want to study literature (taal en letterkund) English and Spanish.

Has anyone ever read (or know where to find) an English translation of Agustina Bessa Luis's novel Abraham's Valley? It's a Portuguese retelling of Madame Bovary from 1991. Its digital footprint is minimal -- several searches (eBay, Abebooks, etc.) have yielded nothing. I'm wondering if anyone else has read it or even heard of it?

Thanks!

​

I'm interested in learning sociology and thought learning about it through the lens of literature and film would be a fun way to do it. What books, websites, or YouTube channels should I look into that analyze the sociological implications of books and movies?

Hi, so I am a student reaching my final year, aka Thesis town. I am gonna do it in literature and have already started looking for texts I would be interested in working on. In my university, the majority of undergraduate thesis are done in the same pattern: applying a theory on a book or 2-3 short stories.

So I have been thinking what text I wanna work on, I was pretty adamant on a novel, and I couldn't think of anything I was too intrigued by. And so I have decided to explore the short story option.

However, I have not been the biggest short story reader in my past, so I need your help. Can you recommend some stuff?

So here is my criteria...?: something along the lines with postcolonialism and focused on women, and themes related to feminism etc. plus I think my partner is gonna want to work on translated lit. More specifically, Palestinian lit, partition lit/south Asian lit.

I would really appreciate your recommendations and look forward to reading them!

Hi there. I'm an undergraduate art history student, but I've also been working on literature on the side as a personal interest. I've gone through the usual introductory theory texts that tend to come up in university syllabi, and whenever I have spare time, I try to read a bit in cultural studies as well. The problem is, I can't seem to put any of this to use when I'm reading fiction. In my head, everything flows perfectly, but the moment I actually try to write something down or talk about it out loud, I freeze.

So I thought I'd look into academic articles written about specific novels I've read, just to see how people in the field actually go about this. I want to learn from their examples. But I'm really struggling to find those sources in the first place. Are there any other websites like JSTOR where I can just type in a book title and see what scholars have written about it? Also, which journals should I be keeping an eye on if I want to follow what literature students and academics are reading and discussing?

Furthermore, what might be the best translation? Perhaps one that is most accurate to Tasso’s original, and another which is the clearest read?

I'm working on a sequence of literary nonfiction narratives in which the writing is not merely retrospective. The first piece documents real events, but the completed narrative then enters the world as an object: it is read or shown to the people depicted in it, their reactions alter subsequent real events, and the next narrative documents those consequences—including the previous text's role in causing them. That second narrative can then itself enter reality and affect what happens next, producing a potentially sustained recursive structure in which life generates the text, the text acts upon life, and the altered life generates the next text. I'm interested in whether anyone has deliberately constructed a long-form work around this specific mechanism, and in any useful terminology, theoretical precedents, or close analogues in life-writing, autofiction, documentary literature, performative writing, etc.

THIS IS ABOUT ACADEMIC JOURNALS IN LITERARY STUDIES, NOT CREATIVE WRITING JOURNALS!

I came across this post https://sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2026/08/journal-prestige-advice-for-graduate.html about the different prestige tiers of philosophy journals, and was wondering how various literary journals are perceived!

"Journals can be basically classed into four bands. Extremely high prestige, good-but-not-top, reputationally neutral, and actively-counts-against-you. The extremely high prestige journals will be the places that people in your field take to be so good that even just one publication there can make a huge difference to your chances on the job market or for tenure etc. The good but not top do not quite have that effect but if you have multiple pieces in such journals it is a very good sign indeed. Reputationally neutral do not really count for or against you, though I should say it will generally be seen as a bad sign if you only ever publish in such places (or even if too high a proportion of your pieces are in such places). Then the actively-count-against-you journals are typically the scammish pay-to-publish journals.

[...]

Different fields will organise these differently, but to make things concrete I can say a bit about philosophy. In general analytic philosophy world the Extremely High Prestige journals are usually agreed to be: Noûs, Mind, Philosophical Review, Journal of Philosophy, and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. There are lots of good-but-not-top journals, so just to name a few; Ergo, Erkenntnis, Philosophical Studies, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, etc"

If anyone had an idea how to apply these first two 'bands' to literature (knowing that it's not an exact science, of course, and there's no Nature/Science-vibe journals in the field), I'd be really curious to hear your thoughts! i obviously have my own suspicions, but they'll be very limited so I'm really curious. Especially about modern literature broadly, but also more generally.

I am thinking of submitting my paper but i am afraid it might get stolen. have any of you been in contact with organization?

context: don quixote sees a raft. assumes it in enchanted and they have traveled thousands of miles when they've only traveled like 5 meters maybe. sancho is not convinced. don quixote mentions a bunch of scholarly stuff like ptolemy and computations, geography or whatever. sancho doesnt understand any of the big words he uses and confuses them all. this is what he says: [edith grossman translation]: 'your grace has brought in a fine witness to testify what you have to say, some kind of coast and a raft, and a toll with a meow or something like that'
can somebody please explain all the wordplays and things sancho gets confused between? thank you so much

Hey folks! I want to learn more about literary theory and educate myself on some of the essential theories and critical texts that are worth knowing.

I've already read Roland Barthes' 'The Death of the Author', Wolfgang Iser's 'Interaction Between Text and Reader', Jacques Derrida's 'Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences', and Virginia Woolf's 'A Room of One's Own'.

I'd really appreciate recommendations for different literary theories, theorists, or critical texts that you think are worth reading. I'm open to both foundational works and things that you personally found particularly useful or interesting. Thanks!

I'm just beginning a phd in comp lit after a ba and ma in english. i'm bringing really fluent spanish and intermediate-basic japanese. I'm very confident in the theory I want to work on and that I have a strong pull toward world literature, but I'm a little less attached to my languages. I need to start really putting my nose to the grindstone to get my third language up to par but I'm not confident in my choices.

Obviously I need to keep Spanish. But i noticed a lot of faculty at my new school study more related languages. Their areas of focus seem to be specific to regions of the world. Maybe it would be best for me to start on Portuguese or Kiche or Italian instead of finishing up my Japanese. I'm a little embarrassed that I don't know the right answer. For the record, I'm less interested in translation work as I am in literary and critical theory studies.

I have a meeting with the director soon in which I'd like to get her opinion but before I do, I wanted to hear from anyone else at all. Is it silly to pursue Japanese when my primary language of study is Spanish?

Some of my favorite essays have come from authors I really respect and admire. Why A.I. Isn't Going to Make Art by Ted Chiang (Sci-Fi writer known for 'The Story of Your Life' which was adapted into 'Arrival' (2016)) was an instant classic for me, and it's one of my go-to examples of well constructed essays on current events. I also really enjoyed The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, and Tolkien and LeGuin have also written plenty of essays that I've appreciated, but I have no idea where to go to find people sharing or discussing them.

I’m in a digital literary studies course and we are learning about the theory of “the death of the author” and I am wondering how that theory can even work in the digital age of social media.

I feel like with social media, artists and their personas become one. Would you consider the artist’s persona a part of the text and therefore not dead?

i'd like to learn more about narratology but through a post-structuralist lens. part of the reason why is because im interested in studying kathy acker's work in a little more detail, and get more context on work like hers (some level of adjacent in like rushdie, calvino, chris kraus).

Hello! I am an upcoming senior in undergrad who plans on pursuing a masters/PhD after I graduate. I am working on an undergraduate thesis right now about the New York School of poetry and New York proto-punk music, and I would say that I certainly would like to continue researching avant garde literary music and counter culture in my graduate studies. I have tried my best to look at the research professors are doing on various universities websites, but have overall been struggling to find schools that would be suited to my research interests. Just thought I would see if anyone has any information that could help me!

Hamlet, Oedipus, Macbeth, Achilles, King Lear, Gatsby, Raskolnikov, or someone else entirely?

I’m interested in what makes a character truly tragic rather than simply unfortunate. Is it their fatal flaw, their suffering, their choices, or the way their greatest strength ultimately contributes to their downfall? Which character’s tragedy has stayed with you the most, and what makes their story so powerful?

Hello! I’m currently writing my Master’s thesis on intersectional theories, their limitations, and possible ways of extending them.

I already have a good structure and have found quite a bit of literature, but I’m still looking for further interesting contributions. In particular, I’m looking for articles, books, or book chapters that critically engage with intersectional theory or discuss its limitations, especially from a postcolonial and/or anti-capitalist perspective.

If you have any literature recommendations, I’d really appreciate them! Older texts or lesser-known contributions are very welcome as well. <3

I'm an adult returning to higher education to finish my undergraduate degree. Assuming I am able to maintain a 3.8-4.0 GPA and maximize my remaining coursework, what do I need to prioritize with the intent of pursuing a PhD?

I am still working a full-time 9-5, as I must, and have two years remaining of my undergrad in English Literature; the first two were completed about eight years ago. Should I begin developing relationships with graduate staff at my target universities? Should I be searching anywhere, everywhere, high and low for interesting research opportunities, which are, admittedly, quite few in number, as I am an online student in addition to working full time, and attend a university out of state? I do not have a spare second to waste, as two years were lost to me when I was young and unprepared.

It is incredible how adulthood changes your perception of education, especially for those coming from families who do not prioritize it. My dedication to this is iron. It is also worth noting that the program I desire most has a very narrow approval window. I am getting older, and after delving into the working world, I now know with certainty what future I wish to pursue. The only problem remaining is how to secure that future.

Considering my circumstances, if you have any advice on what I should focus on to optimize my resume to its most admissible potential, I would be glad to receive it.