Wired for Comps

It begins!
Ohmygod, it begins.
Yesterday the 2nd years (that's me) held a meeting to break up responsibilities for comps studying. I didn't go for 2 reasons:

1. I am not in the Literature emphasis, unlike 75% of the group
2. I felt like hell after falling out of bed Monday

Both of these were valid reasons for not going. According to the reports, I didn't miss much. They will be reviewing Lit Crit for the next three weeks, before moving on to the periodization stuff. That's where I need to study--I can apply theory in my sleep (ask roommates!) but to put a text in context requires background knowledge I'm still fuzzy on.

For example: Romanticism. I don't like it. It tries to relate nature and humanity. Rugged individualism, poet as prophet, the Eolean Harp/Wind, exploration, Imagination, etc. But who was responsible for these? I know WW and Coleridge both wrote various lit crits, but what were they? How did they differ? Literera Biographia or something like that was Col's work. It contradicted WW's, and they had a fight. But what was it? What about Pater and Ruskin, in the Victorian era? Something about Pre-Raphaelites? Hair? Decadence? Bloomsbury Groups? EEEEEEEKKKK!!

It all blends into other things. And as for historical-political-social stuff, forget it, unless we're talking American. I couldn't tell you a damn thing about the state of the British empire--I mean, yeah, there was all that sucky colonialism, but who was the monarch/prime minister? What Acts of Parliament are important? What about Women?!

It's time to reread the Nortons Again. I think it's going to be a long semester. Again.