Tuesday 25 October 2011

Things I've learned this afternoon.

1. There is a thriving postgraduate research culture in my English department: 3 PhD students, all doing utterly fascinating things - Romanticism and Translation, Shakespeare in adaptation, and modern mythology.

2. Helen Maria Williams, the Scots-Welsh author and translator who lived in Revolutionary France, was called a 'Scribbling Trollop' by a British journalist. I presume this was a forerunner of the Daily Mail.  Apparently translation from contemporary languages was drudgery, and therefore assigned to women. The men translated the Classics. If I were a female literature/writing blogger, I'd be appropriating 'Scribbling Trollop' as a pseudonym right now. Thanks to Paul for his fascinating and enlightening presentation of his PhD research.

3. Elvis wasn't the first King to die on the toilet. George II tied today in 1760, 'in his privy closet'.

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