Preparatory Reading List for Literature & Psychology Undergraduate Program

This post is primarily intended Hridita and Ramisa, both of who are heading for MHC this fall. Every College/University has its own reading materials for the incoming freshmen. Mount Holyoke College for example, maintains a page where titles are listed for ALL college students to engage with. Here is the LINK.

However, for the Literature and Psychology students, a selective reading list can be immensely helpful. I am breaking down the reading list under a few headings. 

1. A Short History of English Literature (Ifor Evans): One of the shortest and most readable history of literature written in English. 
2. Norton Anthology of English Poetry: This can be replaced with poem reading from Poetry Foundation website. 
3. A Selection of Novels: Tess (Thomas Hardy), Emma (Jane Austen), Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne), Moby Dick (Melville), Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro). All these are available online. 
4. Non-fiction: A good introduction to Non-fiction is provided by the anthology titled Norton Short Prose. And then you can read regularly from Aeon.com
5. Having regular interaction with the newspaper Guardian Unlimited is also definitely worthwhile. 
6. Shakespeare: Watch the following Shakespeare of films = Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet (Directed by Branagh), Macbeth (Denzel Washington acted), The Tempest (Helen Mirren). For a good introduction to Shakespeare's Life watch this wonderful film Shakespeare in Love. 
7. 
   Check your college's Summer Reading List of previous 2 years and you will have a fair idea of what is coming. 
8. For Psychology go through any Wikipedia entry on Psychoanalysis and Freud. But then you must shift to Jacque Lacan. 

Russell's Paradox = A fascinating introduction to the world of Logic

Reading through Russell's Paradox in WikiWand was a revealing and riveting experience for me. I have often tried to "say something" on these issues to my SAT/Application class, but ultimately ended with incomprehensible statements myself. But deep down in my everyday thinking, I see flashes of what TRUTH is made up of, and it would be a crime not to share my "visions" with others. While the WikiWand is a very good starting point, it would be better if you drift into other scholarly Books. However, for the less adventurous mind, here is an article from INSIDER, which is still captivating. 

1. WikiWand Article (Very Good Start) Click for Link
2. Insider Article (Easier bite) Click for Link
3. Finally, a youtube Explication of the Paradox Russell's Paradox LINK

It must too be mentioned that one of our former students used his "discovery" of Set Theory as a fundamental science of mathematics by writing a paper on Tom Stoppard's early play Rosenstein and Guildenstern are dead (a phrase borrowed from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'). It would be a WONDERFUL idea if anyone from this year can make Set Theory the principal point of enquiry in any of their writings. 

Finally, there is a compendium of articles collected from International Munich Centenary Conference 2001 to commemorate 100 years of Russell's Paradox. The conference brought together scholars from Mathematical Logic, Set Theory, and Philosophy of Mathematics. I am leaving the PDF link in mediafire.  

LINK to the 2001 Conference Collected Articles (PDF)
  

SAT and US College Application Season Begins

We have soft started the SAT and US colleges application program for the year 2022-23. I have been able to work with the following in a couple of sessions and would like to lift-off within this month. One of our major meeting was based on how poetry should be read and interpreted and in that class I discussed a good number of poems and literary works that represent wester culture. 

1. Poems = Ezra Pound's In the station of Metro, Auden's three or four poems, Byron's Darkness, and a few others. 
2. A few novel titles were suggested = Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Metamorphosis, The Stranger, The Great Gatsby.
3. Shakespeare's films were suggested = we shall later use these Shakespearean stories to build on political and ethical issues/questions of our time. 

In addition to these, I have also individually assigned tasks for Aryan, Tahana, and Arshiya. I hope to get updates on the works assigned this week.