Gosh, I'm busy!

Oh my goodness. Gasp. Take deep breath.

I am very busy. There is much to do. All due pretty much tomorrow. Much of it exciting (our Centre of Excellence application); much of it deeply enjoyable (my teaching, once I get into the classroom); some of it less so (organising the timetable of the English program's teaching for next year, etc.). My research is absolutely on the back burner, though hopefully just for one or two more weeks while the semester takes shape. Things are particularly tricky today as I managed to rub my eyes last night after handling (a) fish food or (b) potting mix. After 30 minutes both eyes were bright red and the eyelids swollen to three or four times their normal size, to say nothing of the huge pouches underneath the eyes. After a dash to the late night pharmacy in Sydney Road I dosed up with drops and antihistamines, but today it still looks pretty gruesome. Even that bony bit of skin between nose and eye is puffy. I'm about to go in to work to welcome the fourth year students: hope I don't frighten them away!

But here's something to look forward to:

Wednesday, March 17

Professor Stephen Knight

Cardiff University (formerly HOD English University of Melbourne)

The Arctic Arthur

King Arthur has had many manifestations, from the warrior giant of early Celtic to the bearded ancient of DC Comics Camelot 3000. Few have been as surprising or downright bizarre as a formation that developed in the eighteenth century and found its apotheosis in Bulwer Lytton's 1848 epic poem King Arthur. This was a very northern Arthur, fighting in Scandinavia, engaging with Odin and his cohorts, captaining a Viking Ship into the Arctic ice. This paper will seek a passage through the perils and excitements of this unusual domain of the Arthurian myth.

Stephen Knight is the author of Form and Ideology in Crime Fiction (London: Macmillan, 1980); Arthurian Literature and Society (London: Macmillan, 1983); Geoffrey Chaucer Oxford: Blackwell, 1987); Continent of Mystery: A Thematic History of Australian Crime Fiction (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press 1997); Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003); A Hundred Years of Fiction: Welsh Writing in English (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2004); Crime Fiction 1800-2000: Detection, Death, Diversity (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004); and Merlin: Knowledge and Power (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, forthcoming).

Lecture Theatre C, Old Arts 4.30-6.15pm

(http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/seminars.html)

Drinks at University House afterwards

Free of charge and open to all staff, postgraduate, undergraduate
students and members of the public