Simon Kövesi
@kovesi.bsky.social
Professor of English & Scottish Literature, Head of the School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow
Research working-class literature & Romantic-period cultures.
Editor, John Clare Society Journal.
Seems important to add, son of a political refugee.
Research working-class literature & Romantic-period cultures.
Editor, John Clare Society Journal.
Seems important to add, son of a political refugee.
Pinned
Hungarian-Austrian, Georg Trakl, was just 27 when he died in 1914. When a wealthy patron gave him 20,000 crowns so he focus on his writing, he vomited.
Again, what a poet.
Again, what a poet.
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
Delighted to welcome this into the world. Paperback for £9.99 or kindle for £8.99.
Hope you’ll treat yourself to an early Christmas present 📚🎄
Please repost this if you can.
#Chartism #C19th #History
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Hope you’ll treat yourself to an early Christmas present 📚🎄
Please repost this if you can.
#Chartism #C19th #History
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
November 24, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Delighted to welcome this into the world. Paperback for £9.99 or kindle for £8.99.
Hope you’ll treat yourself to an early Christmas present 📚🎄
Please repost this if you can.
#Chartism #C19th #History
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Hope you’ll treat yourself to an early Christmas present 📚🎄
Please repost this if you can.
#Chartism #C19th #History
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
If you like working-class writing and theatre, please join our book launch! #BirminghamHistory
Where? National Trust Back to Backs Museum @NTBirmingham, 11 Dec, 6-8pm.
For further details & tickets:
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/birmin...
@midlandhistory.bsky.social @theironroom.bsky.social
Where? National Trust Back to Backs Museum @NTBirmingham, 11 Dec, 6-8pm.
For further details & tickets:
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/birmin...
@midlandhistory.bsky.social @theironroom.bsky.social
British Working-Class and Radical Writing Since 1700 Book Launch | National Trust
www.nationaltrust.org.uk
November 24, 2025 at 12:11 PM
If you like working-class writing and theatre, please join our book launch! #BirminghamHistory
Where? National Trust Back to Backs Museum @NTBirmingham, 11 Dec, 6-8pm.
For further details & tickets:
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/birmin...
@midlandhistory.bsky.social @theironroom.bsky.social
Where? National Trust Back to Backs Museum @NTBirmingham, 11 Dec, 6-8pm.
For further details & tickets:
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/birmin...
@midlandhistory.bsky.social @theironroom.bsky.social
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
‘It is abundantly clear that corporate social responsibility was and is a myth. Even if firms claim to recognise their social and environmental responsibilities, profitability always trumps them when they clash.’
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Brett Christophers · Assume the worst: Where our waste goes
Just as Big Oil has repeatedly failed to deliver on pledges to begin decarbonising, so too the promises of plastics...
www.lrb.co.uk
November 23, 2025 at 4:35 PM
‘It is abundantly clear that corporate social responsibility was and is a myth. Even if firms claim to recognise their social and environmental responsibilities, profitability always trumps them when they clash.’
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Is it true UK Universities think decline in mod langs is due to fashion & tech? From 2004 it became precipitous, as Blair government downgraded GCSE mod langs, from compulsory to optional. Labour removed a keystone of our international standing & outlook.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
November 22, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Is it true UK Universities think decline in mod langs is due to fashion & tech? From 2004 it became precipitous, as Blair government downgraded GCSE mod langs, from compulsory to optional. Labour removed a keystone of our international standing & outlook.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
The UK is a local shop for local people, there's nothing for you here.
Armchair activism: why not buy a SO IMMIGRANT top - 10% of sales go to Refugee Action:
www.soimmigrant.com
www.refugee-action.org.uk
Armchair activism: why not buy a SO IMMIGRANT top - 10% of sales go to Refugee Action:
www.soimmigrant.com
www.refugee-action.org.uk
November 22, 2025 at 1:19 PM
The UK is a local shop for local people, there's nothing for you here.
Armchair activism: why not buy a SO IMMIGRANT top - 10% of sales go to Refugee Action:
www.soimmigrant.com
www.refugee-action.org.uk
Armchair activism: why not buy a SO IMMIGRANT top - 10% of sales go to Refugee Action:
www.soimmigrant.com
www.refugee-action.org.uk
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
It's sublime! Did you know that Hass also adapted, in 1986, James Hogg's Private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner? (There was a sold-out retrospective of his films here about 8 or 9 years ago: we felt very lucky!)
November 22, 2025 at 12:50 PM
It's sublime! Did you know that Hass also adapted, in 1986, James Hogg's Private memoirs and confessions of a justified sinner? (There was a sold-out retrospective of his films here about 8 or 9 years ago: we felt very lucky!)
Finally a Romantic-period gothic novel film adaptation to be excited about. Jan Potocki's sprawling 1805 novel is surely unfilmable, but this attempt looks like a riot. There's wonders to be found far beyond the canon.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
The Saragossa Manuscript review – cult Polish period-costume comedy is outrageous head-spinner
Wojciech Has’s slice of 1960s surrealism is set in 18th-century Spain, as an officer careens through farcical encounters and erotic episodes in a wild ride that could be a series of Monty Python sketc...
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Finally a Romantic-period gothic novel film adaptation to be excited about. Jan Potocki's sprawling 1805 novel is surely unfilmable, but this attempt looks like a riot. There's wonders to be found far beyond the canon.
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
www.theguardian.com/film/2025/no...
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
Applications Now Open for the University of Glasgow Library Visiting Research Fellowship scheme - supporting scholars from across academic disciplines to come to Glasgow to work on our unique research collections. Please RT or pass on:
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
November 20, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Applications Now Open for the University of Glasgow Library Visiting Research Fellowship scheme - supporting scholars from across academic disciplines to come to Glasgow to work on our unique research collections. Please RT or pass on:
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
The gentlest, firmest, weapon for us to use in the culture wars, from Goethe:
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
October 31, 2025 at 6:13 PM
The gentlest, firmest, weapon for us to use in the culture wars, from Goethe:
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
What a wonderful opportunity!
Applications Now Open for the University of Glasgow Library Visiting Research Fellowship scheme - supporting scholars from across academic disciplines to come to Glasgow to work on our unique research collections. Please RT or pass on:
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
What a wonderful opportunity!
Applications Now Open for the University of Glasgow Library Visiting Research Fellowship scheme - supporting scholars from across academic disciplines to come to Glasgow to work on our unique research collections. Please RT or pass on:
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
November 20, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Applications Now Open for the University of Glasgow Library Visiting Research Fellowship scheme - supporting scholars from across academic disciplines to come to Glasgow to work on our unique research collections. Please RT or pass on:
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
Hungarian-Austrian, Georg Trakl, was just 27 when he died in 1914. When a wealthy patron gave him 20,000 crowns so he focus on his writing, he vomited.
Again, what a poet.
Again, what a poet.
November 20, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Hungarian-Austrian, Georg Trakl, was just 27 when he died in 1914. When a wealthy patron gave him 20,000 crowns so he focus on his writing, he vomited.
Again, what a poet.
Again, what a poet.
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
Vladimir Mayakovsky was only 36 when he died in 1930. His "funeral was attended by around 150,000, the third largest event of public mourning in Soviet history, surpassed only by those of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin". Superstar but what a poet. 36.
November 20, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Vladimir Mayakovsky was only 36 when he died in 1930. His "funeral was attended by around 150,000, the third largest event of public mourning in Soviet history, surpassed only by those of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin". Superstar but what a poet. 36.
Vladimir Mayakovsky was only 36 when he died in 1930. His "funeral was attended by around 150,000, the third largest event of public mourning in Soviet history, surpassed only by those of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin". Superstar but what a poet. 36.
November 20, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Vladimir Mayakovsky was only 36 when he died in 1930. His "funeral was attended by around 150,000, the third largest event of public mourning in Soviet history, surpassed only by those of Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin". Superstar but what a poet. 36.
Though a terrific novel, perhaps the best thing about Novel With Cocaine is that we don't really know for sure who wrote it. And if it is by Mark Levi, we might never know much about him either. What a relief, to be able to not bother with an author at all. The art work should always be the thing.
November 18, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Though a terrific novel, perhaps the best thing about Novel With Cocaine is that we don't really know for sure who wrote it. And if it is by Mark Levi, we might never know much about him either. What a relief, to be able to not bother with an author at all. The art work should always be the thing.
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
If you want to know how ethically robust academia is, "but will continue teaching Harvard classes" is all you need to read. Even the Royal family (!) performs & pretends to better ethics.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘Deeply ashamed’ Larry Summers steps back from public life over Epstein links
Former treasury secretary steps away to ‘rebuild trust’ after severe backlash but will continue teaching Harvard classes
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:11 AM
If you want to know how ethically robust academia is, "but will continue teaching Harvard classes" is all you need to read. Even the Royal family (!) performs & pretends to better ethics.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
If you want to know how ethically robust academia is, "but will continue teaching Harvard classes" is all you need to read. Even the Royal family (!) performs & pretends to better ethics.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘Deeply ashamed’ Larry Summers steps back from public life over Epstein links
Former treasury secretary steps away to ‘rebuild trust’ after severe backlash but will continue teaching Harvard classes
www.theguardian.com
November 18, 2025 at 9:11 AM
If you want to know how ethically robust academia is, "but will continue teaching Harvard classes" is all you need to read. Even the Royal family (!) performs & pretends to better ethics.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Even if they're using AI, never ever quote a student essay on social media. It's an abuse of power & breach of confidentiality. It's their work you're trusted with. Take care with it. Can't believe how often academics do this.
November 18, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Even if they're using AI, never ever quote a student essay on social media. It's an abuse of power & breach of confidentiality. It's their work you're trusted with. Take care with it. Can't believe how often academics do this.
Pierce Egan, Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott, Fanny Burney, William Godwin, Charlotte Smith, Matthew Lewis, Charles Maturin.
You can only pick one. I’m sorry.
Jane Austen or Mary Shelley
Jane Austen or Mary Shelley
November 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Pierce Egan, Maria Edgeworth, Walter Scott, Fanny Burney, William Godwin, Charlotte Smith, Matthew Lewis, Charles Maturin.
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
Had a brilliant time with the wonderful Kat Hill at our Aye Write event last night. Thanks to Helen Cross for being an excellent chair.
Hugely looking forward to Creative Conversation at UofGlasgow on December 1st which will be my final event of the year.
Hugely looking forward to Creative Conversation at UofGlasgow on December 1st which will be my final event of the year.
November 14, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Had a brilliant time with the wonderful Kat Hill at our Aye Write event last night. Thanks to Helen Cross for being an excellent chair.
Hugely looking forward to Creative Conversation at UofGlasgow on December 1st which will be my final event of the year.
Hugely looking forward to Creative Conversation at UofGlasgow on December 1st which will be my final event of the year.
Weapons in the dissolution of the humanities are "Born-old buzzwords": “synergy,” “multipliers,” “mindset,” “vision” (as a verb), “agility,” “impactfulness,” “clients,” “entrepreneurship,” “branding,” “future-proofing.”
Adam Rzepka on the pursuit of “excellence.”
academeblog.org/2025/11/13/t...
Adam Rzepka on the pursuit of “excellence.”
academeblog.org/2025/11/13/t...
The Eternal Synergy of the Spotless Mind
BY ADAM RZEPKA A large public university is wiping out all of its humanities departments. It isn’t sure why. As I write this, our Interim Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS…
academeblog.org
November 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Weapons in the dissolution of the humanities are "Born-old buzzwords": “synergy,” “multipliers,” “mindset,” “vision” (as a verb), “agility,” “impactfulness,” “clients,” “entrepreneurship,” “branding,” “future-proofing.”
Adam Rzepka on the pursuit of “excellence.”
academeblog.org/2025/11/13/t...
Adam Rzepka on the pursuit of “excellence.”
academeblog.org/2025/11/13/t...
On the dissolution of the humanities by Adam Rzepka. Language is everything:
"Born-old buzzwords fell through ... like a grey snow: “synergy,” “multipliers,” “mindset,” “vision” (as a verb), “agility,” “impactfulness,” students as “clients,” “entrepreneurship,” “branding,” “future-proofing.”
"Born-old buzzwords fell through ... like a grey snow: “synergy,” “multipliers,” “mindset,” “vision” (as a verb), “agility,” “impactfulness,” students as “clients,” “entrepreneurship,” “branding,” “future-proofing.”
"This urgent order to clear away the entire, centuries-old idea of disciplinary governance in one fell swoop is both radical and without even a functional ideology—an especially pure plane of the empty-mind austerity satirized from Office Space to Severance." Adam Rzepka wp.me/p8xr4h-dil
The Eternal Synergy of the Spotless Mind
BY ADAM RZEPKA A large public university is wiping out all of its humanities departments. It isn’t sure why. As I write this, our Interim Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS…
wp.me
November 14, 2025 at 3:37 PM
On the dissolution of the humanities by Adam Rzepka. Language is everything:
"Born-old buzzwords fell through ... like a grey snow: “synergy,” “multipliers,” “mindset,” “vision” (as a verb), “agility,” “impactfulness,” students as “clients,” “entrepreneurship,” “branding,” “future-proofing.”
"Born-old buzzwords fell through ... like a grey snow: “synergy,” “multipliers,” “mindset,” “vision” (as a verb), “agility,” “impactfulness,” students as “clients,” “entrepreneurship,” “branding,” “future-proofing.”
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
Final spin for my Booker controversies. One last thought - for somebody who is against prizes (competition is the antithesis of art) I spend a lot of time talking about them inews.co.uk/culture/book...
The nine most controversial Booker winners ever
From prize-sharing Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo, to Paul Beatty winning for The Sellout, these are the victors who caused most of a stir
inews.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Final spin for my Booker controversies. One last thought - for somebody who is against prizes (competition is the antithesis of art) I spend a lot of time talking about them inews.co.uk/culture/book...
Reposted by Simon Kövesi
📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications!
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
November 13, 2025 at 2:05 PM
📣Our UofG Library Visiting Research Fellowships are now open for applications!
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows
We’re delighted to invite scholars from across the globe to apply to work with our internationally significant collections.
Apply at: www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/li...
📆Closing date: 5 January 2026
#UofGLibraryFellows