Anonymous AY25/26 Sem 1

About the Instructor:

Prof. Lo Mun Hou is EXTREMELY good at condensing really dense and confusing readings into a few key points for understanding, discussion and application so it was very accessible overall. I don’t know if I’d say our class discussions were particularly lively but that’s mostly because we spent most of our time trying to achieve basic understanding of the confusing concepts and terms so it mostly consisted of Prof guiding our discussion towards a greater understanding rather than the class inputting entirely new ideas and opinions if that makes sense. Our Prof had the vibe of being really knowledgeable but didn’t spend much time lecturing or showing off but always tried to get us to come to our own conclusions. His knowledge and guidance in understanding concepts and also crucially getting better at writing (he made an NTW summary worksheet because we were all so bad at writing) was really helpful.

Content (Structure/Organization): 

The curriculum was very well-structured and each thing we learnt seemed to build off or be in discussion with the previous thing we learnt, for example one week’s reading may be refuted or added on to in the next week’s reading then we would discuss how they are in dialogue and we did this to the point that at the end all the readings seemed to be in dialogue in one way or another and we could draw connections between our W2 and W7 reading and etc. All the assessments were doable and also very fun and seemed linked to the skills we were trying to learn at the time. For example, we had graded video presentations which we would use as launchpads for class discussions and papers that matched the phase of the course we were in (eg. Paper 1 was on ‘Close Reading’, Paper 2 was on ‘It’s Alternatives’). I generally felt that my knowledge was expanding as we worked through the curriculum! Some of the readings can be pretty hard to understand because they reference a lot of people and concepts I had no knowledge of but we mostly extracted main quotes and ideas for discussion and linking back to the main idea of Close Reading so it was mostly okay! 

Manageability of Workload: 

Workload was not too bad, mostly it was about keeping up w readings (abt 30pg per class). Then there are two 5-slide class presentations and two essays we have to write. Overall really spread out and good! 

Ease/Difficulty of Attaining Grades:

I’m not too sure on average but it does seem possible to average an A- or A in his assignments with some understanding and effort.

Learning Value/Recommendation: 

EXTREMELY fun and enriching and as a Literature student made me think a lot about the type of reader I want to be. It’s like really relevant in real life because for example because we learn about the difference between a paranoid reading where you’re constantly trying to like skeptically uncover a hidden unconscious meaning behind a text (usually driven by sinister forces like misogyny or racism), and reparative reading which is linked to a more positive and generous interpretation of a text that is able to heal and provide insights for meaningful positive action. Which kind of reader you choose to be here has a huge impact on the way you interact with texts whether we’re talking about literary texts or news we come across in real life or like a text message from your friend. We learned that the textual can bleed into almost any field like Anthropology/etc so to be able to understand how and why we read has extremely far-reaching implications for any student! 

Additional Comments/Word of Advice:

Take the course!