A new literary journey begins
Introducing me, your literature teacher and reading mentor!
Hello, book lover!
My name is Fernanda (Dr. Moura, if we are going to be fancy!), I am a literature teacher, book lover and passionate about the 19th century! There is just something about a misty day in Victorian London that simply fascinates me!
No wonder my favourite authors are Charles Dickens, the Brontës, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley… all those 19th-century classics! I have been studying English literature since my second university degree (after a failed attempt at working in advertising, I followed my dream to become an English literature teacher and have the official free pass to talk about books all day!). Since then I have obtained a master’s degree (twice! One in Brazil and one in the Netherlands) and successfully defended my PhD dissertation. I have written about the subversiveness of Marianne Dashwood’s sensibility in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, about double-voiced medievalism in a production of William Shakespeare’s King John at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1842, about two theatrical adaptations of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House before he had even written the end of the novel, and about the reconstruction of the Middle Ages in three productions of Shakespeare’s Richard II in 19th-century London. As you can see, my interests are quite diverse, but they all find a point of intersection in the 19th century.
A literature teacher. Your reading mentor.
As a teacher in two Dutch universities, I offer courses on 18th- and 19th-century English literature and on academic writing. When teaching about the rise of the novel, the epistolary genre, novels of amorous intrigue, the Gothic and Romanticism (amongst other fascinating topics in 18th-century literature), I have expanded the range of my interest, going back in history another century. And that inspired me to learn more! To know what came before and what came after in literary history. There is so much to explore, to read, to know… That is why I started Books & Culture, an online platform where I offer online literature courses and workshops. I have been forming an amazing international community of book lovers, and we study literature together! I share my passion and knowledge, and you motivate me to keep learning. We have discussed Gothic fiction, terror and horror, Victorian Christmas stories, short stories, detective fiction… and there is much more to come!
As I navigate through these literary discoveries and as I come across enticing material to create my courses, I will share some thoughts with you here. This will be a bridge between my behind-the-scenes studies and the final product of a complete course, workshop or book.
I invite you to join me. I hope my literary adventures will inspire you to challenge yourself as a reader, read creatively and outside of your comfort zone. I will be here to guide you through the pages of books, through centuries, places and cultures.
Let’s connect!
Subscribe to this Substack to read posts on literature, creative reading and writing, literary history, literary genres, introducing authors and book recommendations.
Share this post with book lover friends and leave a comment introducing yourself and your reading journey so far!
Welcome to the Books & Culture community!
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of us all.
(William Ellery Channing, Self-Culture)
This is exciting. Exciting to connect with like minds and those who share this passion.
On „The Three Pillars of Creative Living“ you asked: will these three pillars be the foundation of your creative life from now on?
Certainly. Because I need that place, that world of magic, now more than ever; for a while I lost touch with it, with myself, but I know it’s where I belong and what my spirit needs. You‘ve signposted the way, articulating with your words my emotions. Though the idea bothers me that „when composition begins, inspiration is already on the decline“. That is not what I feel when I am deeply immersed in the process of writing, composing in that other world, immersed in the world I am writing about, living again, in a magical world. And reading nourishes. On the contrary, I feel exhilarated and calm and energized all at the same time. At one.