I finished Emma relatively easily. I had skimmed it a few years ago, but never really read it. Of course, I am a member of the generation that will always associate Emma with Clueless. But I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s a great example of someone taking the themes and characters of a classic and reinterpreting them in a modern way while still staying true to the heart of the work.
I have to recommend the version I read, Emma (Case Study in Contemporary Criticism) because it had some great critical essays. There is an especially good one on gossip and free indirect style as they come together in the Austen world.
At the moment I am a little over halfway through Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding (most people associate him with Tom Jones). It’s a pretty easy read, funny, but sometimes a bit self-indulgent. But what novel isn’t?
The reading load is going to continue getting heavier as the semester goes along, so Liliana is getting an early exposure to British literature. She will sometimes let me read while she plays, but then she wants interaction. So I read to her from the books using funny voices, which she responds to.
I honestly haven’t touched my thesis. I have done some brainstorming and made some notes on ways to incorporate things from other of my classes. This weekend is my first class weekend, so I should be meeting with Dr. H to start plowing forward. And of course, the threat of my master’s exams is simmering in the back of my mind, but I am trying to ignore it at this point.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
What have I done?
Sure, I'll knock out a thesis. No big. I mean, it would be foolish not to, being an English major and all. Right?
Wrong. That's what I'm thinking now that my thesis is no longer a mythical animal of bedtime stories. It is in fact, a full blooded monster looming over me as the semester begins and I register for a class with the foreboding title of 6301: Prospectus.
Crap.
My advisor/head of the department/mentor/also teaching my other class this semester professor, Dr. Hileman, has sent the request that I register for 6301 aka Doomsday to begin submitting aforementioned Prospectus for this semester. Umm...okay. Not exactly sure how one might do that (while also reading eight dense tidbits for Dr. H’s British Novel course—more on that below). Dr. H sent a vague email with mentions of sample chapters and introductions and some threat of a bibliography. Now I am doing, at Dr. H’s suggestion, a creative thesis. Easy, n’est pas? Oh contrar.
Here is how the whole thing went down: Last semester I took Arthurian Literature online from Dr. H. Early in the semester I enquired if I might volley my final project into a thesis. Sure, said the good PhD. That was BL (Before Liliana). Flash forward to the end of the semester: I can’t handle the pressure of writing a research paper that will dictate my entire thesis. All too befuddling was the idea of spending an eventual 200 plus pages meditating on the evolution of Guinevere from the Celtic myths. In depth research on the role of contemporary to the period politics as influences on popular interpretations of the Arthurian myth? Not so much. So at the last minute I bucked the research angle and dove into a two chapter (well one prologue and one chapter) creative writing exercise, crossing my fingers that it would get me out of the course with a 4.0 and I could live the fight the thesis topic another day.
Wouldn’t you know Dr. H loved the creative piece and decided I should really finish it as my thesis? No sweat. Just have to finish the story. Wait...what?
So here I am. On top of that I am taking the British Novel class. Couldn’t be the British Sound Bite? Who knew Bleak House is like 700 pages long? Not me. So for the first weekend in February I am devouring Emma and Joseph Andrews. Say goodbye to Cat in the Hat, Liliana. Jane Austen will be lulling you to sleep, baby doll.
This blog is created as a place for me to chronicle my work and keep my sanity in the coming months without intruding on the other blog and its focus: pictures of Liliana. I hardly think people want to click to see pictures of my little cherub and instead get an earful on the difficulties of structuring a climax in a non-linear, post modern structure. Gah!
Wrong. That's what I'm thinking now that my thesis is no longer a mythical animal of bedtime stories. It is in fact, a full blooded monster looming over me as the semester begins and I register for a class with the foreboding title of 6301: Prospectus.
Crap.
My advisor/head of the department/mentor/also teaching my other class this semester professor, Dr. Hileman, has sent the request that I register for 6301 aka Doomsday to begin submitting aforementioned Prospectus for this semester. Umm...okay. Not exactly sure how one might do that (while also reading eight dense tidbits for Dr. H’s British Novel course—more on that below). Dr. H sent a vague email with mentions of sample chapters and introductions and some threat of a bibliography. Now I am doing, at Dr. H’s suggestion, a creative thesis. Easy, n’est pas? Oh contrar.
Here is how the whole thing went down: Last semester I took Arthurian Literature online from Dr. H. Early in the semester I enquired if I might volley my final project into a thesis. Sure, said the good PhD. That was BL (Before Liliana). Flash forward to the end of the semester: I can’t handle the pressure of writing a research paper that will dictate my entire thesis. All too befuddling was the idea of spending an eventual 200 plus pages meditating on the evolution of Guinevere from the Celtic myths. In depth research on the role of contemporary to the period politics as influences on popular interpretations of the Arthurian myth? Not so much. So at the last minute I bucked the research angle and dove into a two chapter (well one prologue and one chapter) creative writing exercise, crossing my fingers that it would get me out of the course with a 4.0 and I could live the fight the thesis topic another day.
Wouldn’t you know Dr. H loved the creative piece and decided I should really finish it as my thesis? No sweat. Just have to finish the story. Wait...what?
So here I am. On top of that I am taking the British Novel class. Couldn’t be the British Sound Bite? Who knew Bleak House is like 700 pages long? Not me. So for the first weekend in February I am devouring Emma and Joseph Andrews. Say goodbye to Cat in the Hat, Liliana. Jane Austen will be lulling you to sleep, baby doll.
This blog is created as a place for me to chronicle my work and keep my sanity in the coming months without intruding on the other blog and its focus: pictures of Liliana. I hardly think people want to click to see pictures of my little cherub and instead get an earful on the difficulties of structuring a climax in a non-linear, post modern structure. Gah!
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