Playing Catch-up

Did you all know that Ph.D. coursework is, well, work?

It has been a busy year, this semester so much more so than the last. Still, in between the moments of desperate sleep deprivation, in which I fall asleep on the couch, with Anthony Bourdain droning on in the background on the television, and a copy of Piers Plowman draped across my stomach, it has also been a very good year.

I am almost finished with my coursework--nest semester will take care of all but one requirement. I have written my Kalamazoo paper, though it needs to be edited down from 30 (crud!) pages. I sent off my first ever submission to the Medieval Academy's call for papers for next year's meeting, an abstract for a project that I am very, very excited about. And, if all goes according to plan, at this time in two years, I should be ABD.

Still, I am looking forward to the end of the semester: to the chance to blog again, to only one class (Latin), to Kalamazoo (especially the dance, occurring, as it does, on quite possibly the most momentous date of the entire calendar year), to at least one trip into Nearby Large City (there are rumblings amongst the grad students about organizing a cheese and wine tasting trip), and to the possibility of seeing Radiohead and Gogol Bordello in concert.

How are all of you?

This is Just to Say

That this week I'll be cooking my first Thanksgiving turkey ever.



Also, I'm going to be published. Yay!

Kzoo, Part Trois

Too bad I can't think of anything amusing to rhyme "trois" with.

In any case, an unrelated addendum to the previous post: I heard back from the panel I submitted an abstract to (organized by a journal/society I happen to really like, and with a nice level of prestige): my paper is in. Now I just need to write the paper. (This, if I didn't mention this in an earlier post, marks the first time I've submitted an abstract without having the paper written already. I feel so grown up, all of a sudden).

Still, hooray!

Accepting "Theory"

I have a confession to make. I used to hate "theory." I mean, really hate it. It was confusing, it was annoying, and it entirely post-modern--it just didn't have a place in medieval studies.

As you may have guessed, that's not quite indicative of my feelings for Theory at the moment. I'll blame Paul Strohm's Theory and the Premodern Text for beginning that change. His argument for the validity of applying Theory as undergraduate-me thought of it to the study of medieval literature is a pretty damn convincing one. The thing is, I wonder, to what extent do we actually use Theory---scary, confusing, (post)modern theory--as medievalists?

See, I thought about this, in relation to my own critical approach, and to some of the Very Important theoretical works I've had to read for a class at my Ph.D. program. My own approach is very centered in two critical approaches: one, new historicist, focused on authorship theory and scholasticism, the other, paleographical and codicological. Neither of these approaches is very different or shocking for a medievalist (though, of course, I hope that the way I use them will produce something new and different), in fact, if I were to think back to most of the scholarship I've read when doing my own research, it was largely historicist as well, with a healthy mix of gender and sexuality work (often still historical, at its most basic level) thrown in. And, I know that when I take my theory qualifying exam, written by a committee (more or less) of my choosing, in my specialty, it will likely be skewed towards these historicist and paleographic approaches.

But, in said Ph.D. course with the Very Important theoretical works, we recently read Barthes' S/Z. And now, I've been wondering how, if at all, we incorporate such a theoretical approach into studying medieval literature--not the rigid application of a specific theoretical structure that I saw from other students in my undergrad/MA programs (the I'm an X-school-of-theory-ist; the grad student discussing textual slippage in an edition of a text with dozens of manuscripts), but the sort of playful application of a system of theoretical codes that are meaningful to you, not that were meaningful to Barthes or Derrida or Butler? or perhaps not how we do so, but if it's done, and done well.
In other words, I found that I really liked some of the Theory that I'd discovered--at least, I found it interesting, well-reasoned, and asked myself, "So how has this been applied to my discipline?"

That's not to say I can't think of examples of theory used, and used truly well, truly creatively, by medievalists. Michael Drout's paper at Kalamazoo this past May is, I think, an example of exactly this. How frequently, though, is this sort of approach employed?

I don't know that I expect an answer to this. I know it's not a revolutionary discovery, and I doubt that my own research interests will change, though I suppose my theoretical approach may be a bit more open. Either way, though, I suppose I can no longer say that I hate this Theory. I certainly don't think I could defend my undergraduate fancy that Theory had no place in medieval studies.

Oh, and...

See? I really wasn't kidding about Whitesnake.

I can has macro post title?

Once again, I'll start this post out by apologizing for being such a lackadaisical blogger, as Heo Cwaeth put it.

In my defense, there are two and a half reasons for this. I've been spending most of the summer putting everything we own into boxes to ship it halfway across the country, which is rather time consuming. It doesn't help, either, that when I do get a chance to sit down with my laptop, I usually find myself with a massively fluffy cat draped across my chest. (remember tiny, tiny Bartlett? It turns out he's a Maine Coon. He's now insanely fuzzy, weighs at least 15 pounds - probably closer to 20 - and likes to spend most of his waking time cuddling like a tiny lap cat). And, of course, I've found myself having to re-imagine the purpose of this space. I'd originally set out to chronicle the Ph.D. applications process, and while it's no difficult leap from there to thinking of this blog as a place to continue discussing the process from applications on to (hopefully!) receiving the degree, I still can't help but feel at a bit of a loss for topics. I truly am looking forward to starting classes, which I will blog about - I already know what I want to take - to getting out of this tiny apartment and settled in our new house, and to visiting the nearby Big City.

In the meantime, I've been meaning to blog a bit about grad student professionalization, a topic that seems to keep coming up in unexpected places. I'm aiming to post something here once every two weeks - so I suppose we'll see how it goes.

(Oh, fine, you caught me - I couldn't think of a title for the damn post.)

Things You Can Learn in Kalamazoo

- Soda cannot improve unfortunate scotch.
- Plastic animals, however, can make a fantastic paper even better.
- As a general rule, large groups of medievalists dancing are not bringing sexy anywhere.
- If necessary, medievalists will trample one another to get to tiny plastic cups of booze.
- There are chibi catgirls on DeviantArt.com.
- Sometimes, part of Whitesnake will crash the dance.
- It is easy to identify medievalists in an airport.
- Seersucker is a popular fabric.
- The majority of medievalists have read Make Way for Ducklings.
- It really is okay to sleep through breakfast.
- Everyone knows the lyrics to "Livin' on a Prayer."
- This state's large rabbit population might be problematic.
- There is no good way to keep the dorm shower curtain from blowing in on you.
- You can go to prom again.

All joking aside, though, I had an excellent time in Kalamazoo this year. Though I missed the blogger meet-up, and so didn't get to say hello to everyone I would have like to see, I did run into several old friends, made a few new ones, was part of a fantastic panel, have a couple of potential publications in the works, got to eat at Saffron again, the book exhibit was seductive as usual, and I'm already looking forward to next year. Maybe then I'll go for fun, and won't have to spend most of my free time worrying about cutting my paper down.

Sometimes I Doubt Your Commitment to Sparkle Motion

Once again, I'm slinking back to this blog after neglecting it for far too long.

In my defense, I'm finishing up my MA thesis. Then, I begin getting ready for K'zoo, and the cycle of blog use and neglect will likely continue.

In the meantime, a brief update: In the end, I was accepted to three of the five Ph.D. programs I applied to, all with funding and first-year fellowships; I'm pretty happy with the results. I'll be attending the program I first mentioned in my previous post. It's a pretty campus, with exceptionally nice people, lots of money, and ranked in the top ten for medieval lit. I couldn't be happier.

Until next time, whenever that may be..