(no subject)
here's a first draft of a SOP for a MA in English. it is not complete; i need some kind of conclusion, and any suggestions are welcomed. please be harsh, especially about tone. i am trying to tread the fine line between confidence and arrogance. let me know where i slip too far to the latter.
cookies for all if i get in! in addition to being a poet and scholar, i can bake a mean chocolate chip.
Howard Bloom argues that we are all, in one sense or another, late to the party. Reflecting upon and coming to terms with this belatedness is the primary task of the poet and the scholar. The task is even more daunting for the poet-scholar, especially in a time such as ours, when the English discipline has been radically decentered by both institutional pressures as well as competing theoretical constructs.
The literary critic of the period of high theory, like the philosopher that Nietzsche criticizes, "supposes that the value of his philosophy lies in the whole, in the structure; but posterity finds its value in the stone which he used for building, and which is used many more times after that for building--better." The time is ripe for a disciplinary reorganization, one that casts about the ruins of the theory wars for materials with which to build anew, and better.
Certainly, this is the work of a lifetime, if not several. I would be present myself as ambitious to the point of recklessness if I were to assert that I wanted to address these core issues of the English discipline during my studies at _________ University. My more modest aims, of studying the various strands of transatlantic literary modernism as they relate to popular culture (especially film noir), are my immediate concern. This project stems from my commitments as a poet, as a lover and student of langauge, and from my firm belief in a conception of the English discipline which transcends any particular national or ideological prejudice. I feel that these interests align very closely with Professor ______'s current work, as well as the Global Initiatives program which ________ University is justifiably proud of.
cookies for all if i get in! in addition to being a poet and scholar, i can bake a mean chocolate chip.
Howard Bloom argues that we are all, in one sense or another, late to the party. Reflecting upon and coming to terms with this belatedness is the primary task of the poet and the scholar. The task is even more daunting for the poet-scholar, especially in a time such as ours, when the English discipline has been radically decentered by both institutional pressures as well as competing theoretical constructs.
The literary critic of the period of high theory, like the philosopher that Nietzsche criticizes, "supposes that the value of his philosophy lies in the whole, in the structure; but posterity finds its value in the stone which he used for building, and which is used many more times after that for building--better." The time is ripe for a disciplinary reorganization, one that casts about the ruins of the theory wars for materials with which to build anew, and better.
Certainly, this is the work of a lifetime, if not several. I would be present myself as ambitious to the point of recklessness if I were to assert that I wanted to address these core issues of the English discipline during my studies at _________ University. My more modest aims, of studying the various strands of transatlantic literary modernism as they relate to popular culture (especially film noir), are my immediate concern. This project stems from my commitments as a poet, as a lover and student of langauge, and from my firm belief in a conception of the English discipline which transcends any particular national or ideological prejudice. I feel that these interests align very closely with Professor ______'s current work, as well as the Global Initiatives program which ________ University is justifiably proud of.