Research progress!!!
Revised my thesis for my medieval class, wrote a new first page and a half for it, and ran it past my prof via email. He thinks it'll work, and reminds me that what I really need right now is a topic to research rather than a solidified thesis. Makes me feel better. However, I DO have the thesis, and I'm going to continue with it. :)
Also read a FANTASTIC essay that addresses SO MANY THINGS I'm working on right now: "Reading Like a Woman" by Anne G. Berggren (in Reading Sites: Social Difference and Reader Response, ed. Schweickart and Flynn). Have decided to use her angle of "reading like a woman" vs "reading like a man" to argue for the former. I will use Corinne as an example of how women's reading practices, which feminist academics devalue so much (believing that such practices reinforce patriarchal values), can actually promote the ideals of feminism. Then I will reapply this to Twilight, pointing out the ways the novels actually promote women's subversion of patriarchal values and glorify feminine things (such as motherhood) that the patriarchy (and even mainstream feminism) often denigrate. Have written the two pages of intro in that one.
It's so exciting! I'm telling you, the more I write on topics of women's reading, women's writing, popular literature, popular culture, fan culture... the more passionate I get about it, and the more I feel I have something to say that scholars aren't saying loudly enough. I really think this is the concentration for me.
Also read a FANTASTIC essay that addresses SO MANY THINGS I'm working on right now: "Reading Like a Woman" by Anne G. Berggren (in Reading Sites: Social Difference and Reader Response, ed. Schweickart and Flynn). Have decided to use her angle of "reading like a woman" vs "reading like a man" to argue for the former. I will use Corinne as an example of how women's reading practices, which feminist academics devalue so much (believing that such practices reinforce patriarchal values), can actually promote the ideals of feminism. Then I will reapply this to Twilight, pointing out the ways the novels actually promote women's subversion of patriarchal values and glorify feminine things (such as motherhood) that the patriarchy (and even mainstream feminism) often denigrate. Have written the two pages of intro in that one.
It's so exciting! I'm telling you, the more I write on topics of women's reading, women's writing, popular literature, popular culture, fan culture... the more passionate I get about it, and the more I feel I have something to say that scholars aren't saying loudly enough. I really think this is the concentration for me.