academic q
So, I've been browsing Classics MPhil courses and floating potentially Latinish research proposals. However, I have an MA in Eng. Lit and really should continue down that road. Now, how do I tell whether I'm just going through a phase or whether this is really a better direction for me?
I have always had trouble with the third-hand sources that turn up in English studies and the reliance on a bunch of pretentious anti-fantasists using long words ON PURPOSE to look smart. I like the idea of having a few incontrovertible Primary Sources, especially studied in the original language (tu porro ne pios quidem, sed piissimos quaeris et, quod verbum omnino nullum in lingua Latina est ha ha I'm amazed I actually worked out which word he was bitching about). Also, when I did my first degree (joint Latin & English), the classics department were much nicer. Honestly, the infighting and sheer tossery of English studies beggars belief. Also I'd get a chance to study Greek. Yay.
OTOH, it's quite a departure from my last course and would involve a lot of fast talking and a step backwards to even get a place. And I have been studying English for years and have a research propsal into Serial Fiction all worked out, possibly involving BSG *gets interested remembering it again dammit DAMMIT*. I also have the sneaking feeling that studying my sweet little Curio is probably the classics equivalent of "Who was Shakespeare's Dark Lady?" ie: a dreadful old saw that the professors are sick of. Not to mention the deep patheticness of my actual Latin.
This is all separate from the question of whether I should save money I don't have in order to pay for a course that's just a giant essay anyway and isn't continual academia just a retreat into youth etc? I mean, if I were any sort of proper academic I'd have got better grades in the first place and hence Funding *cue fairy bells*. I'd shave my head and paint it mauve for funding, even just course fees. So I must want to do it. But now I don't know what 'it' is any more. Maybe I'll give it a few months. Hm, I could do a Latin MPhil and *then* pick my doctorate. Fie on specialism.
Any anecdotes about course-changing, postgradness and general study ramble welcome.
I have always had trouble with the third-hand sources that turn up in English studies and the reliance on a bunch of pretentious anti-fantasists using long words ON PURPOSE to look smart. I like the idea of having a few incontrovertible Primary Sources, especially studied in the original language (tu porro ne pios quidem, sed piissimos quaeris et, quod verbum omnino nullum in lingua Latina est ha ha I'm amazed I actually worked out which word he was bitching about). Also, when I did my first degree (joint Latin & English), the classics department were much nicer. Honestly, the infighting and sheer tossery of English studies beggars belief. Also I'd get a chance to study Greek. Yay.
OTOH, it's quite a departure from my last course and would involve a lot of fast talking and a step backwards to even get a place. And I have been studying English for years and have a research propsal into Serial Fiction all worked out, possibly involving BSG *gets interested remembering it again dammit DAMMIT*. I also have the sneaking feeling that studying my sweet little Curio is probably the classics equivalent of "Who was Shakespeare's Dark Lady?" ie: a dreadful old saw that the professors are sick of. Not to mention the deep patheticness of my actual Latin.
This is all separate from the question of whether I should save money I don't have in order to pay for a course that's just a giant essay anyway and isn't continual academia just a retreat into youth etc? I mean, if I were any sort of proper academic I'd have got better grades in the first place and hence Funding *cue fairy bells*. I'd shave my head and paint it mauve for funding, even just course fees. So I must want to do it. But now I don't know what 'it' is any more. Maybe I'll give it a few months. Hm, I could do a Latin MPhil and *then* pick my doctorate. Fie on specialism.
Any anecdotes about course-changing, postgradness and general study ramble welcome.