dissertation woes

[k_navit]

I went this past week to pick up Leslie Lockett's _Anglo-Saxon Psychologies in the Vernacular and Latin Traditions_) published 2011, U of Toronto Press.  Her first chapter is my dissertation/writing so far, minus a consideration of homilies.  Seriously.  She says everything I was going to say about the state of the field, about the biases in

Comments

[matrygg]

I can help you in terms of making an edition, if you can somehow get the materials.

[k_navit]

The only way to get access to the mss at this point, afaik, is to go to Oxford. Too bad I didn't know I would need this when i was in Oxford. There are three editions of the homily already though, one done in the 30s in an article, one done in the 70s in Italian, and one in an unpublished diss from the 70s. The latter two are very difficult to get, but the diss in particular is nearly unassailable, not least of all b/c the author is an editor of the DOE (sigh)

The mss has not been released in the Microfiche Facsimile series yet.

That seems like the biggest problem at the moment, when combined with the fact that I have no paleography and did not really have a first-class OE education and am not really great with grammar. I mena, what would I do with the damned thing if I had it? I can't even read it. But then, the stickier points of grammar, orthography, and ms damage have been footnoted/emended/discussed between two of the three editions.

But I'm sure there are sticking points that I can't identify / am unaware of right now

[matrygg]

How much would Oxford want to image the parts you need? If you can get that, we can talk about paleography, transcription, and the like. Can you get the other editions?

I think it feels like a huge thing because it is huge when looked at as a whole, but the pieces are doable, and even if it doesn't come together quite the way you want, Knut's right: if it's good enough to get the chapter done that's all that matters.

[k_navit]

I have the other editions. (there is, of course, the DOE Corpus proper as well, but it's misleading in a few places; it's supposedly based on the diss but in fact there are some differences. Minor in terms of meaning but the diss has made a big difference in my translation in places where the DOE Corpus typescript version was confusing.) I don't know about Oxford. Somebody has to have images - maybe the author of that diss. Or they've been filmed for the Microfiche Facsimile project but not released, maybe. I'm not sure where to go/who to ask

Oxford you say

[ext_79993]

Argh, this all sounds really horrible, but don't despair. The dissertation has to be a contribution, it doesn't have to be the only contribution and you may well find that once the shock wears off you do have points of difference with Lockett that make some of your views worth hanging onto. Otherwise, well, she's giving you support for your interpretations even if you now have to put the causality of that the other way round. Try, as far as you can, to make this book a reason you can do less work in order to finish, not more.

More concretely, I am in Oxford as you know. Mail me with a shopping list of what you would need from Oxford and details of who is involved in what. I may be able to do stuff by talking to people that you cannot from there.

[fambrena]

I might be able to get you a copy of the diss---what's it called? Is it Toni Healey's, by any chance? (I know she did an edition for her diss).

[k_navit]

It is, and I have it, but thank you!