Well, much has happened since my last post and I am keeping my promise to not promise to update often. I told you!
First things first: I submitted my dissertation proposal (feel free to applaud; I'm bowing whether or not you are, so it would simply be silly if you didn't participate now). Now, I await the assignment of a dissertation supervisor and then the real work will begin!
It has been a very difficult road this term. I'm not going to lie to you, my dear bloggersphere: I wanted to quit a number of times, but I am very slowly beginning to see the light of day once more. Callie and I happened upon an epiphany this week that really helped me and revolutionised the way we are going about our writing. We realised that at this stage in our educational career, we have been endowed with critical powers!
Yep, that's right, I'm basically supposed to be a literary superhero now. I must don my cape of criticality and come to radically awesome conclusions about a text that have never before been excavated! I shall be: Scholastic Sara! Able to leap to literary conclusions in a single sentence!
And this basically scares me to death.
I've always been taught to make an assertion and then back it up, back it up, back. it. up! "Evidence, evidence, evidence!" was my battle cry, but now, that's not good enough. I do not mean that in a sarcastic way. I mean that at an MA level, I am held to a higher standard of writing; I am now expected to add my own views to the world of literary criticism. I don't know when exactly I crossed this threshold of responsibility; perhaps it was the day I graduated from Biola or the moment I stepped on the plane to come to Leeds, but I'm the critic now. Of course I must still research extensively and cite other scholars in my field, but I'm allowed, no, I'm actually encouraged to say something new, something that will not have critical evidence to support it yet, because it's my view.
I feel like raising my hand and asking, "You know this is me we're talking about right? Sara Brio? From Anaheim, CA? I'm no genius, I stick my foot in my mouth several upon several times each class session, and I didn't see ANY of the plot twists in Twilight coming! You seriously want to trust me to add to the canon of literary criticism? Fool, you cray cray!"
Perhaps, one day, someone will refer to my dissertation, my paper as evidence for their assertions.
I can't decide if this is freakin' awesome or downright insane, so I'm going to go watch some BBC television under my fluffy duvet with my tiny owl pillow (named Paco Anu Nani) in case it's the latter.
Dissertation Lowdown: 12,000-15,000 words to go. Title: Unknown. Topic: Submitted! Mood:Thisisreallyrealnowandfeelsverybigandscarilyimportant.
