Year 1, Day 59: Shakespeare Institute - A Thesis Proposal.

Despite spending hours a day writing, I feel like I'm getting nowhere.  Which I think has to do with the fact that writing only one perfectly crafted paragraph, over and over again during the course of a day, is not what I thought I'd be doing.  So, this is me, in the middle of writing a thesis proposal which will decide whether or not I'm continuing on to a PhD or if I'm going to be getting just a Master's Degree in Shakespeare Studies (*Note: Never thought I'd ever say "just a Master's Degree").  This thesis proposal is one that I am giving to the University of Birmingham to be considered for one of their Elite Scholarships.  That, along with grades from my previous terms spent at other Universities, will decide whether or not I am good enough to qualify.

The good part about all this investigation into my thesis is that I am finding books, articles, and research about the very topic I wish to discover and write about... has already been written.  This is not to say that I'm wasting my time here, as no one has covered my area just yet (or at least I haven't found the book that looks as if it was written by me four years in the future), but the research models are there.  You have no idea what it feels like to discover that you aren't crazy.  That the type of research you wanted to undertake has been done before.  That there are people out there in Internet-Land that can help you, if you are humble enough to look.

That being said, the type of research that I have wanted to participate in is called Practice as Research, though I did not know the name of it until a week ago, and there are a bunch of books that describe the process.  One very helpful one is even available entirely online through the University of Birmingham library, aptly named Practice as Research by Estelle Barrett and Barbara Bolt.  It tells the love story between research and artists who use their processes as a means of discovery.  "Bourdieu contends that because knowledge of the condition of production comes after the fact and occurs in the domain of rational communication, the finished product, the opus operatum, conceals the modus operandi (Bourdieu 1993: 158)."  (Barrett: 4)  I love this quote.  I can't use it, but I love this quote.  The authors are quoting a sociologist named Bourdieu to make their point, saying that the process by which we do things (specifically in the arts) is often hidden by the result, and since finding the vocabulary to talk about what has already happened exists in the common vernacular, we should use the same vocabulary to describe the process.  In paint, performance, or in writing, our processes are hidden in the end by the words we choose to describe them.

I love finding books like this, and I haven't even read the whole thing yet.  If you are at all interested in research in the arts, and think an arts-based PhD is for you... check it out.

Now, all I have to do is write it down so that it sounds scholarly to a group of academics that would be more inclined to think that they are just paying me to play around for three years and then write about it then they would if I told them that this is really serious to me.  One day, ya know after I get the money, the credit, and the PhD, I might actually post my full idea here (or somewhere else) and see if I get a response.  At the moment however, I'm a bit paranoid about posting my thesis idea on a public forum... it's not unheard of to get your idea stolen by someone else.

I swear to God I'm getting somewhere with this stuff.  I just hope it won't always take me four hours to write one paragraph.

If I chance to talk a little wild, forgive me. -- Henry VIII, Act I, Sc. IV.

Year 1, Day 59 -- Words Written: 0, Term Paper Topics: 2, Thesis Proposal: 0.5

Year 1, Day 45: Shakespeare Institute -- Situation Report.

So begins the end of term, where papers, presentations, and performances seem to all fall together into a perfect harmony of crap.  As of now, I am preparing for one short presentation (the aforementioned Q1 of Hamlet research), two four-thousand word essays for assessment, one weekend of performance of Edward the Second with the Shakespeare Institute Players (I'm doing the lighting... what else is new?), writing out my thesis proposal for a Scholarship application, and five seminars each for Textual Studies and Shakespeare's Legacy (the two classes I have this term.)  Though this will make no sense to anyone that is not a part of the Institute, it helps to write this stuff out so that I know exactly what I have ahead of me.

So, to complete the status update...
1. Five-minute presentation -- Q1 Hamlet: To what extent a theatre text?
Mostly finished this, though will need to cut down the text for the presentation to about eight minutes (currently at 9:10) so that when it gets to game time, I've got some breathing room.  Still need to finish the PowerPoint presentation for this.

2. Two Four-thousand Word Essays
a. Textual Studies Essay Topic:  "In what ways, and with what justification, has an awareness of theatre influenced the modern conceptualization and editorial treatment of Shakespeare's text?"

b. Shakespeare's Legacy Essay Topic:  "What is an 'adaptation' (or an 'appropriation'), and is it the best word for what other artists 'do' with Shakespeare?  How can we distinguish between a production of a Shakespearean play and an adaptation/ appropriation of it?  Explore with reference to 2-3 adaptations/ appropriations (of any play, from any time, from any place).

3. Lighting for Edward the Second.
Need to completely familiarize myself with the lighting board, so that tech for this show will go smoothly.  Don't think the design will be more than "lights up, lights down" but it can't hurt to know how to do all the fancy stuff.

4. Thesis Proposal.
Not normally would I need to do this until next Summer, but since I need the money and the University needs to know what I am planning to do in order to give me the money... I gotta do a two-page version of this right now.

5. Five seminars for Legacy & Textual Studies.
Lots of reading.  Lots. Of. Reading.

This is the stuff I am hip deep in thinking about right now.  Along with planning the Shakespeare Institute Film Night, an idea that was devised by myself and a lovely compatriot in study by the name of Kate Mueller.  The first night of this is this Friday at my house, and we are showing Shakespeare Re-Told: Much Ado About Nothing.  I've never seen it, so with the help of alcohol, popcorn, and cake, I should be able to get through it no problem.

I wish I could say that I'm thinking deep, original thoughts about Shakespeare and that I'm awesomer because of it... however, I think a great deal of my journey here is going to be spent indoors, reading and writing everything I've ever learned down on paper, and then defending it to a jury of people far more qualified to write about such topics.  The *fear* seems to be settling in again as today I read the Textual Companion to the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (or just some of it) and my professor (John Jowett, by name) was mentioned a bunch of times by the author of the companion.  I gotta write something amazing by the end of this term or I'm just gonna get an office filing job somewhere in the middle of America... it's an either/or thing for me right now.

Back to work.

"Take you me for a sponge my lord?" -- Hamlet, Act IV, Sc. II

Year 1, Day 45 -- Words Written: 1545, Term Paper Topics: 2.