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So I've got this 30 pg honors essay to write this quarter, and I'm having a problem. Initially my idea was to write about the increasing dysfunctionality of the family/domestic sphere in gothic literature (as the origin point, not as the ending point, in which people are traditionally wounded/dead/insane/eaten/transformed/etc. as a matter of course). I had a list of five prospective core books, which was at least two too many. I need to cut it down to three, tops, but as I'm looking at the progression of the genre over time, I can't really go any less than that.
Over the past week, I've been trying to nail down my topic. My list of potential primary sources, however, has grown, not shrunk. I'm now up to 8? 9? Something like that. On top of that, my brain seems to be trying to meld the idea of the house in gothic lit as a symbol of the domestic sphere and its increasing dysfunction over time. Unfortunately, I am finding nothing in the way of scholarship that backs up my theory. Lots about houses as a symbol/allegory for the female body (thank you, womens' studies) but nothing about houses in as the embodiment of the domestic sphere/family, and nothing about that over multiple works. Now granted, there are a couple of secondary books I have yet to look at, and at least one of them may prove useful, but.... argh. Yes.
And, btw, houses have taken up such a huge portion of my brain that I'm not sure I can entirely get at my original idea by itself anymore, or that even if I could, I have enough to say about it. I mean, yes, the idea of a central, nuclear family as the central form of order from which everything degenerates into chaos has shifted and mutated over time, but... well, so what? What does it mean? Is that a symptom of something? Is it a larger statement? Does it actually, you know, do anything other than just lay there and say, "yeah, so?" I mean, that tracks the general progression of literature across the time periods and styles in question. Whoopty-freaking-do. Sigh.
So. Houses -- how they're portrayed, what happens to them, how it mirrors or stands apart from the fates of the characters, what it means if the house is public and not private (Jamaica Inn, The Shining, Shutter Island), the relationship of the characters (and more importantly, their families) to the houses and to each other...
Problem 1: That's way too freaking huge. Even for 30 pages.
Problem 2: I'm no closer to cutting down my sources. In fact, I'm further away than ever.
Problem 3: How many books do I need to read to accomplish this? Seriously? And how much time do I have?
Problem 4: Since I can't find any useful scholarship on houses as an overarching theme of Gothic literature (although it obviously is, and thus I must be missing something big, right?) much less on houses as related to the place of the domestic/family narrative within Gothic literature, I have absolutely no reassurance that I am not completely making shit up. Now granted, I can, have, and will undoubtedly again do so in pursuit of a completed assignment, but I don't really want to do that for my honors essay. I need to at least feel convinced of my argument, which means I have to dig down into it and really frame it out, and I would feel so much better if someone somewhere had written about this sort of thing. I'm not convinced of the strength of my argument or its place in the general scholarship on gothic literature. I really need to be in order to carry this off.
Problem 5: Holy crap, is this ever going to be the Paper of Close Reading. Again, I'm pretty strong in that area, so I'm not overly concerned with it, but... yeah. It puts me heavily in the realm of Potentially Just Making Shit Up.
In short, I am filled with argh and will doubtless rant about this periodically throughout the quarter. My apologies in advance for all my friends and loyal readers. Such is my life. :)
Over the past week, I've been trying to nail down my topic. My list of potential primary sources, however, has grown, not shrunk. I'm now up to 8? 9? Something like that. On top of that, my brain seems to be trying to meld the idea of the house in gothic lit as a symbol of the domestic sphere and its increasing dysfunction over time. Unfortunately, I am finding nothing in the way of scholarship that backs up my theory. Lots about houses as a symbol/allegory for the female body (thank you, womens' studies) but nothing about houses in as the embodiment of the domestic sphere/family, and nothing about that over multiple works. Now granted, there are a couple of secondary books I have yet to look at, and at least one of them may prove useful, but.... argh. Yes.
And, btw, houses have taken up such a huge portion of my brain that I'm not sure I can entirely get at my original idea by itself anymore, or that even if I could, I have enough to say about it. I mean, yes, the idea of a central, nuclear family as the central form of order from which everything degenerates into chaos has shifted and mutated over time, but... well, so what? What does it mean? Is that a symptom of something? Is it a larger statement? Does it actually, you know, do anything other than just lay there and say, "yeah, so?" I mean, that tracks the general progression of literature across the time periods and styles in question. Whoopty-freaking-do. Sigh.
So. Houses -- how they're portrayed, what happens to them, how it mirrors or stands apart from the fates of the characters, what it means if the house is public and not private (Jamaica Inn, The Shining, Shutter Island), the relationship of the characters (and more importantly, their families) to the houses and to each other...
Problem 1: That's way too freaking huge. Even for 30 pages.
Problem 2: I'm no closer to cutting down my sources. In fact, I'm further away than ever.
Problem 3: How many books do I need to read to accomplish this? Seriously? And how much time do I have?
Problem 4: Since I can't find any useful scholarship on houses as an overarching theme of Gothic literature (although it obviously is, and thus I must be missing something big, right?) much less on houses as related to the place of the domestic/family narrative within Gothic literature, I have absolutely no reassurance that I am not completely making shit up. Now granted, I can, have, and will undoubtedly again do so in pursuit of a completed assignment, but I don't really want to do that for my honors essay. I need to at least feel convinced of my argument, which means I have to dig down into it and really frame it out, and I would feel so much better if someone somewhere had written about this sort of thing. I'm not convinced of the strength of my argument or its place in the general scholarship on gothic literature. I really need to be in order to carry this off.
Problem 5: Holy crap, is this ever going to be the Paper of Close Reading. Again, I'm pretty strong in that area, so I'm not overly concerned with it, but... yeah. It puts me heavily in the realm of Potentially Just Making Shit Up.
In short, I am filled with argh and will doubtless rant about this periodically throughout the quarter. My apologies in advance for all my friends and loyal readers. Such is my life. :)
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 03:09 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 03:12 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 03:55 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 03:59 am (UTC)From:I have to cut it down, but I have no idea how yet. There's just too much.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 05:32 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-04-06 05:48 am (UTC)From:Many of the homes spoken of in what's considered "classic" Gothic literature are ancestral, largely. They have the fantastical, looming "sublime" elements in their structure largely because of a conscious mirroring of architectural elements of the soi-disant Gothic Catholic churches. This is due to wanting to point out the family's piety and supposed goodness (not to mention that most planned architecture of the time was either of a castle or a church).
When the literature describes a family's home as "crumbling," it often is also metaphorical for the decay happening within the family: most likely, a spiritual decay that mirrors what's happening to the architecture as well. When piety leaves the picture, darkness and terror rush in to fill the void and tear down the family structure: literally and metaphorically.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-07 04:45 pm (UTC)From:Bonus points if you can work in Northanger Abbey and Cold Comfort Farm?