melusine

exactly. and to kind of rephrase what i said earlier.. i am not scared of plagiarism either (as i said before- there's only so much originality out there, when it comes to literature), i just wouldn't want to have something i stated on a public forum biting me in the bum later if i end up accepted somewhere and somehow come in contact, in real life, with someone who's read some forum discussion where i've made myself clearly identifiable. i mean, all the programs i'm applying to are very small so if/when i come back posting some acceptance result on here, people might end up being able to relate "melusine" to "real live X studying at Y univeristy".. to come back to the actual focus thing: mine is v specific and has a pretty strong standpoint, so whenever i elaborate on it, i end up (much more so than in my carefully edited sop) expressing what i know to only be a private, unproven conviction of mine, which i, unfortunately, am pretty damn passionate about! however, this my opinion and focus are limited by my extent of knowledge and expertise (as an undergrad), of my subject at this point. i'm 99% sure it will change in the course of my grad studies, and i don't like immature ideas, unrsearched ideas that could turn out to be completely wrong to come haunting me later as the proverbial "demons" of my foolish youth.. lol i know, i know, that's a lot of "what ifs".. but this kind of thing has happened to me in the past, and trust me, it's not pleasant.

A couple weeks ago, the day after submitting my Brown app (one of my top choices btw), I dreamed I was with a bunch of ppl doing an interview there. Except "there" was my dingy old primary school, with asbestos ceilings and cobwebs and everything.. And the "interview" turned out to be some bizarro mix of Project Runway/American Idol. Basically, we were divided up in waiting rooms and someone official-looking would come into each room to tell if the ppl in it had been accepted or rejected. I was in the "accepted" room. And my initial reaction was to scream, jump up and race to the nearest bathroom and puke. my gym needs to get rid of its TVs.

meeh.. i applied to Harvard too. why didn't I get one?? (paranoia rising..)

that's a hard one for me.. I'm applying to Comparative Literature which is the best possible match for my interests/skills/who i am etc.. I was actually almost pressured by family to go into translation/interpreter's school for financial reasons (lit studies aren't exactly the place to make millions) and my current application decision was the result of a long and difficult battle as much with my parents and family back in Russia, as with myself, in figuring out what it is exactly that will make me happy (rather than slightly better off financially and miserable at a job i'd hate). so yeah. realistically speaking, i can't imagine a better academic path. in another world, however, i would've like to study operatic singing or keep on with ballet. of course, that would have required some sense of rhythm and coordination. neither of which i possess. *sigh*

um... i'm kind of on the fence with this one. i mean, i love to talk about my topic but in these times of applications/submissions, my paranoia has hit an all-time peak. it's not that i'm scared anyone will bother to "steal" my topic- it's nothing that original anyhow.. but a professor-friend of mine told me her colleagues in Harvard won't even share their current projects outside the privacy of their respective offices. i think i've already posted enough for people who really want to know to figure my specific interests out, but i'm not sure if i have the guts to put it all out in the open in a single post on a public forum. maybe later, but not today.

Late

awwww.. i did too! but the program i'm applying to probably doesn't give a damn.. i've found many people in my field (me included) firmly believe the world ended with their favorite author(s). one of my profs in undergrad (medievalist) couldn't even tell me what/where Kosovo was, but could recite "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" eyes closed. *sigh*

It totally is! Funny, my focus (in Comp Lit) actually latches on the levinasian concept of transcendence to apply it to a few literary movements/works of a few particular authors. fascinating subject.

LOL!!!! And i completely agree!! You know what the whole ordeal reminds me of? That scene in one of the Bridget Jones movies (forget which) where she checks her voicemail and the phone goes "You have no new messages. None whatsoever. Not even from your mother." hehe

I wish I could tell you why I love literature as much as I do, I wish I could explain why literature matters as much as it truly does.. unfortunately I would fail on both counts: my mediocre writing skills could never do the subject justice. let's just say literature often is one of those commonly disregarded, yet, inconspicuously pervasive foundational elements that shape and influence practically every thought, opinion, relationship or decision we make on both an individual and a global scale. it is also, to date, the most effective form of time travel! (not to mention inter-dimensional or transcendental) as for my studies, comparative literature is my most natural calling: i speak, think, read and write in three languages (often simultaneously and equally poorly!)

Swann's Way, the first tome of Marcel Proust's "Rememberence of things past" (I believe that's what it's called in English), which i'm reading in the original as my french is still, sadly better than my english. As for "zoning out" during the holidays, thankfully the books i get to read as part of my research are all equally pleasurable.. Well, except for Woolf's Orlando, maybe. But that's another story!

Ha! that´s what i´d like to think, only I haven´t submitted there yet. ... hmm. so should I try to change my focus now, or just leave things how they are and pretend i never saw this?

Because I am, as it appears, a masochist who feels the need to worry about stuff she cannot predict or affect in any way... And a sadist who likes to spread anxiety around.. (*evil laugh*) .. I thought I'd share my latest fear: scanning the website of my ultimate top choice school, I've noticed they just updated the current students page of my program. the nice list of friendly anonymous names is now a list of snappy mini-bios and taunting headshots of successful would-be peers. And... Surprise, surprise. Of the 15 or so ppl there, there are three who not only have the same language-combination that I do, as well as similar interests... One has the EXACT SAME FOCUS. seriously, same time period, same topic, same authors, same theorists. she even uses similar expressions/sentence structure to describe her project.. I feel like I've been scooped!! I know no one expects us to be original, especially at this stage in the game when the assistant librarian's pet turtle probably has more experience than me.. But still! I feel like whoever reads my SOP for that program will now think I just went on their current students' page and plagiarized somebody else's project!

unfortunately, my "alot" just happens to, also, be "the bare minimum to gradute". humph!

LOL! Exactly! That is exactly what I'm saying!

So.. My applications are almost all done (I am waiting for my updated transcript to mail the four remaining), and I've just realized what a hard time this past term has been for not only my brain, but also my body! I've just arrived home at my parents' for the holidays and, judging by their worried expressions, the effects are noticeable. What's creepy is that I hadn't realised the extent of it until I put on my old (size 2) pair of PJs which fell to my knees. My bum is gone! Apparently, a consequence of my (stress-induced) stomach ulcer and the fact that the only form of relaxation I've had time for this term was watching TV at the gym, is me being back to a pretty emaciated size zero. The other day, I was actually approached by someone downtown with a flier promoting drug-assistance rehab services. Oh well. Nothing a week of parent-cooking can't fix, but that leaves me wondering.. Has anybody else noticed any marked physical effects of the (often) stress-fuelled application process we've all just gone through?

LateAntique- yours sound pretty amazing as well.. I mean, two classes on Herodotus? That's like the best of literature and history combined! ..As for me. I had decided to only take 4 classes in Fall to leave myself time to work on apps.. Which means my last semester of undergrad is going to be 6 upper level literature classes. phew! But I'm really happy because, in the event that I do get into grad school somewhere, the classes I picked will be the best preparation possible for what I want to focus on. Here goes: European Renaissance Lit (from Petrarch to Du Bellay)- in French 18th Century British studies (the beginnings of modern capitalism: Pope, Defoe, Austen..) the Victorian Novel (Dickens, Hardy, Bronte..) English Modernism (Conrad, Woolf, Joyce, Eliot, Pound...) Proust - in French Poetry "after modernism" (Larkin, Plath, Atwood..)

Hemingway!

I'll be 23 if I get in and from where I come from (Europe) that's considered old. I graduated high school in France in 2005 and most of my high school friends are either Masters' graduates with jobs or going into their Phds, although most are definitly more into joining the work force in their respective fields.. Anyway, my point being that "maturity" as such 1)- has little to do with a person's actual age, and more with the invornment they're in, 2)- plays a much smaller part in a scholar's or specialist's research activities or employability than the skills and motivation acquired as part of their previous studies. To give you an example, one of my good friends is 22, has a degree in media studies and is a junior attachée communication with one of the biggest press agencies in France. Or, better yet, another friend who, at 23, has just opened her osteopathology practice adjascent to her dance studio. She's also already divorced, which although hardly an accomplishment, often intimates that she possesses that elusive "maturity" people keep harping on about...

awww- i love phd comics! i've been reading the strips for almost a year now!

I've actually been having the hardest time trying to "read for pleasure"! My boyfriend gave me Isabel Allende's Ines of my Soul for my birthday and I thought I could finally enjoy it over Xmas break but as soon as I start reading, my brain tries to pick it apart and a little frustrated voice inside my head screams "but where's the symbolism? where's the intertextuality? how can you just re-hash the same magical realism? who spends four paragraphs describing a "steamy sex scene" in renaissance spain, in the same narrative voice as the sex columnists' in last months cosmo?? what was the purpose of that sex scene, anyway??? where's the philosophical idea you're trying to convey?????" After a couple of days, I gave up and moved into my reading list for next term's classes. Am now back to prodding along through Joyce, and getting myself tangled up in Woolf. bliss.

@ catullus' 16! sorry to intrude on your thread, respected classisists, but this just reminded me of something i'd like to share (especially for those of you who might have also an inclination towards renaissance studies)! Is anyone familiar with Claude Chappuy's 1536 "Ode to the cunt"? It's part of the "anatomical blason" ande "contre-blason" trend, popular in Francois I's time. There's actually quite a few, ranging from the surprisingly sweet to the decidedly filthy. I also find that kinkiness often works as a trump-card when trying to legitimize your studies with people not familiar/interested in literature. Hmmm.. The empire just keeps falling and declining, doesn't it?

oh and, (you can add this to my studious list of latin/german reviews), I've just finished (re)watching the complete 3 seasons of Love Hina! All the brain cells dedicated to GRE vocab lists have now been refilled with japanese anime-speak. BAKA!!! good to see things are back to normal.

I've heard it tends to happen more frequently in languages and Comp Lit... Makes sense. You're expected to TA/teach one or more of your languages to first-year undergrads as part of your degree: of course the adcoms need to verify your foreign language skills before they admit you. That's especially true with popular languages like French, I think. A girl who did her undergrad with me at UBC is now in the MA French here and, frankly, her spoken French is really not that good, despite the excellent grades she's been getting. Now she's stuck teaching first year french and the department is starting to question their decision admitting her. While something like this might first go unnoticed here, I doubt they'd let it happen in a PHD program that accepts 1% of applicants.

lol! jacib- i hear ya! same for me except with Latin, German and post-classical western philosophy!