and,vaster

I posted the Berkeley acceptance. Sorry about the lack of information—I didn’t know what to add. Still a bit shocked by the news!

I need to stop refreshing my emails and this page for Berkeley news. I should not have looked at the projected dates--so nervous!

@dreamchaser What do you mean by “the field in general?” I want to make sure that we’re talking about the same thing. I haven’t described a specific project, like “frame narratives in three seafaring tales,” but have indicated a time period and theoretical approach. Plus, I’ve described the general arguments that I tend to make/like to make within that context. It is somewhat specific—I’ve basically said, “Here’s the direction I would go in if admitted sans references to specific texts.” I’m not sure if that’s similar to what you did, or even if that’s the right approach, so hopefully others will weigh in.

That’s basically my problem. Because my proposed research is so specific, it’s not that helpful to talk about the trends in my time period as a whole. However, in trying to narrow my focus, the conversation becomes ridiculously complex. As @jrockford27 mentioned, there’s not a lot of space! In my original question, I was trying to figure out whether others sought to place their research in a larger critical context (timeline? conversation?), or whether they were more focused on relating their work to specific theories, individuals, etc. In other words, how did you end up framing your work in the SoP? Or did you at all?

Hello, GradCafe. This is my first post, but I’ve been reading the forum for a long time. In your statement of purpose, did you discuss how your research fit into the current climate of your proposed field? If so, how? What did you do if your research combined two or more distinct areas that had their own sets of trends? What did you do if your work is often text specific (or text first)? What did you do if your research was either not popularly explored or ever explored in depth? I hope that was clear. If you have any advice that’s even vaguely related, I’d be happy to hear it!