breath_of_fresh_eyre

I'm a passable Spanish reader and studied French before dropping out. I actually intended to make French my focus when I returned. I'm interested in how cultures are translated through language. Eventually I want to do translation, but the closest I got to that was translating Middle English during medieval literature classes. I've thought about English literature a lot, but no period or concepts really resonate enough with me enough—at least not yet. Edit: Actually...postcolonial literature might be a great compromise. I'm really interested in identity formation: I, Tituba, Wide Sargasso Sea et al, where writers center a nonwhite character from a canonical novel in a separate novel to respond to the first. But I don't know how to turn that into a real focus. Same with how Playing in the Dark outlines how American literature used blackness to define whiteness. It's so fascinating to me!

I had to drop out of undergrad a few years ago because my parents ran out of money. Now that I have a full-time job in policy research, I'm returning in the fall as a part-time student. I had about 30 credits left, and since I'll be taking 2 classes at a time, I assume it'll take about two years to complete undergrad and move on to a Master's program (since my grades weren't spectacular before I dropped out, partly due to the money issue). Before I left, I published a 25-page piece of lit crit—class analysis in 20th-century black American lit—and loved every minute of it. I'd like to pursue a doctorate in comparative literature, and my research interests include race and identity formation, TransAtlantic migration, postcolonial lit crit and the Caribbean. Books that have inspired me are Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark and Zita Nunes's Cannibal Democracy. (In a perfect world I'd get to study under her but she focuses on the Americas rather than the Caribbean?) In the meantime I feel totally unprepared to pursue any kinds of graduate program, MA or PhD. I've published a paper but that's about it. What do you suggest I do with the remainder of undergrad? Should I publish another paper? Do a presentation? Get involved with a research journal? Maybe do some teaching? The one thing I could fit into my schedule is getting another paper published, but what are the odds of publishing two papers in undergrad? I'd really like to do as much as I can (as a part-time student) until it's time to apply for a doctoral program!