anyone else disillusioned with humanities?

[Merik7]

If you only read one post in this discussion make it this one. Everyone else is just full of hot air (including myself).

I'm a little nervous about jumping into the fray, but here it goes: queenbee, I felt very similarly during my first semester in a literature MA program. Frankly, I simply chose the wrong classes; the texts didn't speak to me, and I started to feel disillusioned with literary study as a whole. However, during my second semester in my MA program, it clicked for me. I found a niche that I felt profoundly passionate about (feminist disability studies), and I saw the real world applications on a daily basis.

At the same time, I realized that all of my professors felt the same way about their chosen field of study; they were able to see how it connected to the material world. For example, one of my professors is a Spenser scholar. I took her seminar, and we spent about twelve weeks reading The Fairie Queene. Through those weeks, my professor revealed that she was fascinated with postcolonial themes in the text, specifically allusions to Ireland. This professor is from a postcolonial culture, and she often expressed that she was drawn to Spenser because she saw how his writing relates to the everyday struggles of postcolonial peoples.

If you truly love the Humanities, once you find your niche, you'll instantly begin to see how that field has real world repercussions. I was amazed at how quickly I fell back into love with literature once I discovered my academic interests, and then I began to see how all sorts of studies in the humanities are deeply connected to the material world. Even though I am attempting to switch to rhetoric and composition, I will always carry with me the analytical, critical thinking, and rhetorical tools I developed as an undergraduate and graduate student in literature.

[rems]

Wow. I came to GradCafe today to post this exact same thing. I just spent three hours reading an Enda Duffy article and now I want to blow my brains out (if I have any left).

I used Enda Duffy in my MA thesis, but I spelled his name "Edna." It wasn't until my defense that I got corrected by a prof who said, "You do know this is a guy right? It's Enda NOT Edna." Woops.

[arglooblaha]

-http://www.ehlinelaw.com/pages/3226/How_to_Become_a_Lawyer_With_No_Law_School_-_Be_a_Lawyer_With_No_College.htm

Also - find practical applications for your projects and encourage everyone else you come into contact to do so also. And don't write papers with obnoxiously pretentious words if you don't want to. I've read really great papers without them. And really, they are great.

[chalkboardsonata]

"The practical vs. the impractical" is a loaded dichotomy that accepts hilariously ironic categories of use.

I hate this thread so much.