For the last 4 months I've been working my way slowly but surely through the works of Adrienne Rich (on whom I would probably bet to win the imaginary reality show "America's Top Literary Stars"... or runner-up, in any case). It's been a long process, as she is extremely prolific. I've also been reading up on as much literary criticism as possible. All this with the intention of writing my thesis on her.
Well, long story short, I just can't justify it anymore. Up until the annotated bibliography assignment, I didn't even have something specific to focus on. I asked a professor I've worked with in the past to be my advisor, and he turned me down. That got me thinking. This project I want to do is going to take a lot of time. A lot more than let's say if I decided to pick up from a paper I've already written and expand it.
I have this paper I worked on over the summer, the one on Emily Dickinson I've mentioned a few times. I'll be presenting it at a conference next month, on the panel of the professor for whom I wrote the paper. Natural advisor there. (Haven't asked yet.) The work is halfway done for me.
So I've sold out. I feel good about it, though. Adrienne Rich is heavily influenced by Dickinson, so the more I learn about one, the more I'll learn about the other. The critics who are known for doing work on Rich (Albert Gelpi, Helen Vendler) also are known for their work on Dickinson. So this feels like a smart move and a smooth one. Eventually I will write something about Rich. But I know myself, and the stress that such a project-from-scratch would produce in me would negatively affect the project itself.
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