Tuesday, December 29, 2009
I am pleased to report that, for the second consecutive day, I made some significant progress in my reading, ploughing my way through as many pages in the past two days as in the previous eight or so days combined. So, while I still I have quite a bit of work ahead of me before I feel suitably prepared to begin the introduction, I am allowing myself a modest degree of optimism. I'd like to continue this trend.
For tomorrow: Read.
Labels: Dissertation
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Monday, December 28, 2009
After a string of frustratingly unproductive days, I had a fairly successful day today. I spent the afternoon and early evening traveling by train and bus, which gave me several uninterrupted hours of prime reading time to work my way through some of the philosophical readings I will be using for my introduction. I still have quite a long way to go before I feel confident in my preparation, but I am much, much farther along today than I was yesterday, and that's a good thing.
In dissertation-related news, I picked up a copy of Coetzee's Summertime, which looks wonderful. I look forward to reading it.
For tomorrow: Read.
Labels: Dissertation
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Saturday, December 19, 2009
I had a moderately successful day today in terms of reading. It seems that I have picked up my pace a bit, moving from that of the snail to that of the tortoise. Hopefully, I can squeeze a few more pages of reading in before I fall asleep tonight. That, at the very least would make up a bit for the sluggish pace of the past few days...
For tomorrow: Read.
Labels: Dissertation
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
I have been having a really hard time concentrating over the past few days. I don't know if the accumulated fatigue of the past semester is to blame or what, but, man, I have been wrestling with myself something fierce. Still, I've read a hundred pages of a six-hundred page book, so I have made some progress, though at a considerably slower rate than I wanted. I suspect some of the problem stems from the fact that I really, really want to get a lot of work done -- to finish the dissertation, in fact -- before the next semester begins and have, essentially, gotten myself all worked up. I mean, for the first time I feel like I have a deadline to meet...
For tomorrow: Read.
Labels: Dissertation, dissertation anxiety
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
Today was the last day of the semester at both campuses I have been teaching at this term, so I find myself looking at a weekend of heavy grading and, following that, a few weeks of relatively empty days I will use to work on finishing my dissertation. There's quite a bit of (re-)reading and note-taking I'd like to get through before I begin writing the introduction, so I anticipate a pretty intense few weeks.
On a happy note, upon investigating a spike in traffic directed to this site, I came across
Effacement of the Postcolonial Subject, a
new blog devoted to its author's process of writing a master's thesis on J. M. Coetzee. The author seems to have found some
inspiration in my blog project and has some very kind words to say about it. I wish my fellow Coetzee-blogger-scholar luck in what promises to be an exciting, challenging experience!
For tomorrow: Continue reading the theoretical material I checked out of the library today.
Labels: blog, Dissertation
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Sobriquet 61.4: Two Years In . . .
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Today marks the last day of the second year I have been working on my dissertation, so, to mark the occasion, here's the third installment in my dissertation by the numbers series:
Blog posts: 513.
"Fans" in the Sobriquet Magazine Fan Club: 85.
Courses taught: 19.
Gray hairs sprouted: About six.
Computers used: Five.
Articles published: Four.
Chapters written: Four, including the afterword.
Trips to Vermont: Three.
Short stories published: Two.
Computer crashes: Two.
Punk rock concerts attended: One (The Queers. They kicked ass).
Dissertations written: Almost one.
Sense of accomplishment: Better than a year ago.
For tomorrow: Research or read In the Heart of the Country.
Labels: blog, Dissertation
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
As I have mentioned a few times before, my Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be exhausting. After all, I wake up before seven, drive forty-five minutes to one college, teach until one, drive another forty-five minutes to another school, teach until seven, and drive an hour or so until I get back home. Not surprisingly, I find it a bit difficult to fit a whole lot of dissertation work into these long, crammed days. Today was no exception, though I did manage to squeeze a little bit of reading and note-taking into the gaps in an otherwise jam-packed morning schedule.
While I only read a few pages of theoretical material this morning, I can already feel myself beginning to make the sort of connections I will need to pull together for this final bit of writing. Fortuitously, I even came across the perfect epigraph for one of my chapters.
Still, despite the overall positive nature of today's developments, I still find myself struggling to adjust to the rather unique mode of preparation the introduction requires, abandoning depth for breadth and situating a pre-existing study (my own) within a larger theoretical framework in such a way as to satisfy both the casual reader and the seasoned Coetzee scholar while neither losing the former nor boring the latter.
For tomorrow: Keep reading and taking notes.
Labels: Dissertation
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Monday, December 7, 2009
I spoke with my supervisor on Friday afternoon, hoping to resolve a few of the concerns I have about the introduction. As usual, I walked out of her office with a greater sense of confidence than I'd had when I walked in and, more importantly, a greater sense of direction. Still, despite these very positive developments, I still found myself struggling to get any work done over the weekend. To be sure, I read a bit, but nowhere near as much as I would have liked. Ultimately, I think that the reason for my stalling is the same compounded burn-out brought on by a full teaching load of five courses wrapping up, a semester's worth of very long days, and nearly two years of working on the dissertation each day, without a break that I've alluded to before. This is unsurprising, of course, and even understandable, but the difficulty in getting myself to do anything productive always frustrates me. There's definitely a part of me that wants to wait until the semester is officially over to begin working on the introduction, which would make sense if it weren't for the fact that I feel like I am running on momentum. If I stop running, I suspect it might be difficult to pick up and go again.
So I go on.
One of the most difficult stages of dissertation-writing, I find, is the period during which the writer must sift through his or her raw research material, plucking out the relevant bits, trying not to feel too overwhelmed by the often huge pile of books and articles. And that's precisely where I find myself at the moment. So, as has been my strategy all along, I will try and do a tiny bit each day and blog about it to keep myself centered. Here goes.
For tomorrow: Read In the Heart of the Country or go over some of the theoretical material I checked out of the library today.
Labels: Dissertation
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
The end of the semester is never an easy time for anyone affiliated with a major research institution, and I am certainly no exception to this rule. Between the the time spent grading, prepping for five different classes, and holding extended office hours at two separate schools, I really haven't had much time to work on the dissertation. Still, while my progress has certainly slowed these past couple of weeks, I continue creeping towards the next and final stage of writing, which I will begin this month. It just does not feel that way sometimes.
For tomorrow: Read.
Labels: Dissertation
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