- 1 new article read, Kevin Harty’s close reading of The Green Knight (6 total articles received). Conference paper holding steady at 2138 words, or 7/10 recommended pages for a 20 minute talk. At this point, my concern isn’t writing enough, it’s of not having the space to talk about what I need to talk about. I can’t sacrifice any of the key parts, but I also can’t do them justice in the time I have. I’ll keep refining it more, see what I can do. The worst case scenario is that I have to move things around, but the good news is that, with the conference still two months off, I have the leeway to do that.
- Abstract sent off to another conference, another one in Europe. This one is incredibly high pressure for me, since, besides being in a major interdisciplinary medieval conference, this is a paper I’ve been formulating for years, it’ll be using research that I’ve been toying with since my undergrad days and that has never seen the light of day, it’s very personal and very important to me, and I’m working against the overall tide of advice in my own department, and this abstract was submitted quickly since today is the deadline and I wanted to get it in before it was too late in the UK. Still, it’s exciting because this is the first time since beginning my PhD that I can really work at what I actually specialize in. I feel a bit like a dog that’s been left to run in an open field, except that open field is “9th century Mythological Cycle texts.” I know what the advice is on this one, I know that this is my longest shot yet, especially since I’m not sure if there’ll be any interest in what I have to say, but...I have to try. If not here, then elsewhere, for another conference. (I already have one lined up if this one falls through.) I know there are some segments of my department that will think I’m less of a scholar for this, but I would only be less of a scholar for this if I didn’t try.
