Sorry I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks, but I am happy to announce that I have passed my qualifying exam, commonly known as "the orals," as part of my arduous journey toward my doctorate. The exam is two hours long, with each examiner asking questions for 40 minutes each. As my particular focus is 19th century literature of the antebellum era, I was questioned on three field lists:
1) the "American Renaissance" era
2) 19th century women writers (religion, abolition, and women's rights)
3) race and antebellum culture.
My three examiners on the lists were David S. Reynolds (also serving as my dissertation director), Hildegard Hoeller, and Robert Reid-Pharr. I must say, the exam was mentally exhausting, and I felt a bit fatigued when it was over, but I am happy to report that I passed! Having the orals behind me means that I can focus fully on my next phase, which is the dissertation prospectus. I am trying to complete a second draft before I go to my conference in November, so I have set Halloween (my favorite holiday!) as my deadline to submit the draft to Prof. Reynolds. I also will be able to breathe a little easier and post more often to this blog.
My next blog will focus on representations of African American children in two seminal texts of the antebellum era. Want to guess what the texts are?
All best, Rebecca
4 comments:
Congratulations,look forward to your next bloh
Rebecca, is this illustrator Kemble?
Thanks, Doc--next post coming soon!
Melvyn--no, the pic of Topsy was illustrated by George Thomas and T.R. Macquoid for Houghton Mifflin's 1888 edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin. The image of Pip is actually from a contemporary illustrator named Catherine Kanner. She has illustrated several books for the Melville Press, including "Cetus, the Whale," which this one is from. It was published in 1996.
Good for you Rebecca, hope that you will publish parts of your presentation at SAMLA! Mary and Greg
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