All of my first graduate school papers are finished. Just took all my books back to the library, so if you've been looking for all the texts on Early Modern gender and Shakespeare feminist criticism, they'll be back on the shelves by week's end. Now, I must complete an outside of class final exam, and I'm 1-2-3 home free....Almost. I mean, I still have the NYC trip beginning on Thursday (that's right, THURSDAY). The small town boy is going places, yessir.
Just so you know, my final paper for the Renaissance Tragedy class, entitled "Gender, Agency, and "Witchspace" in Macbeth" is probably the best academic paper I've ever written. So, it could have been researched better, and I'm sure it's vague and tangential in places. But I have an interesting (and dare I say new?) reading of the text: I argue that the witches in the play are gendered female (the topic of their gender is highly debated among critics) and that they have agency to de-stabilize the patriarchal dominant culture (it's almost absurd to argue the witches have agency in some critical circles) because of their marginalized space, which I term "witchspace" (way to invent a concept!). Witchspace is a gendered arena in which destruction, disorder, and bewitching are enacted on the dominant culture through Macbeth. The witches have agency in this space because they project the social problem of what to do with women who don't fit into patriarchal gender imperatives back on society. In doing so, they undo patriarchy. Check out 4.1--the necromancy scene--where the witches create the brew that reveals the prophecy that ultimately undoes Macbeth and the state (the whole "none of woman born, Burnim Wood to Dusinane" thing) with body parts of marginalized persons--a Jew, a Tartar, a Turk, and a "birth-strangled babe ditch-delivered by a drab" if you want to see textual evidence of the power marginalized bodies in marginalized spaces have.
Yessir, if I learned one thing at good ol' UCA, it's how to do a close reading of a text. Many thanks to Mary Ruth Marotte and Wayne Stengel for pushing me to dig in and do sound, interesting, and textually supported readings.
Tomorrow is the final exam in my 101 class. Last day with my kids. My mentor's bringing donuts, and I'm supplying the OJ. I'll miss those brilliant young men and women.
Off to pack. Can you believe it--I'm three days from New York City, and I'm three days from you.
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1 comment:
Ooh, you did the kind of criticism I like--you actually use textual evidence to support a point!! Good work...you should see if someone will help you send it in for publication :).
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