Confessions of a Chronic Dork

Singing along to: Cat Stevens, How Can I Tell You?

Or rather, a thesis is one, sort of, but the problem isn't that I can't think of a topic. It's that I can think of too many.

I don't have to decide on a subject now, but I have several friends who already know what they're writing about, and their topics are uniformly cool. I'm jealous of them. Also, I think I'd feel better about starting a forty-odd-page paper in a couple months if I knew what I wanted to write on. Like most other aspects of the medieval studies department here, the thesis guidelines are fluid. According to my adviser, the only rule is that it has to be multi-disciplinary. No problem: at this point, I don't think I could approach history any other way, because I really don't believe you can separate the art from the literature from the politics from the religion. Not in the Middle Ages, anyway.

This free rein is frequently delightful (distribution requirements within majors is something for those silly history and English majors to worry about, not me), but in this case it's also stifling: so many choices, so little time! Plus, the subject that I'm especially interested in, rare books and manuscripts, is not really an option, probably. I have neither the skills (paleography, adequate Latin) nor the resources to tackle something that awesome for my undergraduate thesis. (But don't worry, I intend to spend graduate school--and then hopefully the rest of my life--getting much better acquainted with really old books.)

So I did what I always do in situations like this: I made a list of other topics that interest me. It's a long list. I also made a list of topics that do not interest me, in hopes that it might narrow things down a bit. It helped, but only a little bit. (That list basically consists of theology/philosophy (except for monasticism), Bede, and anything to do with Italy.)

I stared at those lists for awhile, and thought, well, maybe something on England, pre-1066. I really liked that book on Alfred the Great I read last semester, and he's both really cool (like Charlemagne, but English) and late enough to keep me safely away from Bede. Can't think of anything more specific offhand, but maybe if I do more reading something will come to me. Maybe.

Then I read Chaucer's Troilus & Criseyde for class, and, thought hmm, maybe I could write something on female sovereignty in medieval romances, which have done some interesting things with gender roles. Not exactly original, but this is an undergraduate thesis we're talking about here. "Groundbreaking" is not a requirement. Besides, it plays into my interest in gender, social history, and literature. (Also, "sovereignty" is an impressive-sounding word. I would feel smarter just having that on my cover page.)

Then I started writing a paper on the use of setting in Troilus, and thought, whoa damn, I could do a lot with this too, by expanding it to a discussion of the use of classical themes and settings in medieval art and literature. (Actually, that was the original topic for the current paper, but I quickly realized that it is way too big of a topic for a 5-7 page paper.) So I started getting excited about writing a thesis on that multidisciplinary mess, which happens to tie in three of my other favorite things: art, literature, and political power/rhetoric. (I have a lot of favorite things. That may be the source of my problems.)

Actually, it seems that my indecision is not limited to my thesis. Right now I'm in the midst of writing a paper, due tomorrow, whose topic I switched last night. I spent a long time debating the pros and cons of asking the professor about this (potentially a wise move, given that I turned in an abstract two weeks ago with proposed topic #1), but I decided in the end to follow this piece of sage advice, learned from my father: It's easier to get forgiveness than permission. And, after all, my topic has not changed so drastically. I'm still writing about the Bayeux Tapestry, I'm just considering it in a different light. A light that is much, much easier to write about and research. That's totally kosher, right?

Yeah, I hope so.

Labels: College