‘New poets inherit old problems and may waste a lot of their energy trying to come to terms with them.’
Eavan Boland, ‘Young Poets’, The Irish Times, 8 February 1986, Weekend Section, p. 5.
I’m starting to think about how to compose the chapter summaries I need to finalize in the coming months for my transfer of status from Probationary Research Student to a full DPhil status. I have a number of possible approaches for my chapters – I could deal with each poet in turn and certain aspects of tradition in their work, or address each aspect in turn and how the different poets approach that, or deal with a presiding influence on the poets in each chapter, and so on.
Inevitably though, the crux of the matter is that tradition is made up of inherited ‘old problems’ and in the case of the poets I am dealing with, some of these problems relate to gender.
Hi Alex! It’s nice to see I’m at the same stage as another PhD student! Chapter composing! I think I’ve become a bit over zealous, spending time thinking of eloquent words to make my chapters sound interesting and inviting;) Even though I’m fully aware they’re subject to change!
Congrats on meeting your deadline:)
Here’s to 2011!