Why Hello Once Again World, or at least ENG306,
It’s nice to be back on here after last week, which was my spring break away from class and Davidson. I visited a monastery and searched for St. Valentine in the books on saints as well as the liturgical calendar. I couldn’t find him on there…I am guessing he is too “old” of an saint now to still be commemorated; however, in the medieval times, St. Valentine was quite popularly remembered and shrines and such were dedicated to him. Connecting my post pre-spring break to this one, I had hoped to be more engaged in a rhythm and I think it was finally a success this week. I did manage to remain engaged consistently throughout the week, including today. Getting into the texts has been exciting, and I’m anticipating a fruitful and challenging weekend ahead as we prepare our literature reviews. Why, you ask? Well, precisely because the literature on my topic seems to be super scarce in general.
In class this week, we created an arena after reading an article on how students can break into the conversations already happening among scholars on our topic. The dilemma I am running into is that there doesn’t seem to be much a debate….well because there isn’t much chatter about this one holiday to begin. Sure, I have found some source but they are only but a handful and it has been more challenging than I expected figuring out how exactly they are speaking to each other (besides speaking about the same topic). Schmidt is my go-to scholar right now. He’s the expert on the field, I would say, aside from Oruch and Ansgar Kelley both of whom write more on the poet Chaucer and St. Valentine (and not the holiday’s modern “refashioning” as Schmidt has called it).
This week went by way quicker than I expected, and getting into the scholarship on my subject has been door-opening. I have also had some new leads this week by visiting a research librarian and meeting with a professor…..looking forward to what the next week brings.
A bitmoji to capture the week:
Until Next Time World but really ENG 306,
Fern
