tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post4986195649512848559..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: Reading Off the List: Only ConnectCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-89044691352914091372007-08-26T22:27:00.000-04:002007-08-26T22:27:00.000-04:00Brandon: ITM offers hope and exciting prospects fo...Brandon: <I>ITM offers hope and exciting prospects for continued study of the Middle Ages in its growing connections, and has created an exciting atmosphere in which to begin my own work as a medieval grad student.</I> I'm jealous you get to begin your studies proper with ITM (and so many other fantastic academic blogs) already in place -- and that you know! I suppose a lot of blogs were already up and running when I started grad school back in '04 (you know, when we had to walk to school uphill in the snow both ways and such)...but I certainly didn't realize what a community it would become! :) Good luck with your beginning days!!<BR/><BR/>Eileen: I'm so glad I'm not the only person yet to read Howards End who still thinks its epigraph is a perfect mantra to have. <BR/><BR/>I went back into the archives over at OEinNY yesterday and realized that the first post you commented on over there was my first foray into speaking about Forster. "only connect" makes such a lovely connection, doesn't it. And may I say: I can't wait to get my hands on that Journal of Narrative Theory issue...I'm so glad to be almost done with orals! But apropos of your comments -- particularly the Chambers quote but also this: <BR/><BR/><I>This "something more" is what our scholarship might claim to chase, and if possible, to lovingly delineate, while also holding open [again] the space that allows the "more" to continue to be "more"--it will always be in excess of our methodogies for describing it, which is simply to say, however we try to explain the world and history [past and present], we always acknowledge there is "something else"--it keeps us humble, less arrogant, while also allowing us to pursue, with fervor even, the facts of "what was" and "what is" [without which, recuperation, of anything, doesn't stand a chance].</I> <BR/><BR/>-- it seems almost like, if narratives are necessary to being-in-the-world, it's that way of approaching them (always with humility, always with awareness of how incomplete our ideas are) that actually could open space for an ethical approach to constructing those narratives. I have so much reading to catch up on!<BR/><BR/>And of course Frantzen's fantastic. One of my advisers described one quote from his book as "one of those moments" where he's giving us directions in which the field needs to move. To think: not only is this a moment where we're being given good directions to move in -- but he's given us more than one moment like it.<BR/><BR/>Indiefaith: Well, if you don't mind my temporality-inflected thoughts on that, I'd imagine I'll be sharing some stuff I run across, as my dissertation is quite interested in the construction of a kind of "Sacred Time."**<BR/><BR/>JJC> <I>Intriguing, too, to see you return to a topic -- and, I believe, a quote -- from early in the OEinNY days, this time with so much confidence.</I> I'm a bit of a one-track mind when it comes to the Forster thing! :) But no, I remember those days and thoughts well. It's fascinating to see how much my "academic" voice (if it's fair to call it that) has grown in confidence in the past year or so. I'm pleased to think blogging's been a part of that gradual growth.<BR/><BR/>**afterthought, slightly shocked: I seem to have a dissertation!Mary Kate Hurleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14892991966276345782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-48707886726311638842007-08-24T14:43:00.000-04:002007-08-24T14:43:00.000-04:00So glad to have you here, MKH. Intriguing, too, to...So glad to have you here, MKH. Intriguing, too, to see you return to a topic -- and, I believe, a quote -- from early in the OEinNY days, this time with so much confidence.Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-13031858447478307752007-08-24T07:03:00.000-04:002007-08-24T07:03:00.000-04:00I have found it difficult to connect meaningfully ...I have found it difficult to connect meaningfully with the content of many blogs that I run across. For some reason this site has caught my attention even though I have read little from the medieval period. I hope you take that as a compliment. Most of you appear to have a much broader horizon in mind with the work that you are doing.<BR/>I have tried from my own limited framework develop a sense of what it is to connect, though my imagery is one of cartography (personal, social and theological).<BR/><BR/>"<I>What we gain is the possibility of tentatively seeing the “reality” of the world.</I>" <BR/><BR/>As medievalists I would be curious to hear how constructions of the sacred at that time addressed issues of "reality". This is the hub that most of my <A HREF="http://www.indiefaith.blogspot.com/" REL="nofollow">posts</A> return to.<BR/>Keep up the good work.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17045950595392790139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-90354111572923142392007-08-23T23:42:00.000-04:002007-08-23T23:42:00.000-04:00Wonderful post, MKH. Forster's "only connect" has ...Wonderful post, MKH. Forster's "only connect" has long been a mantra of mine, going back about 20 or so years, but I, too, have never read the novel [the shame, I tell you, the shame]. Living with a Victorianist, who was once an Edwardianist [hmmm], I have no excuses, I must say. But the larger points you make here about the inherent incompleteness of the world and the necessity for our scholarship to be about "forging connections," sure, but by implication, about making "more full" that always-incomplete world resonates so deeply for me in terms of what I myself am hoping a "new humanism" or "new medieval studies" can be about. To quote Iain Chambers, who we quote in our Intro. to the special issue of the "Journal of Narrative Theory,"<BR/><BR/>"Being in the world does not add up, it never arrives at the complete picture, the conclusive verdict. There is always something more that exceeds the frame we desire to impose."<BR/><BR/>This "something more" is what our scholarship might claim to chase, and if possible, to lovingly delineate, while also holding open [again] the space that allows the "more" to continue to be "more"--it will always be in excess of our methodogies for describing it, which is simply to say, however we try to explain the world and history [past and present], we always acknowledge there is "something else"--it keeps us humble, less arrogant, while also allowing us to pursue, with fervor even, the facts of "what was" and "what is" [without which, recuperation, of anything, doesn't stand a chance].<BR/><BR/>As to reading Frantzen belatedly, and into the night, I was there in 1999 doing the same thing, and my entire dissertation was actually a response to his book [I thought, at first, I was going to write that book until I discovered Frantzen had written it first--I was in a state of shock at first, then quickly recovered, realizing how much ground Frantzen had still left open for a history of the discipline that could take cultural and other theroretical studies approaches]. I honestly believe the field of Old English studies has still not even *begun* to deliver on the promises of that book, but some of us are trying. We are trying.Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-67862388223928008442007-08-23T18:32:00.000-04:002007-08-23T18:32:00.000-04:00First of all, MKH, congratulations on joining the ...First of all, MKH, congratulations on joining the ITM scholars and your inaugural post--well and beautifully said.<BR/><BR/><I>Scholarship, to this young medievalist, is about forging connections –not simply in works of the past but to them, as well among the massive body of texts that remain. Moreover..., it’s to allow, for scholarship, an “identity as transition”: to be willing to allow that influence to shape our scholarly lives, and the lives that scholarship can touch if we might let it.</I><BR/><BR/>I truly and sincerely hope that this is the direction that more medievalists look toward in the ever-evolving field of scholarship. From reading ITM and the emerging dialogue--often on the sidelines and quietly agreeing with so much that emerges from such intelligent, innovative scholars--I too see scholarship as you've characterized it, and hope that the medieval field continues to recognize the routes of "forging connections" exemplified and fostered by Jeffrey, Eileen, and Karl. Often (for me as a reader and a young medievalist), ITM offers hope and exciting prospects for continued study of the Middle Ages in its growing connections, and has created an exciting atmosphere in which to begin my own work as a medieval grad student. Your post codifies some of that exciting atmosphere in recognizing how Jeffrey, Eileen, and Karl have shaped the "connections" that they have fostered and the influence that they have laid for future scholarship.<BR/><BR/>Even more, your discussions on Old English in New York, your history with ITM, and this post reveal your own eager and adept scholarship alongside Jeffrey, Eileen, and Karl--further fostering the atmosphere of hope and excitement here and for the field in general. ITM will certainly benefit from your presence.bwhawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17909010609907741198noreply@blogger.com