Day 2

As I sit here still in my pajamas at 1:45 in the afternoon (convincing myself, as I often do, that I am more productive in comfortable clothes), I contemplate the nature of procrastination. So this week has been better than others. I've finished 2 books, including 1 today (see, staying in the pjs works), but I still haven't done any real work revising my dissertation proposal. I know why--I am completely intimidated by my topic, which, if I can praise myself for a moment, is quite good.

As I wrote yesterday (sorry, can't bring myself to use any "blog" terminology), my dissertation deals with the separation of spheres and lack thereof in 19th-century American women's lit. For decades, or I suppose I could say centuries since the notion of separate spheres originated in the late-18th century, scholars and authors alike have argued that women were relegated to the private sphere. But in the 1960s and 1970s scholars began reevaluating thier opinions, as they were wont to do in those decades. Since then the notion of separate spheres has been basically thrown out the window, and rightfully so as the very 19th-century women who advocated the separation of spheres violated that separation by writing, publishing, and lecturing. My dissertation deals specifically with the division of space and the notion that some spaces were public and others were private. Despite the fact that the separation of spheres has been proven to be less pervasive than originally thought, the actual separation of physical spaces still holds true in many instances. I am looking specifically at what I call interstitial spaces, spaces which are neither wholly public nor wholly private but somewhere in between. I am interested in how women writers' manipulate these spaces both in their fictional works and in the narratives. It seems to me that women writers use the spaces to argue that women so want to transgress the spheres and rolles that have been enforced upon them. In most instances, I see these spaces as positive, but in some cases the spaces are negative. I am in the process of sketching out chapters and trying to determine how much I want to discuss actual architecture, i.e. porches, stages, gardens, public parks, attics, etc.

My procrastination stems from my inability to articulate in a paragraph or less what I want to write on, but since I seem to have done just that, I think I'll make better use of my time and actually go write something to show my advisor. . .