7/21/2006
Another long week has passed. I read pretty much non-stop everyday and I am SO glad that the weekend is finally here. My eyes and my brain really need the rest. I finished the longest of Balzac's novels, Illusions Perdues, and I started Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes today. This is the last book that I am going to have time for this summer as the majority of the work I had planned to do was just not feasible in the time period I have to work in. If only I had about 2 years, then maybe I could start to make a SLIGHT dent in the intricate world of Balzac...
I am starting to get my things together for my presentation and my paper. I plan on spending the next 2 and a half weeks working on my paper and trying to put some sense to all of the works I have read. There is so much constantly happening in all of the books that I am afraid that I will have to go back and re-read certain parts in order to remember the interactions between certain characters.
Luckily, I am finding exactly the relationships and personality traits that I was hoping to find in the characters that I have chosen to use as contrasts and comparisons with my main focus, Rastignac. The last two books that I chose at random before this project even began are turning out to be the most informative and pertinent ones that I will most likely read. However, I am also discovering that this is exactly what the author had intended them to be. I was also amazed at what an extensive collection of literature our library has on Balzac and his works. I have found MANY sources that I had not even expected to find anywhere.
Now all that I have left is to finish this last week and lots of paper writing ahead....I will check back in about a week or so and let you know how the process goes!
Posted by sreader | Permanent Link
7/10/2006
I haven't put a post up lately because I hit somewhat of a road-block in my project. I realized that the initial goal that I intended to research is not going to be a realistic one in the short time period that I have left. I am meeting with my advisor tomorrow and now that I have a few more books under my belt, I am hoping that we can refocus the project while staying along the same lines. I think that I may look at one of the more frequently recurring characters, Eugene de Rastignac, and trace his voyage through society and the role of money and society in his life as well as his role in society and the economy.
I am half-way through my reading for the summer. I am hoping to pick up some speed the next week or two so that I can concentrate my time on research and working on a paper the last few weeks of SURF. I did decide to eliminate one of my books from the line-up because I got a little ahead of myself in assuming how much reading I could do in French a day. I have been finding the reading to actually go fairly well but I am definatly reading at a much slower pace. I am currently debating whether or not I want to switch to English for one or two of the bigger books or potentially even cut another one. If I do decide to write on only the one character and the characters relating to him, then the majority of the books that I have selected are not relevant for what I would like to do.
However, I have had a long day of reading and catching up on some research, so I am going to call it an early night so that I can get to the library early and get some pages under my belt in hopes of going to VA Tech for the weekend to visit my friend. I will try to remember to keep you updated more frequently on what is going on in my work, but most days it is just reading and nothing terribly interesting to report...we can't all be scientists in a lab with constantly changing results :)
Posted by sreader | Permanent Link
6/16/2006
The first week has come to an end. I had a very busy week doing some preliminary research and finding background information on both the novels and the author Honoré de Balzac. I continued work on, but did not finish a biography by Graham Robb. I will continue to work my way through this as my reading continues.
I completed the first of the novels, La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote (At the sign of the Cat and the Racket). Of the novels that I am reading, this is the first chronologically. It was a very good book and I am looking forward to coming across some of the characters again in later novels.
I am currently working on La Peau de Chagrin (The Magic Skin). So far it is a little more difficult for me to understand, but that may just be from not having taken a French class in several months. I am working through it at a pretty good pace.
Other than that, I am really looking forward to the first weekend here, I'm sure that there will be a bunch of things going on. Have a great weekend!
Posted by sreader | Permanent Link
6/12/2006
Today was the first official day of SURF and we all went to a luncheon and got to hear about everyones projects. It was very interesting to hear everything and meet all of the other participants.
I love the apartment I am in and am finally getting everything arranged and settled in. Luckily, it is jsut in time to start reading and finish my biography on Balzac so that I can start getting to the more in depth novels and really start to work on my project.
That is all that I have to say for now, I will be back when I get some more work done and have found out some more about my project.
Posted by sreader | Permanent Link
