The “so what” question seems to be the question that will constantly plague me in my literary career. This question is the first I must answer in my quest to formulate a topic for my thesis, write the thesis, and defend the argument I make in the thesis. Then, (if I can find myself in the lucky position) when I am working in an institution, I will also have to defend the fact that English is an important discipline worthy of a position in the faculty body and of funding from the university. The number of people who asked what I was going to do with a BA in English increased exponentially as I approached graduation, and my enrollment in graduate school has not lessened the questions I receive about the future and what I’m going to do with my degree..."teach?” The “hard” sciences typically receive much more respect and monetary support from the university or college than the disciplines that are unable to produce a concrete product or service.
I double majored in Psychology during my undergraduate education, and I saw how even that discipline is viewed with a milder form of the same skepticism and questioning that English, Sociology, Philosophy, and History scholars encounter. I am extremely interested in the human condition and the way people think (as most literary scholars are), and I think that my interest in Psychology was an extension of the interest in the inner workings of characters in novels. I am not sure if or how I will employ this secondary specialty in my work; Freud and Jung, major figures in the psychoanalytic world, are looked upon as charming relics in the modern Psychology world, studied as interesting historical theories that have little relevance in the modern therapeutic environment. However, Salinger, the proposed author of my thesis work, creates complex layered characters who can be viewed from these specific vantage points. However, what would be the importance of identifying the “shadow” or diagnosing a character with an oral fixation if the theories are not relevant to how the world functions today?
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