They tell you that doing this Ph D stuff is lonely work and I've never really understood that. I mean, yes, of course you're 'ploughing a lone furrow', because it's your Ph D and the whole point of doing it is that it's something that hasn't been done before. That's not a difficult concept. And yes you're working 'all on your own', but then when have you ever not? I didn't write my MA essays and dissertations in tandem with other people. There wasn't a joint essay where, after long arguments about the relative merits and demerits of the Bronte Sisters I wrote half an admiring essay on Anne's work while someone else did the other half on Charlotte's. It's never been much more than me and the books.
But there is something different about the Ph D and it's something I'm struggling with. No-one checks up on what you're doing. I'm not saying I want to fill in a time sheet to prove I'm putting in the hours, but I would feel more confident if someone said 'What are you doing? Why? Is that the best way to go about it?' It may be that this in effect is the Big Step Up: they make a sweeping suggestion like 'It would be good to compare your poet with the other poets writing at the time' and together you narrow that down to some poets and some themes. And then you're cast adrift to get on with it. Which is fine. I'm rowing in the right direction I know, I just feel it would be good if someone checked to see if I'm doing the navigation right. Perhaps all other students have a high confidence in their own micro-methodology. Perhaps I should have a high confidence in mine. But I don't.
I press on regardless, and in the hope that my next candidate for compare and contrast is a happier bunny than Norman MacCaig. (Who incidentally would have been intellectually horrified at the concept of calling a bunny happy.)
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