Reflections on Theory

As our time together comes to close, I will have to echo a few thoughts: I should have absolutely taken this class earlier, and I have grown immensely as a researcher. It would be safe to say that JSTOR and the good folks at the library and I are good friends now. Better yet, with a little help with Nealon and Giroux, I feel as though I have a firmer grasp of the various modes of criticism that have developed throughout English Studies.

However difficult the project we assembled was as a whole, I really liked putting together the different pieces and encountering so many different and intriguing scholarly conversations. This exposure has led me to have a clearer vision of how I would like to contribute to the discourse, specifically by pursuing a History Ph.D. The research going on in the world of children’s literature and postcolonial studies is so fascinating and I’m glad I got to share my findings with you all.

One part of this course is to convey the necessity and underpinnings of theory itself, which the former I did not need to be convinced of. I came into this class with a measure of experience in theory, specifically with regards to Marxist and Formalist criticism (and I’m sure most of us have encountered postcolonial theory and postmodernism), but the sheer variety of analytical lenses that we learned about and utilized in our research was…well, it was amazing. This course made me think harder than I have had to in a very long time — and that’s a good thing, actually. Seeing all of you research and make so many interesting observations about the world we live in using the tools we’ve acquired, it’s actually inspiring in its own kind of way.

I’m really hoping this isn’t the end for our collaboration, that some of you will keep in contact. Your voices are important, and I look forward to what we will achieve together in the future as we go our separate ways. And most of all, I must thank Professor Vander Zee for facilitating this whole experience.

Good luck.

Viva la Revolucion!

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