Here is a post about how my research project came to be!
General Topic
When deciding what I wanted
to focus on for my independent research project, and therefore what to discuss
on this blog, there were many decisions I needed to make. The first was obviously
what overall topic I wanted to study. From the beginning I knew I wanted to do
something with gender and/or queer studies, but I had a really tough time
coming up with what specifically I wanted to research. Eventually I tried to
think about books that I was especially interested in or had been important to
me and Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch
Blues immediately came to mind. I read it for the first time in high school
and have reread it many times since. It was the first time I read a book that
focused so individually on queer people and their lives and it was and
still is so thrilling to read, even though it deals with some very intense experiences.
I decided I wanted this book to be involved in my project in some way, but I still
wasn’t sure how. I thought about doing a deep dive on Feinberg’s work and basing
the project around her and her various novels and academic writings, but I didn’t
want something that had such a narrow focus. Finally, I realized what I wanted
to research was transgender literature, with Stone Butch Blues as one of my central pieces.
Theory,
Theory, Theory
Though the central pieces
in my project are mostly fiction, I realized that I need a base of theory to
use as a lens to view these books through. I came across the essays and other
materials that are becoming the backbone of this project through a number of
mediums. There were a few essays that I had read in past classes that I went
back to and reread, but much of it came from the professor that is helping through
this process, including some academic papers, some interviews, and a
documentary film. I am also adding to it with materials I am finding as I work
through each piece. This process is where this blog has been quite helpful. Knowing
that I will have to be posting blogs quite regularly, I have been motivated to
write everything I can immediately after I finish reading each essay, from my own personal thoughts, to how it relates to
other pieces I have read, to quotes that I want to remember when I begin writing the essay. This
process has allowed me to work through these pieces right after I read them,
instead of reading them and them setting them aside and forgetting what they
were about. This has also given me a backlog of blog drafts to finalize and post as I need
them. Writing about each of these essays has really helped me to connect the
ideas that are discussed in each of them and begin forming my own theories and
opinions that I can bring to the novels as I read them.
What’s
Next
I am still in the process
of reading through all of the essays and other supplementary material discussed
above. Soon I will also begin working through the books that I am trying
to focus my project around. As of right now my goal is to read four books, but
that may go down if I find myself running out of time. Obviously Stone Butch Blues is included, but I wanted
a variety of fiction to make my analysis of trans literature more thorough. I have
found another novel that looks at trans as well as non-binary genders in a very
unique way, a book of short stories that includes a number of trans and queer
characters, and a book that is part memoir, part magical realism, aiming to
turn the concept of the trans memoir on its head. Once I have made my way through
all or most of the texts I will begin drafting an essay that combines all of
the literature and theory together, with my end goal being the ability to
present this project at an undergraduate research conference.
Thanks so much for
reading about the genesis of my research project, I look forward to posting updates
as I move forward!
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