Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Promoting Narcissism

Despite the following entry...

I contend that I am not a narcissist.

This is my second year in the Master's Program for the English Department, but it is my third year in graduate school. I started in the French Department, felt too limited by class choices and literature options, and am now specializing in Comparative Literature.

My specific field of research is in Medieval Literature. I prefer to explore concepts in neo-medievalism such as video game culture, comic books, contemporary literature, film, and television. I am preparing a doctoral thesis comparing/contrasting Arthurian and Chivalric Romance to Japanese Shonen (boys') manga.

If you wonder how I chose this topic, it happened by pure chance. I had writer's block while writing a conference paper and decided to watch the anime series Bleach that my younger brothers had recommended. The first episode corresponded almost exactly to the tale of Perceval I had just read. The coincidence lead me to do a full investigation of the romance genre and boys' manga.

Lucky for me I'm in close contact with my family. My mom, two brothers, and sister still live in Lubbock. I have lived here since I was 5. I've now been at Tech for 6 years (excluding one semester between undergrad and grad). I live here with my husband Wally and my dog Jack.