Three Writing Projects

[rfmcdonald]

• For my upcoming orientalism/Edward Said presentation for my literary theory class, I'll be exploring the relationship of Polish literature to Poland's own orient, the kresy. Adam Mickiewicz (author of Pan Tadeusz) and Czeslaw Milosz (Nobel Prize-winning 20th century poet) will feature prominently, as two examples of Polish writers with strong relationships to the east, as seen through an orientalist prism.


• My medieval subjectivities paper will examine the early 16th century poetry of Wyatt. I'll try to make the case that the distinctions made by Wyatt between an appealing ideal of court life and the depressing and harmful reality reflects a distinction commonly made in Italy from the 14th century on. Wyatt's poetry. Direct influence from the Italian humanists (as opposed to indirect influence via France) might have come as a consequence of structural changes in England, of a modernization that brought England closer to continental/Italian models of polity and society.


• I'm thinking of submitting an article to JTAS, a variant article for the GURPS Traveller role-playing game system.