My program is twenty months and for the first eight I will be taking classes, for the last twelve I will be working on my thesis: a 90-100 page research paper. Once it has written approval from my thesis adviser and a Departmental reviewer, I'll have to defend my thesis orally. The oral examination board is comprised of my thesis advisor, an internal examiner, and an external examiner.
Now, I don't want to make this post too boring so I am going to try my best to explain my thesis proposal as simply and quickly as possible.
The working title of my thesis is "Jane Austen's Heroines: Why We Still Love Them Two-Hundred Years Later" that will look at Austen's heroines individually and collectively and explore the numerous ways their characters can be interpreted. These interpretations will lead to a conclusion that explains the popularity of the Austen heroines in the "post-feminist" 21st century.
Clear as mud??
I'm sure most of it likely is quite clear except, perhaps, for the post-feminist part. I will admit, I didn't even know what post-feminism was when one of my professors suggested I propose a thesis that incorporated it. I had to do a substantial amount of research in order to write my own research proposal. In brief, post-feminism means after-feminism implying that feminism no longer exists in our society which may or may not be the case depending on who you ask/read. Do I think we live in a post-feminist society? Maybe. Will I have a more solid response to that question once I do significantly more research on the topic? Definitely. Enter graduate school and spending the better part of those twenty months in the University of New Brunswick library.
I thought arguing Austen's popularity from a feminist stand point was difficult; what am I thinking trying to argue her popularity from a post-feminist perspective?!
