Misrule - Thesis

Judith Ridge, MA

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:18:47 +1000

Well, after the longest Masters degree in history, I finally graduated today! I began my MA in children's literature at Macquarie University, where I also did my undergraduate degree, back in about 1989 or 1990. After the course work, I began my thesis on Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci novels (and time in her books generally—too many eggs in that basket which is why the thing never came together), which I abandoned when life got in the way (aka divorce).

It took me more than ten years to feel settled enough in my life and work to re-enrol in the Masters, by which time the rules had changed and I had to do a few more courses, which I'm very grateful for, because it was such a long time since I'd been involved with academic writing (plus I just really ejoyed them, girly swat that I am).

When I first re-enrolled, I planned to write my thesis about Cynthia Voigt's "Bad Girls" books, then I toyed with the idea of representations of masculinity in Australian YA (before realising, what am I thinking? I'm not that interested in representations of masculinity in Australian YA), before settling on a great love and interest—fairy tale retellings.

I ended up writing a thesis about second wave feminist criticisms of the fairy tale, and how (mostly female) writers of fairy tale retellings of fairy tales have found feminist possibilities within the narrative framework of the tales. I wrote about two novels by Donna Jo Napoli: Bound (pretty successfully, I think—oh, and follow that link: fantastic teen review of the book) and Beast (not so successfully—maybe it was that masculine perspective that got me undone!). I ended up with a Distinction for the thesis, which I was ridiculously disappointed by, because I'd got HDs for all my course work, but I guess I can live with that now. I actually handed it in more than 12 months ago, but a succession of admin stuffups meant I didn't graduate until today.

Mum and Dad came along with me, as well as my best friend Cathy, who I met on enrollment day in 1982 in the very place I graduated (for the second time) today. The uni has changed so much since we were undergraduates—Cathy hasn't been back since 1986, and she said she found the experience quite an emotional one. I feel very at home there, having been on and off campus (including a stint tutoring undergrad children's lit students a few years ago), and hope that my association will continue, maybe with some more teaching—who knows, maybe with a return trip to get me one of those squishy black velvet hats and purple robes... (OK, that's not going to happen in a hurry!)

My supervisor, John Stephens, was part of the official party at today's graduation. I was seated in the front seat on the aisle, dead in front of the stage, and John saw me when he was walking down the stairs behind the stage with the official procession, and gave me a cheery wave, which was a touch undignified but very, very welcomed by me! John was a wonderful and most fore-bearing supervisor, and it was a great privilege to have the opportunity to work with him. Plus he's someone I am very fond of. He encouraged and pushed me in every way possible, and it was with his help and support that I had the chance to present a paper at the ACLAR conference a few years ago. So thanks, John, if you're reading this. Oh, and I've found a few more of your books I need to return...

And the day turned out to have a nice surprise. One of the young people graduating with a bachelor degree was, how do I put this? My ex niece? Can you have an ex niece? Anyway, she's the niece of the person I used to be married to, and I saw her name in the program, and recognised her on stage (even though I haven't seen her in at least 14 years), and then found her and her parents after the ceremony. It was lovely to see them—no hard feelings there!—and nice to know that the girls (I had four extra nieces back in the day) are growing up and doing so well.

So here's me and John, and me and Mum and Dad. It's a good feeling to be able to officially claim those letters as my own—although here's a question for you. Now I have the MA, do I drop the BA? And what do I do with the Dip Ed? Any thoughts? (Not that I use my degrees in my signature, but you never know when it might be useful...) (Oh, and I'll put the rest of the pics up on my flickr account.)

Results

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 18:35:47 +1000

I've received my results for my MA thesis. I was awarded a Distinction — just three marks off an HD, and so in my usual over-achieving fashion, I spent the past two days feeling miserable about it! I got HDs for all my course work, so to not achieve that at thesis level was a real disappointment, especially given I was working at a much higher theoretical level for the thesis than I did for my course work essays. (It has been pointed out to me that I am my own worst enemy and set the bar very high for myself...)

I admit, I am hoping that I will still get an HD overall — the thesis is a quarter of the overall result.

So, I'm not sure I can call myself Judith Ridge, MA in Children's Literature until after actual graduation, but, gentle reader, I thought you'd like to know.

I'm having pizza to celebrate.

Submitted

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:55:42 +1000

The everlasting thesis, that is.

I know there's more work to be done: there's one chapter I am really not happy with, but this is a remarkable day nevertheless.

Hurrah!

This Is The State I'm In

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Sat, 05 May 2007 10:57:46 +1000

I had just settled down to work this morning, writing up my notes from my meeting with my supervisor yesterday, when I managed to tip over an entire glass of diet coke. All over the desk, onto the floor, all over the powerboard—the powerpoint, of course, being entirely inaccessible behind the filing cabinet—all over me. First thing I pulled out all the powerleads in the board, expecting any moment that either it or I would go up in a puff of smoke. Then I grabbed the stack of books (with my borrowed copy of Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion on the bottom) and raced out to grab a teatowel. Wiped down the books. Back to the study to soak up as much (oh woe!) wasted diet coke and to rescue Geraldine McCaughrean's Oxford Treasury of Fairy Tales, which was propping up my laptop which miraculously DID NOT GET A DROP ON IT. Thank god for the pinched nerve that has been plaguing me for weeks and the physio's advice to elevate the very expensive MacBook Pro. And Geraldine's OK too—just a bit of damp on the laminated slipjacket. And Jack's OK too—and somehow, not a single drop landed on my precious paper-covered Andrew Land's Blue Fairy Book.

The printer—aargh! The printer! OK, dry off the printer. Now soak up more puddles of coke.

What about that powerboard? Why isn't there a massive electrical fire in here?

Five teatowels later...

Off with the wet jeans and the damp Texas Woman's University T-Shirt (thanks, Sylvia!) which I like to wear while I'm working on my thesis to convince myself I Really Can Do This—I'm an Honorary Texas Woman! On with the cotton trousers and my Clarice Bean T-Shirt to remind myself I am Utterly a Disaster.

At least now I have a full load of washing. How many distractions can one poor post-graduate student devise for herself?

And dammit, I'm going to have to go and buy more Diet Coke...

A quick personal note

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:21:16 +1000

Lots of people have been curious as to how my thesis is going. I have been on leave from work for the past few weeks as my final deadline (after far too many years and re-enrollments!) looms. The good news is that today I sent off a finished (but not final) draft of the first, and most difficult section, of the thesis. I've spent months on this chapter, grappling with some very complex theoretical reading, and at times I have wondered if I actually know what I am talking (writing) about! My supervisor, Professor John Stephens, has challenged (and supported me) the whole way to deepen my thinking and understanding, and to heighten my critical faculties. It's been hard going, but having finally got to this point with Chapter One is a huge weight off my shoulders (that is, until John gets back to me with his notes!).

So, after I sent off Chapter One, I treated myself to two episodes of Gilmore Girls. Tomorrow I get stuck into the main body of the thesis, the fairy tale retellings of Donna Jo Napoli. (Don't worry, I have lots of work already done about the books and a fair bit written—now I have to pull it into shape to be MA/John worthy!)

Thanks to everyone who has expressed interest and support. Keep your fingers crossed for e over the coming two months!

Why I can't get any work done.

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:13:41 +1100

ACLAR Conference 2006

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:36:00 +1000

I gave my first academic paper at the 2006 ACLAR conference, Children's Literature at the Edge: New Texts, New Technologies, New Readings, New Readers, held last Thursday and Friday at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. My paper was titled Feminist Criticism, Narrative Theory and the Fairy Tale Retellings of Donna Jo Napoli. (Regular readers will recognise that this is more or less a summary of my MA thesis topic.)

I didn't actually think, about a fortnight out, that I'd make it to ACLAR: I set aside some time to write my paper, and got sick instead, and I was really concerned about my ability to write a paper I'd be happy to present to my post-grad peers, and to the children's literature professors (including my own supervisor) attending the conference. But happily, it did all come together, and in fact writing the ACLAR paper ended up being a really helpful process, as it helped to focus my thinking, my arguments and my theoretical position (and highlight where I've still got a lot of work to do).

Here are is a selection of the papers I attended:

Debra Dudek: Under the Wire: Detainee Activism in Australian Children's Literature. A critical appreciation of Morris Gleitzman's Boy Overboard and Girl Underground.
Leah Gerber: "If I've Arksed Youse Boys Once I've Arksed Youse Boys a Thousand Times!": The Translation of Phillip Gwynne's Deadly Unna into German. A fascinating insight into the problems involved in translating vernacular Australian English, via one of my all-time favourite YA novels.
Mio Bryce: The Anime Haibane Renmai (Charcoal Feather Federation): An Enclave for Hurt, Alienated Souls. I'm wanting to see this anime series about fallen angels after hearing Mio speak. What is it about redemption that it keeps turning up in YA friendly texts lately?
Natasha Giardina: We Enter a Time of Calamity: Informed and "Informated" Teens Inside and Outside Young Adult Fiction. Natasha put the rest of our modest Powerpoint presentations to shame with her dynamic multi-media intro to her paper, which looked at anxieties about young people and their engagement with technology, via MT Anderson's Feed and other recent YA SF. (Conclusion? The kids are alright...)
Kate McInally: Starving Desire: The Anorexic Journey in Leaving Jetty Road and Killing Aurora. Interesting look at the way eating disorders are aligned with female desire in the novels in question.
Lian Beveridge: Advocating and Celebrating the Abomination of Sodomy: The Cultural Reception of Queer Children's Literature. I'm trying to remember where the first half of Lian's paper's title came from: I think it was a comment on a blog. Anyway, she gave a comprehensive overview of gay relationships as depicted in picture books, from early examples of issue-focused books like Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin through to more recent books such as King and King.
Radhiah Chowdhury: A Chosen Sacrifice: The Doomed Destiny of the Child Messiah. Child messiahs in Pullman, Lewis and Rowling (get a raw deal!).
Diana Hodge: Teenage Chick Lit: Smart, Witty and Literate as Hell? Highly entertaining analysis of the likes of Georgia Nicolson and the much-maligned Gossip Girls.
Yu-Chi Liu: Constructing Gender: The Father-Daughter Relationship in Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Mulan. Fascinating! The title says it all; great paper.
Caroline Webb: "Change the Story, Change the World": Witches/Crones as Heroes in Novels by Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones. An interesting cousin to my own paper.

And from my post-grad mates at Macquarie Uni:

Beppie Keane: Exploding Truth and Justice: Suicide Bombers, Conservatism and Liberal Humanism in William Nicholson's Seeker.
Alison Halliday: An Awfully Big Adventure: Killing Death in War Stories for Children.

Also, papers on magic realism (good to meet Teya Rosenberg), an invigorating opening keynote from Kerry Mallan (she of the curly question to my own paper!) and a fabulous plenary with four recent PhD graduates: Erica Hateley, Kathryn James, Helen Kilpatrick and Adrian Schober.

Socially, the conference was a hoot: I got to meet child_lit friends (Erica and Lian, plus some lurkers), and caught up with Natalie Hoyle, who attended ACLAR from the US with her mother—I met Natalie at CLNE last year in Massachusetts! The conference dinner was held on Thursday night at Dante's (Melbourne is just too trendy for words), with a number of us demure children's lit types closing the bar at about 1am. (And, so I am led to believe, some of the professors stayed up even later than that...!)

I also caught up with Melbourne children's book pals Liz Honey (who gave me a bed to sleep in for the duration of the conference), Meredith Costain and Meme McDonald.

The Saturday after the conference was a cold, wet, miserable Melbourne winter's day, and I was developing a streaming cough and cold (which I've still got), but I ventured out anyway—had brunch with Meme, went shopping at Reader's Feast and Minotaur, and met up with Beppie to see the fabulous Picasso: Love and War exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Am now deeply interested in Dora Maar, Picasso's lover and muse from 1935-1945, and passionate artist and political creature in her own right.

A great few days, which has left me more inspired and enthused than ever to finish my MA thesis and continue on with my research at a higher level. I think the fundamental difference between me on this Wednesday 19th July, and last Wednesday, 12th July, the day before the conference and the day before I gave my paper, is that a week ago I still harboured doubts about whether or not I would ever actually finish my thesis. And now I know I can, and will—and more. And that's a very good thing indeed!

Narrative Theory and Children's Literature

nospam@example.com (Judith Ridge) — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 19:32:59 +1000

Today was a public holiday in Australia, the rather anachronistic Queen's Birthday Holiday (given Her Maj was actually born on April 21...) But I always welcome a long weekend, and I used this day to do some more reading towards my (apparently) never-ending-thesis...

The essay I read is titled "Beyond the Grammar of Story, or How Can Children's Literature Criticism Benefit from Narrative Theory?" by Maria Nikolajeva, published in the Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2003

My thesis is to be about feminist criticism and fairy tales/fairy tale retellings (focusing on Donna Jo Napoli's novels for the MA, and then planning to expand the topic for a putative PhD, one of these years...). I am particularly interested in what happens if one incorporates narrative theory (aka narratology) with the socio-cultural focus of feminist lit-crit. Feminist theory (of the second-wave) has been pretty tough on the fairy tale, but the retellers have found that it is indeed possible to unearth and interrogate a feminist reading of those fairy tales (especially the "princess tales", to borrow Disney's nomenclature).

Narrative theory sits pretty easily with me—I am endlessly fascinated with narratology's interest in "how" versus "what"—children's literature is far too often reduced to content in popular discourse, it seems to me. Thus, children's lit is mostly assessed on its didactic function, rather than as a legitimate genre of literature in toto. While I am certainly interested in ideology and a socio-cultural reading of children's books, I am probably more intrigued by how texts work. Interrogating texts has always increased my pleasure and appreciation as a reader, which I know is anathema to many readers.

Back to Nikolajeva's paper. For the nascent theorist (me), it presents a clear explication of narrative theory, and of the way that narratologists have frequently ignored and misunderstood literature written for children. For example, she notes that "Narratologists often use Henry James' What Maise Knew as a unique example of a child's naïve and innocent perception... since narratologists seldom know anything about children's literature, they have no idea that this supposedly unique device is a rule rather than an exception in chilren's books... "

This is but one of Nikolajeva's observations regarding the complexities available in writing for children/YA readers. I found myself not always agreeing with her—her paper tends to focus on books for pre-adolescent readers and "classic" children's fiction, such as and The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables, and, to be fair, Nikolajeva notes that contemporary books for children and teenagers are often far more complex in their telling than may be presumed. But Nikolajeva's paper has inspired me to go back and consider more deeply so much about my topic, and about Napoli's work—external V internal characterisation, psychological truth V narrative tropes, focalisation, and how one might marry "narratological studies with other theories and methods" in order to disclose "the mutual dependence of form and content".

I've either lost you entirely (dear reader), or you're nodding your head in sad, nerdish recognition. Time to go and blast some Springsteen on the iPod...