Eye-Opener: Memo

Flash Update: Spring 2008

Another semester is over (I'm getting closer to graduation, three more semesters)... I'm looking forward to taking writing more seriously and trying to establish a writing routine in the future but right now that future is far (but hopefully getting nearer), currently it's a bit difficult because my brain power is reserved for the graduate classes I'm taking and also for being a graduate INSTRUCTOR...

this semester I took Fieldwork (6720), and Folklore and Literature (6770) classes... and I taught two sections of English 1010...

I passed my Fieldwork class and I'm just waiting to here from the other class. I read a lot of jargon-filled journal articles in my fieldwork class, and I did a good amount of actual fieldwork (which I enjoyed a lot!):
1.- attended a service from a religion different from mine
2.- attended a court hearing
3.- observed and participated as a basketball fan (Aggie)
4.- conducted a 40 minute interview and transcribed the whole interview (which took FOREVER!)
5.- reviewed an actual published ethnography

overall this class was good, it made me think about the ethics involved in studying people (especially children)... I used some of the journalism skills (interviewing, etc.) I've acquired in the past and also some creative writing (showing, senses, observations etc.)... we tried to define ethnography and in the end we agreed to leave it open -ended, different writers will have different style to approach their subject... we looked at the processes of different writers and evaluated our own processes (what worked best for us)...

each of the fieldwork assignments was a mini adventure:
1. Being in Utah, I'm surrounded by Mormons (and this year I've learned so much about the Mormon culture [I'll blog about this when I graduate]) so when I heard that my first assignment for this class was to observe a religious service, which is different from my Catholic background- the first thing that came to mind was the mormons also known as the Latter-Day Saints- I did this assignment sometime in February so it was snowing. I didn't want to stand out and be asked questions so I asked my Mormon friends how I could blend in better... they told me about the structure (which helped a lot)... I still ended up standing out especially the way I dressed BUT the good thing is that nobody approached me and made the whole thing more awkward...

2. I went to downtown Logan at First District Court to observe a hearing... this was an interesting exercise... I recognized some of my bias and assumption I bring (especially about my "class" gender, identity, roles etc.)... the security guard decided to place me in the drug court hearing (which was more dramatic compared to traffic court)...

3. I observed fans and participated as an Aggie fan (see separate blog: "fieldwork?: basketball game"

4. I interviewed a member of the First Presbyterian Church for their oral history project... I did the interview in a coffee shop downtown... while I aksed open-ended, closed, and leading questions, I sipped on a chai tea latte... it took me forever typing out the trasncription... the first time- it took me two hours to transcribe 5 minutes of interview... I started getting better in the end, to keep my sanity, I transcribe for only an hour a day and I ended up transcribing 10 minutes worth of interview per hour... I finished in 4 days but these 4 days felt like FOREVER! I had to type out everything- the repetitions and the 'ums'- what I found fascinating while I transcribed was that I found myself editing out the ums and repetition- this always threw me off because when I would replay it to check, I'd discover that I erased the ums and repetition, it took me a while to overcome this habit...

5. The fifth assignment sort of deviated from the other fieldwork assignment-- I had to review a published ethnography and analyze most of the issues- we've been discussing in the semester, such as power, relationship, methods, and more... Because I tried to unite all my work under the umbrella of children's folklore- I reviewed Margaret Brady's ethnography called "Some Kind of Power: Skinwalker Narratives of Navajo Children"- This was recommended to me by my prof, and it was the closest thing to "children and stories" (narrowing my focus)...

being a fieldworker is fun but a lot of WORK... in the field one has to be alert and ready for anything- decision making, compromising, interacting etc. and when the fieldwork is done then one has to focus on turning data into something comprehensible for others...

For my Folklore and Literature class (I think I passed, I hope I pass)... we read several novels and applied the folkloric lense to analyze the works. We read: Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Morrison's Beloved, The Robber-BrideGroom, The Chosen, The Way to Rainy Mountain, Achebe's Things fall apart, several short-short works such as The lady or tiger...

the first thing we did was "identify" the folklore using evidence from folkloric work and author's bio etc., and then we "interpret" and tried to answer the "so what?" (how the literature is enhanced with the knowledge of the folklore)- we discussed different folklore genres such as Myth, Legend, Fairytale (Marchen), food ways, folk beliefs, esoteric and exoteric folklore, etc.- the most difficult text to read was "Beloved" but still enjoyable...

for our final paper, we had to pick an outside novel and analyze it using the folkloric lense and write a 12 page paper (12 pages is okay but what added to my distress is the weight of this paper- 70%)-

I decided to reread Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" (I first read this when I was a junior at SHU in World Literature class)... I didn't mind rereading this fun novel. I started researching during the spring break. At first my thesis was about oral storytelling conventions being adapted in written literature... then it changed to "folk belief/ritual" that involved RASA- an Indian concept that is connected to enlightenment... several of my research pointed out the marchen/fairy tale form of the novel however my prof pointed out that we should build on the research instead of simply regurgitating... it would have been easy to apply Vladimir Prop's schema but I didn't... what I did notice during my research was how the main inspiration for "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" have been overlooked... Rushdie's son is the main inspiration, and he has been mentioned in "passing" and as I did my research this became more obvious (also another funny thing- this is also a sign that I needed to stop researching and start writing the draft- I noticed that my resources started cross-referencing each other- it was funny because my research would say that so and so wrote this and I'll be like "oh I read that article")...

I also had to drag this paper out, the great thing was that I had an outline so everyday, I'd look at my outline and write a paragraph or two and call it a day... so in the end, I focused on the father and son relationship in Haroun and instead of using a folklore genre, I applied a folklore definition instead: "folklore as artistic communication in small groups"... the novel is the "art" used by Rushdie to "communicate" with his son (small group) during the time of his exile (impelled by death, want to pass on beliefs before dying).

I learned a lot about Rushdie... I'm still able to apply some of my research to his other novels especially the one I'm currently reading, "Shalimar the Clown"

by the end of my master's program, I'm NOT going to have a THESIS, nonetheless I do have a topic/main focus- children and stories. So far, every project in my classes, I've tried to connect to this focus
1. Practicum in Teaching Writing (my final paper is about "rites of passage"- everybody goes through this however children go through this more at such a short time in comparison to adults)
2. Cultural History of Weird (my final paper is about Mother Goose Rhymes and DEATH)
3. Folklore History and Methods (my faux-proposal [which didn't do so well] is about rhymes of children today and mother goose relevance for today's children)
4. Fieldwork (analysis of ethnography about children's narratives, ethics of studying children, who are not considered "independent agents")
5. Folklore and Literature (research paper- father and [young] SON relationship...)

This summer I'm taking two classes: Fife Folkore Seminar and Creative Non-Fiction. The Fife Seminar is about Personal Stories (so I can totally apply this to children). The Creative Non-Fiction is focusing on memoir writing (during the semester in fieldwork class, we discussed the similarities and differences between ethnography and memoir- this class will be a bit difficult to connect with the theme but it goes well with "application" especially in writing ethnography).

and in the fall 2008, I'm planning to take Folklore Colloqium special topics: CHILDREN's FOLKLORE, and Storytelling (this is a theater course and it's going to involve performance and telling stories in various ways)...

so these are my classes...

this summer I'll also be teaching one section of english 1010 which starts in June (that means I only have three weeks of vacation- which is better than nothing)

compared to my first semester as graduate instructor, I definitely improved this semester (but I'm still going to be changing)... I received my evaluation- this semester, one class "abhored" my teaching style and another class was totally "infatuated" with my teaching... next fall I'll be teaching Eng 2010 which emphasizes argument, persuasion, and research... it'll be a new thing but I'll still be able to apply some of the eng 1010 materials and share my own "researching experience"...

Posted by Michael Diezmos at May 5, 2008 10:01 PM