Throughout
this semester, I have been working on researching an article regarding the
relation between the Otherworld in Irish folklore and the poems of W.B. Yeats.
In the past I have had to do research papers, but never anything this in-depth.
I think that one of the differences between writing something for an
undergraduate class and writing something that may (hopefully, eventually, if
the publication gods smile upon me) be published is the responsibility to
familiarize oneself with the entire field that is being studied. It is no
longer enough to be familiar with a primary text and maybe a few articles that
help to strengthen one’s argument. There must be understanding of where your
work fits within the larger scope of the criticism. Only then can you actually
work to advance the field that you are writing about, as opposed to being an
echo chamber for old ideas.
Because
of this research project I have developed new appreciation for that old
companion of essays—the works cited. Or foot notes. Or end notes. However you
cite your sources. Previously I thought of works cited pages primarily as an
annoyance, that one last thing that still had to be done when I had finished
typing out my essay. Though I understood their purpose in avoiding plagiarism,
as word that from my youth I have been taught to fear, I nevertheless thought
of works cited pages primarily as an inconvenience. I now see that, much like
the people in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, I was only seeing the shadow of what
citing sources could really be about. Or perhaps it was as if I was a musician
and, having been taught to play scales, I imagined that there was nothing else
to music. Just as essays written for undergraduate classes are a shadow of
actual scholarship, works cited pages for those essays are a shadow of what
actual citations can be.
For my
part, this realization has already come to be useful for my writing, as I have
been able to find a good amount of useful articles and books simply by the old
trick of citation mining—looking at the sources referenced in other essays in
order to further my own research. As I continue to work towards the final draft
of my own paper (it’s due next Monday, so for better or worse it will be
complete soon) I’m taking care to weave together my literature review and other
references in such a way that my readers can follow where my article fits
within the larger scope of Yeats scholarship, as well as within the scope of
Irish Otherworld scholarship. My argument is contingent upon weaving the two
together in a way that is both fruitful and coherent, and I’m glad to say that
it seems to be coming together well.
“Bald heads forgetful of their sins,
Old, learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men, tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love’s despair
To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear”
Old, learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men, tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love’s despair
To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear”
-W.B. Yeats, “The Scholars”
