Thesis work

So I figure that it's time to talk a little bit about how the thesis is going.

Right now I have three chapters finished, about 15 pages each. I feel like I have said the bulk of what I need to say about Aeneas, his education, his transformation, and the founding of the new civilization. After scouring the UDallas website, I found on the MA politics page that the thesis should be 13,000-20,000 words so I think I will just follow that format even though I am in the Humanities program. My plan right now is to edit edit edit which will no doubt add a couple hundred words because my problem is always *clarification*. I also need to write an introduction and a conclusion which should put me close to the 20,000 word rang since I have about 15,000 right now as is.

So what is my thesis about? Well before I talk about what its about let me tell you how I got to writing on the Aeneid first of all.

In college, my senior thesis was basically on the identity of the Roman people/civilization. I was already drawn to that, even before I went to Rome. I also did my JP on Machiavelli which also ties me to Rome. I really think there is something inside of me that is drawn to Roman history more than any other people/civilization (well maybe only second to Argentina). Anyways, Donny is convinced its my Latin blood, and that I must be descended from Caesar himself (which would mean I was related to Aeneas himself)! Well anyways, when I got to UD I took two graduate courses which included the Aeneid, one of which was actually entirely on the Aeneid! Can you imagine spending an entire semester on just one poem, one work?! It was amazing. That class had two professors teaching it. One was Bainard and the other was a classicist from Ohio, I think. It was pretty insane having an English and Classics teacher in one class. Boy, did they look at the work completely differently! While I almost entirely disagree with the way classicists look at the Aeneid (its a poem for goodness sake!) I was inundated by the amount of writing on the Aeneid. But thankfully, I am approaching the work as a poem and not an artifact so most critiques on the Aeneid don't help too much with interpretation although they help tremendously with the finer details and references made.

Okay, so why the Aeneid? Well I think more than any other work, philosophical, political, or theological, the Aeneid gives the most insight into the identity of the Roman people and of the novus ordo seclorum. And consequently, I think it gives us insight into who we are as moderns and Americans. Anyways, I was reading this awesome book on Virgil and he was saying how we are so confused today in how we understand the Romans. Primarily, we are baffled by the fact that it was the Roman empire that first accepted Christianity, making it a state religion. It is pretty insane to think that the most powerful civilization in the world, much much much more powerful than anything today, was the first to take Christianity and run with it (albeit only through the blood of the martyrs). It wasn't those smarty pants Greeks or the Jews even, it was the Romans who set the stage for Christianity and who make it THEE state religion. I mean, Rome had every single god/goddess in the Pantheon and they were ready to put a statue of the crucified Christ in there too if Christians would just accept to worship the other hundreds of gods as well. But as fate would have it, the Romans side not with those all-powerful muscular man gods, they side with the crucified Christ, the god that they tried to kill! Well having read the Aeneid about 4 times in classes and about a dozen other times on my own, I'm starting to think that its more baffling that we moderns don't understand Rome at all. I mean, the American founders did. Why don't we?!

So my thesis concentrates on the political nature of the Aeneid, obviously (go poli-sci people!). I argue that Aeneas changes the paradigm within himself to change the paradigm of the known order of the world. Looking at Aeneas, we can see how Rome becomes a new order for the ages, unlike anything before it. And then I go into what characterizes this new civilization, what makes it last, why it is the eternal city. Of course I bring in some Voegelin, Aristotle, Faulkner, Louise Cowan. Oh and a famous critic actually went to Portsmouth Abbey! The school library has all of his work, and actually, the library here is amazing. I have no problem finding what I need, they even have Voegelin, AT A HIGH SCHOOL!? The monks of course have all the intellectual works in their library but they let me use it whenever (cutest old men ever, and brilliant!).

After three semesters at UD, I got married, moved to a new state, started a new job, and had a baby. The past two years have been crazy to say the least, but that time was crucial for me and the thesis. During those two years I would read the Aeneid and sources but scattered throughout weeks and months. I would try to write but it was hard. I thought I would never get to finish it. I started thinking that maybe I should take a 6 credit course over the summer at the Dallas Institute which would fulfill the requirement and I would be officially a master. But I only thought that way for a second. I wanted to write this thesis so badly. So Donny and I came up with the schedule that we have this summer and it has been working. It is like a muse has been hanging out with me in the library all day, every day. Donny and I still plan on doing the Dallas Institute some day. Have you guys heard about it? They do these summer seminars where you are in class all day in the heart of Dallas at this amazing southern house. They even provide you with lunch (of course I'm thinking of food)! They get the best teachers from all over to teach at the program (Louise even still gives lectures!). Its only 2 weeks I think but its amazing. And the topics change every year. Like for English, they do epic one summer then lyric, then comedy and so on. So Donny and I want to do that, and get some teachers from around here to do it too. The summer institute is for teachers and educators so the Abbey would love to send us down and take care of it for us. Some TMCers who work here all want to do it too. Maybe we can all plan a summer to do it and it could be the reunion we have been waiting for!!! Or we can all just go to Rome and reunion there!

Okay, sorry for the post with only text and no photos but I need to get back to my thesis. I will make up for the photoless post soon.

Chau for now!