How to Start Studying Literature Like an Academic
In May of 2007, I donned my only nice dress and headed to Arizona State University to defend my Master’s Thesis. I had spent two years learning how to think critically, learning how to research, and learning how to articulate those thoughts.
I was introduced to new authors, new themes, new branches of study. I learned how deep thinkers talk about race, or consumerism, or gender identity. I learned about the tropes in children’s literature. I learned about how humans attach meaning to literally everything around us.
I loved graduate school and would have continued indefinitely if it didn’t cost an arm and a leg. My thesis is called Memory and Material Culture in Harry Potter, and I was so proud and excited to have put it together. (I’m still proud of it, actually.)
Of course, when I arrived to present my research and defend my thesis, the audience consisted of two of my advisers, a stand-in adviser (because one of mine was on sabbatical) and … I think two other students? Maybe. Maybe not even that. No one I knew personally showed up.
No one cared. It’s nice and all that I had put in so much work and money into getting a Masters degree in English, but no one really cared. My full-time job (in editing, no less) didn’t care. My family didn’t truly understand what it was about. My having…
