In the first Dissertation Corner of 2018, Jenna Houston speaks to current dissertation student Alice Stokell.
Tell me about your dissertation.
I’m looking at African American women’s poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and I’m focussing on freedom and resistance in that area because I want to explore how in the past women have been absent from the study in Harlem and I want to bring them to the centre. I’m looking at how women subvert race and racial consciousness and the ways that they focus largely on gender and nature – so I’m exploring the use of space and how the poetry resists the urban city of Harlem.
Which texts are you using for your dissertation?
Shadowed Dreams is my main text – it’s an anthology of poetry, but my main poets are Georgia Douglass Johnson, Alice Dunbar Nelson, and Angelina Weld Grimke (and a few others). These writers are interesting as it’s a response to dominating male poets of the movement and a reworking and reconstruction of the new negro movement – as my project gives a voice to those that have previously been unheard.
Has your dissertation changed from your proposal? If so, how?
It’s completely changed! I always knew I wanted to look at African American writers, that I was pretty set on, but my proposal was originally on African American women writers – so people like Zora Neale Hurston, and Nella Larsen. I was originally going to look at passing and female identity in that way. I was struggling because I also wanted to look at Harlem and I couldn’t look at both in conjunction so my supervisor just said to me “what about looking at women’s poetry?” and I’ve always had a love of poetry so my current topic has brought together my love of poetry as a form of writing and my love of the Harlem Renaissance.
How did you choose this research area?
I’d say I discovered I was interested in this area in my first year of university. As soon as I was introduced to the Harlem Renaissance and African American poetry on the Writing for Academic Success module I always knew I wanted to go down that route with my dissertation. I just didn’t know exactly which part of it I was interested in because I knew I couldn’t look at poets we had already studied or that I’d previously written on. But I wasn’t aware that my current dissertation topic even existed until I did my dissertation research. I was also partly guided by my supervisor who made me aware of lesser known texts and how beneficial these would be for my project.
What are you enjoying the most about your dissertation?
Literally everything! I’m enjoying the research because it allows me to look into Harlem in depth, but also allows me to explore different approaches to women and poetry. And Also just reading and analysing the poetry because I’d never come across it before and it’s very different to the poetry of the male poetry of Harlem – which is interesting. And also just being able to have my own voice on something that is not largely critically studied, that’s the most interesting part.
What has been the most challenging aspect of your dissertation so far?
What I struggle with the most is balancing research and writing at the same time. It’s had to know when it’s a good time to research, and equally when it’s time to sit down and write but I think everyone struggles with that to a certain extent. Specifically with my project though, the biggest struggle is that there is little critical study in my area which really intimidated me at first, but now I have a much better idea of what I need to look into and what is relevant to my dissertation.
Is there anything that interesting about your project that you’d like to add?
I think the most interesting part of my dissertation is the section where I’m looking at space, eco-criticism and race all together which is quite interesting and how it is predominantly a ‘masculine’ thing to write about space and landscape and it links back to the slavery in the past but also it’s a reworking of it. I also think that being able to look at things like music and art is interesting and I think that’s why I like Harlem so much, because I enjoy all aspects of it and researching it as an art movement.