Happy Birthday and Historiography:

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!!! (Daddy, make sure you tell her I wrote this!) I love you!!!!! I wish I were there to celebrate with you!!!

It's been a big week at home of celebrations. I have managed to survive with little sadness at missing everything. Though I do really miss home and everything going on there. But I'm so busy!

I've gone back to basics in my essay writing trying to get a better hold on the science of history. I'm writing an essay on historical theory and it's proved to be a huge challenge for me. I'm not sure if it's a lack of training from my degree at U of L, or my own inability to pick up what others have tried to teach me, or my own insecurities and fears that I don't really know what I'm doing. Perhaps a combination of the three. Regardless, instead of freaking out (like I would've last week) I'm just hunkering down and trying again. Historical theory is not my favorite. I find my mind wandering as I'm trying to read, which isn't helpful. But I'm determined to do a good job and to understand how historians have viewed hagiography over the last century.

There's an interesting development in the field in which historians at the end of the 19th century were unafraid to put their own faith into their study of saints. It's never good to place your own bias in your study, and it's even worse to do it overtly. It is striking that any historians would have been so forthcoming with their faith after the Enlightenment/Scientific Revolution/Industrial Revolution. But some are. There's a strange lapse in hagiographical studies during the post-WWII period too. You would expect this during the wars, but the 1950s and 1960s have very little to offer with the exception of an occasional case study of one saint. The 1970s however open up a can of worms of historical thought. And it's the following decades which are proving difficult for me to categorize and write about. There's a strange amalgamation of cultural, social, anthropological, gender, and literary history going on. Most historians use more than one tactic, as I find myself doing when I write. It's nearly impossible to separate these theories from one another when you are dealing with saints. So needless to say I'm bogged down in theory trying to find the necessary divisions for my essay.

The sun is finally out again today. It's been weeks. Weeks! I never thought clouds really bothered me until I lived here. I would not put myself past a bit of seasonal-affective disorder at this point. It's gorgeous today though! And I feel more positive and industrious as a result. So, on that note...back to work.

Miss and love everyone at home so much!!!!

Smiles for all,
Elizabeth