Thank God It's Friday!

Today's Goals
1. Write 150 words.
2. Read "Lest We Forget."

Thursday, June 11

Today's Goals
1. Read article, "Lest We Forget."
2. Write 400 words.
Done
1. Read 2 chapters from Popular Politics and Resistance Movements in South Africa.
2. Began "Lest We Forget" article.
3. Wrote 100 words.

Wednesday, June 10

Today's Goals
1. Read Chapter 4 "South Africa Evolution or Revolution."
2. Read Chapter 4 from Popular Politics and Resistance Movements in South Africa.
3. Write 350 words.
For Thursday
Read Chapter 9, "The Nelson Mandela Museum and the Tyranny of Political Symbols."
Read "Between Norms and Facts."
Done
1. Wrote 401 words.
2. Read two interviews with Siphiwo Mahala.

Tuesday, June 9

Today's Goal
1. Write 450 words.
2. Finish Chapter 1.
3. Read Chapter 2.
4. (Read Chapter 4 for Wednesday goal.)
Done
1. Finished Chapter 1.
2. Read chapter 2.
3. In the afternoon finished article "Photographer Autonomy and Images of Resistance."

Monday, June 8

Today's Goals
1. Read 1 chapter of South Africa: From Apartheid to National Unity. 1981-1994.
2. Write 500 words.
Done
1. Wrote 400 words.
2. Read introduction and 1/2 chapter 1, "South Africa: Strategy for Survival."
The writing is going slowly, but I do feel that I am gaining an informed understanding of the local and global context of the setting of the story I am working on.

Friday

Today's Goals
1. Read "Lest We Forget" article.
2. Read "Facts and Norms" article.
3. Write 1 page so that I have written 5 pages this week.
4. Spend 1 hour reading Habermas--I find Habermas's material to be an incredibly dense. I like this direction as a way to think and make a point about democracy and subject formation and the limits of rationality as a central trope of modernity, but I also know I can spend all summer trying to get a grip on what this philosopher is saying, so it will be important for me to look at two key sources for him (Theory of Communication and The Habermas Reader while also moving forward on other ideas and writing up other material or else I will not finish this chapter quickly. So I will try the method of putting a time limit on reading Habermas.
5. Read "Commemorating the Trojan Horse."

I would also like to read "Photographer Autonomy" and "Properties of Whiteness" and complete the historical context of 1980s SA. I think all of this is going in the direction of an unrealistic goal, but I will use this as a goal dump and start to see how much is doable in a day, a weekend, a week as a way to continue to refine my goal setting process. Goal setting has been helpful for me. My research takes me in different directions, and that is all part of the process, so I am fine with that, but having a plan and setting a goal is almost like an easy writing ritual at the beginning of a writing session; it gets me typing, it gets me thinking about my project, and then I am in it an away I go. Otherwise if I just sit at the computer and start working on the chapter, I will avoid doing that all day!

Thank God It's Friday!
I wrote about 400 words on Friday. I found online sources about South Africa in the 80s and used those sources to find books on the topic. I checked out about 4 books from the library, finding other sources once I was in that section. I didn't work at all over the weekend--I read about 1 page on Sunday night. I do think I will need to write every day to finish, but I see myself as building the muscle, so this weekend the muscle wasn't ready yet! I do feel in a good place though. I have lots of sources and need to write up some context about South Africa in the 80s--a fairly straightforward task.

Thursday

Today's Goals

1. Write 1,025 words.
2. Complete historical context of South Africa in the 80s.

Writing Exercise to (Re)define Your Purpose

These exercises can help when you are feeling anxious or may become part of your writing ritual before you begin your writing practice each session.
1. Who am I? Why am I doing this?
The purpose is to put your dissertation in perspective with all your roles and parts of your life and to stay in touch with why you began this remarkable journey.
2. Identify Moments or Contexts That Specifically Make You Question Why You Are Doing This
Identify trigger.
What is it? Be specific.
What does it say? Be specific.
How does it feel? Where do I feel it in my body? Be specific.
What other messages to you get?
3. While I write, I want to be perceived as _____, ___________, ____________________.
I do not want to be perceived as _________, _____________, ______________.
4. What is the larger problem you are trying to solve through your writing?
What needs does your project meet?
What are some personal values underlying your writing?
5. I choose to write because I want _________________________
I choose to write because I value ____________________________

What Had Happened Was

Well, I didn't get to my goal. I wrote about 160 or so words today. I found some sources on Habermas's theory of communicative action and began adding that information to the introduction to build the theoretical underpinning of the chapter. I have to work this evening but will try to do some more writing today. If not, I do have the historical context of the 1980s to write up, which should be a relatively straightforward goal for tomorrow. I am still researching this information, so I do need to do some amount of reading to write-up that information. I probably need very little of this information at this moment. Whatever I include should be closely related to my reading of the text so it doesn't read simply as summary. The Habermas piece is slow-going, but I think it adds some depth to the chapter and to the reading of the short story I am working on.

Week 1 Day 3

Today's Goal

1. Write up analysis of a quote from the short story "White Encounters" in relation to article by Simon Gikandi, "Reason, Modernity, and the African Crisis"
2. Write 725 words

How It Went

I wrote about 1,000 words and found some sources to provide historical information about South Africa in 1980s. It was a productive day.

Week 1 Day 2

Today's Goal

1. Eat only 2 butter cookies -- man, those things are good!

2. Read article on whiteness.

3. Research 1820's Settler Monument.

4. Write 7 sentences.

I like the idea of not have a word or page limit. That really hasn't worked for me so far and ends up making me anxious. But, ultimately, I need to produce, so in addition to committing to the time, I am also trying to say close to some kind of production goal, primarily so I can get a sense of how much writing I do in a day, so that going forward I have a better understanding of my writing habits/style. So far it's great to write with company. I know I will have to write by myself at different points in my career, but this format is quite nice!

I was able to write about 700 words today, so I definitely got my 7 sentences. I did quite a lot of research on the monument and was able to write 700 words because I had a few long quotes, but I'll take it. I did not read the article on whiteness. I may get to it tonight. The main reason I wanted to look at it is because I was quite stuck yesterday, looking at a blank page, so I wanted to look at the structure of an article to get some ideas to get going. As I have some material I am working with now, I may not need to look at that article immediately. My immediate goal is to write my analysis of the short story "White Encounters," and that is going fine.

Week 1 Day 1

Shameless Guilt
It feels like I have been away from my project since February!

Camp Goal

My goal is to write 20 pages in two weeks--that is quite a lofty goal for me, but I will set it as a reach for the stars kind of a goal. Throughout this process, I have found it a bit hard and a bit demoralizing to set page goals, but certainly, ultimately, I need to write a chapter, which I will call 35 pages, and breaking that down into smaller segments can be helpful to start to fully conceptualize my writing practice.

A goal I feel more comfortable with is to show up M-F during the camp and work on chapter 3 and trust that important work will occur that will get me ever closer to a draft of chapter 3.

Week 1 Goal

In terms of a goal for the week, 10 pages is one way to think about working toward my overall goal.

Day 1 Goal

I would like to read two chapters of secondary material, and re-read a short story I am writing about. I would like to write 1 page today.

I read two articles about South African literature, which was helpful to get my head back into the game. I bought one book that was checked out at the library and plan to read that at the end of June, which is good because now I have to focus on writing rather than reading because I am waiting for the book. One of my big stopping points is wanting to read, read, read and never getting to the writing piece. I wrote six sentences today. Not two pages, but I am happy. I started with a blank page and now I have something that looks like a working chapter document. I have a working title, and epigraph, a paragraph, and two quotes. I am writing about the setting of the short story, which requires some basic setting up of the location and historical period. That is the kind of research that is straightforward and fairly nonthreatening. So now I have a trajectory, an idea of some of the information to set up, and a place to go. Right now, I need to lay out the significance of the 1820's Settler Monument in the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Yay! And away we go!

Dissertation Camp Introduction

In spite of all the enormous challenges of daily living, is the thriving, astoundingly creative artistic-imaginative landscape of Africa today. African literature, I repeat, is doing well. --Tejumola Olaniyan June 3, 2014

I am ending the 8th year of my PhD program in English Literary Studies. My research interests are postcolonial theory, African literatures in English, and 20th- and 21st-century literatures.

I am working on a dissertation that examines how whiteness is used in a range of postcolonial African literatures. I examine literatures from the late colonial period to contemporary post-apartheid literature in South Africa and look at how whiteness is used in representations of African identity and subjecthood.

My summer writing goal is to complete chapter 3 of my dissertation, revise chapters 1-3, and write the introduction and conclusion.