An English major who presented at the Inquiry Conference talked about her project carried out in London, based on classic literature about Queen Elizabeth. She started off her presentation by stating that at first she had wanted to do her project here at BYU, gathering research in the library. Her professors had encouraged her to actually go to London, an idea she was at first not too excited about. She did not understand how spending money to live in Europe would aid her project in worthwhile ways that would be any more beneficial than library research. However, she related that after she had arrived in London, and started visiting the locations written about in the classic literature she was studying, she quickly began to realize the benefits of being at the actual setting. She began to gather new insights and understandings about the literature she had never before thought of, because she had not known specific details about the settings until she experienced them visually and in person. For example, her views of the Queen Elizabeth character in her reading drastically changed once she physically visited the prison the queen had been held captive in. She felt a stronger connection and sympathy for the character, and had a deeper understanding of why she had been written to behave in some of the ways she did within the literature.
I felt that this presentation was extremely valid. Although library research is very useful, there is definitely something to be said about actually visiting a place or the people one is attempting to study. There are obvious reasons why relocating to the actual study region brings an added comprehension, sympathy, and new perspectives that could not otherwise be obtained through mere library research. I could try to study Wiamoase, Ghana through journal articles and books only, but I would not gain the same first-hand insights that I will be gaining by interviewing and living with actual residents of Wiamoase.
No comments:
Post a Comment