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PhD problems

This isn't really a question I'm afraid, but I need somewhere to write. I am in hell this weekend over my PhD. I'm 8 months into it and my title is Attitudes to and Experiences of Suffering in Sophocles.

The aim of which is to draw a framework of the way in which Sophocles deals with suffering across his plays. I'm hoping to draw distinctions between mental and physical suffering; to explore the way relationships between characters affect attitudes and experiences of suffering; how suffering is imparted between characters.

This all entails a close study of the emotional language and communication strategies between characters incorporating modern sociological, psychological and emotion scholarship.

Everything is all a muddle. I'm on the O T at the moment and nothing seems to be coming together. I've tried writing so often and sent my supervisor 4,000 words and he thought it was ok, but that it needs to be more in-depth. He said about my last chapter it would get a distinction if it were an MA dissertation, but I need it to be more in-depth and to provide something new because he doesn't see where my original contribution is in that particular chapter.

I think it was that comment which has suddenly robbed me of all direction. I feel totally, confused and all in a muddle. I sit down and try and write this chapter on the O T, building on the mistakes of my previous chapter on the Ajax and nothing is good enough for me. I don't feel I'm getting anywhere with it, I don't feel I'm proving anything or offering anything particularly insightful.

I don't know what the problem is. I just feel lost and don't know where to direct my chapter - what the goal of it is.

I'm going to drop in and see my supervisor on Monday morning, but that seems so far away...

Reply 1

uthred50

You know, sometimes if you keep hitting a scholarly brick wall or writers' block, it helps to allow yourself a day or two off to go and do something different, instead of sitting there worrying and panicking about it. You might find you come back to it with a fresh perspective and novel insight.

Also, 8 months isn't that far into your PhD at all, so don't worry: you have plenty of time!

I'm not a classicist; I'm a social and natural scientist, but I may have a couple of suggestions for directions you could pursue/ material that may help.

--> You might explore the relations between the gods and human (mental and physical) suffering, perhaps tying in the theme of justice.
--> Expanding on the 'justice' theme, you might contrast 'deserved' suffering (justice) with 'undeserved' suffering (e.g. Philoctetes), and explore how this is presented, how it affects character interaction/reader response, and in the process problematise the notion of deservedness.
--> You might find originality by comparing to contemporary neuroscience, as well as the above-mentioned disciplines. In addition, look at various readings of the concept of 'affect' within interdisciplinary scholarship on emotion, if you haven't already. You can make readings of 'emotion' more sophisticated and nuanced with this conceptual tool.

I might have more specific emotion-related things to suggest if you give an idea of what you've looked at already.

:smile:

Reply 2

ClassicsEd

thanks for your reply. ive been toying with the idea of affect - i had been intending to use self-discrepancy theory in this chapter but it fell apart for me and didnt map on. Is there much on affect and motivation without trying to fashion it into a theory?

Reply 3

uthred50

There is a tonne of stuff on affect that can be used for theoretical readings without having to generate or apply a universalised/ing theory.

A few articles especially relevant to your themes spring to mind:

1) See Dewsbury, J.D. (2010) ‘Affect’ in The Universal Encyclopaedia of Human Geography (online) for a plainer/simpler summary of approaches to affect.

2) See Brian Massumi's intro in Deleuze and Guattari's 'A Thousand Plateaus' if you can get hold of it, for a more sophisticated general perspective on affect

3) Oatley, K., Parrott, W., Smith, C., & Watts, F. (2011). Cognition and Emotion over twenty-five years. Cognition & Emotion, 25(8), 1341-1348.
Decent bits of overview and a movement towards interpersonal emotional relations.

4) Cameron & Payne (2011) 'Escaping Affect...' Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 100(1)1-15
Explores suffering and the collapse of compassion (group dynamics of caring)

:smile: