I had never spoken at a conference before. Never had I ever organised one, either.
Girl, that was fun!
As someone who does not enjoy public speaking at all, it was such a rewarding experience—and, at the end of the day, it was not the medieval method of torture that I pictured it to be.
My topic was on Wuthering Heights, and on the character of Joseph from that very same novel. I assume it surprised people that I chose that particular character to do a study on, but I am also happy with the reception! And the questions I got, as well as the feedback. Being such an overlooked character, I was worried it was not going to be a good enough presentation based on the lack of research done around him. Looking at it from the outside, I believe it was fairly solid for a 10 minute presentation. The following discussion was very much insightful and academically enlightening as well, which I guess is what the Textualities Conference was created for: enriching our academic minds, furthering our research goals.
Is Joseph an ironic character? If he is from the lower classes, what allows him to behave the way he does towards the higher ones? What about the language (should we say dialectal?) barrier the author brought along with his character?
I admittedly first read the novel back during my first year of my undergraduate degree, around 6 years ago, and did not reread it until recently. It was great to revisit it.
When it comes to the other presentations that I had the honour of attending today, I only have to say that I absolutely adored hearing my classmates talk about topics they were passionate about. From Jane Austen, to Holmes, to Medieval ghosts and post-apocalyptic futures, it was a delight from start to finish.
Great variety of topics, of visual presentations, of questions, of tea and coffee (I’m kidding) (I’m not. I had like 3 cups of tea and ate 4 croissants). I would say I’m down to do it all over again, but I also will be speaking at the Bookends conference on the 13th of April, so I’m sure future me will be a nervous wreck and won’t be thinking the same thing. But check back after that one conference, and I will probably share the same feeling.
The topic I chose for my Textualities presentation is not the one I’m going to continue researching for my Masters thesis, as interesting as it does sound, just because I do not think there is a big enough body of research for me to come up with almost 20 thousand words. Be it as it may, I do not say no to looking into this character further, even if it is just for fun!
I also had fun running the social media accounts along with Francisca and Michelle—even if I felt bad about being on my phone for some of the presentations. But I needed to livetweet! It was also great to see other people commenting on them. People actually came to listen to us!
That’s a wrap on Textualities 2023, then!
https://twitter.com/TEXTUALITIES23/status/1643899292547940352/photo/1