Assignment 0

My name is Meggie Ryer, and I am a sophomore and an English major and Spanish minor. I love English literature because it allows me to read materials in depth and use critical and analytical skills. I enjoy discussing themes and techniques in class/group discussions, as I can listen to other people's perspectives, reactions to, and analyses of the reading content. Also, I love English because there is no wrong answer. I am minoring in Spanish because I also enjoy using a different language to read other texts and analyze them according to the perspective of another culture. I plan to travel to either Spain or Kenya my junior year.

I have had mostly good experiences in my English courses. Regarding papers and grades, I feel that most professors are willing to let students revise papers, because the more effort a student puts into his or her work, the more he/she will get out of it. If there was a bad experience in an English class, it would be last semester in a class where we couldn't revise our papers. I felt that I couldn't achieve what I wanted in learning certain topics, because I couldn't see my best work after reading the professor's criticism.

I'm hoping to broaden my horizons, in that I want to read an African American novel and understand an African American's perspective by learning more about the novel's background or the author's background; I'm hoping to discuss African American literature and analyze the culture behind it. I also want to understand themes related to race and gender and how an author using such themes goes about expressing them. I know there are techniques and themes used to express these perspectives and beliefs/morals or values, and I want to explore them. As I want to become more aware of different ethnicities and races, I think this course will help me to do so.

Regarding my subject positionality, I am a Caucasian girl from the East Coast with a Catholic background. I would consider myself an insider in that I strive for education, using public school and a college education as my stepping stones. I set goals for myself and hope to find a job right outside of school. I may consider myself an outsider in that I am not interested in finding a job in a field that is considerably growing in our today's economy. I do not know what I want to do with my major yet, but medicine is not an option for me, as it was for most of my family members and family friends in our local community in the Portland, Maine area. I find that these attributes make me who I am because I know what I like and am determined to make a successful career out of it but I am also likely to have some set-backs.