Copied below are several research proposals & replies from the spring 2002 semester, offered so that new students may see models of proposals and examples of the instructor's responses.

John Eberhart

Option:  Standard Essay

Description of the Topic:  

     Literature of exploration and travel have male and female authors.  Also, a variation may be a female writing about males doing exploration.  In what ways do these works differ that can be attributed to gender?  What problems arise for the critic when trying to decide what is feminine writing and what is male writing?  What is most likely to be gained from a feminine writer?  Do males offer qualities that females often lack? 

Texts Used:

   Tracks, by Robyn Davidson

     Poles Apart, a documentary film of Antarctic adventure. 

     A Bad Time, by Nancy Mitford, in Ice, ed. Clint Willis.

     (Hopefully a couple more...)

Source of Interest: I enjoy travel literature, and have only recently read works of exploration (in our class).  Most of these books are by male writers, and each has his own style to be enjoyed.  I wonder why there are so few women travel (or exploration) writers that I know, and I wonder if I am missing something; do women writers have a special style or set of topics (other than personal hygiene) that men lack?  Do exploration texts by females address my interests better or worse than male writers?  For that matter, who are the noteworthy female exploration and travel writers?  Why don't I know them?

Why the topic is significant (to me):  Half the world is female, and women must be involved in exploration and/or travel to some extent.  Since I like literature, exploration, travel, and women, then I should know about these books.  Am I missing something?   Also, if I find that women are indeed different from men as writers of exploration, that's good knowledge, or does that only create a stereotype for me?

What I hope to find out through research:  I hope to find that this area has been covered by others, and that I can get a good head-start on answering my questions.  Also, I hope to find at least three books of exploration and/or travel by women that are worth reading.  And, as usual, through exposure to professional critics, I hope to broaden my perspective on reading and appreciating different critical points of view.

Research done to date:  Unless I do some internet searching or library searching this afternoon, I'd have to say I'm pretty much at square one.

Outline:  Women Writers in the Exploration Genre: Does Gender Count?

   A.  Current Thinking by Critics on Gender in Exploration Literature 

               1)  Who is doing good work in this area?

               2)  What are the gender issues identified so far?

               3)  What is problematic about analyzing this topic; what makes it difficult?

               4)  Does anyone care about this issue?  If not, why not?  Should we care?

   B.  Sampling of Texts Written by Women -- Does Gender Stick Out?  In What Ways?

              1)  Do they play for sympathy because they are women and physically weaker?

              2)  Are their motives different, e.g., do they just want to make a feminist statement?

              3)  In what ways are women stronger and more suited to exploration?

              4)  Are women authors fun to read?

              5)  Do women authors provide a knowledge payoff?

              6)  What "baggage" or uninteresting traits do women authors bring to the story?

   C.  Analysis and Synthesis -- What Do I Think About Women Writers in this Genre?

              1)  What seems to be the difference?  In the abstract, and for my personal tastes?

              2)  Are these differences due to femaleness, or a function of the writer's personality?

              3)  How will this paper affect my choice of books to read in the future?

Bibliography:  Nothing to add to Texts Used (above) as of now.

Questions:  Get me started if you can.  Are there two or three "essential" works to read on this subject?  Who are the authorities?  Also, our course is not addressing travel writing, and that's fine -- would you prefer I stay exclusively in the exploration genre (and not include travel writing)?   What are your favorite exploration books written by women?  Have you done your taxes yet?  If I write another paper that reads like Pym, will you give me a C or a D as I would deserve?  :-)

Dear John,

I share your likes, so the topic works for me too. Thanks for the friendly and expansive opening survey. For sources, I can make you a copy of the article written by Robyn Davidson and reviewed by Joanna this week, which had some material on women writers. I also remember a good study by a woman named Cathy Davidson titled Revolution and the Word about early American women writers--it seems as though many of the early American women's novels grew out of some travel writing and picaresque tales in which women dressed as men. Long time since I read it, but if we don't have it, try inter-library loan. Also consider checking the Travel Writing Association bibliography available on the research sub-page of our course webpage.

The "problematics" of the subject are infinite, so maintain a good humor and keep straightening up after yourself. Perhaps the trickiest difficulty, which women share with other special groups, is that there's often simultaneously a desire to have one's own voice but not to have it stereotyped, so that there is something unique, special, and identifiable but in no way newly imprisoning. But the coping mechanisms remain the same as elsewhere: do plenty of research, question all assumptions, make limited claims.

Good reading!

Tara Gray

Dr. White,

     . . . I have an idea for my research project and I wanted your thoughts on it.  I was at my school's book fair today (elementary school) and I found some children's books on space exploration and polar exploration.  I was wondering if I could do a journal comprised of reviews of different types of space and polar literature, including children's and adult literature.  Let me know what you think of this idea and how you would build on it.  Thanks for your time!

--Tara

Dear Tara,

It sounds like a good idea, and the journal form seems appropriate for gathering information of this kind. As a way of unifying the materials, you could consider including some theoretical backgrounds regarding children's literature and then commenting on the similarities and differences in the treatment of your subjects by children's and adult's literature. What materials are emphasized differently from one genre or audience to another? If this angle becomes productive, your research project could turn into something of a hybrid of the journal and the analysis / research paper, which you could probably work out.

I'll be glad to offer more feedback if you want to update me as your thinking and reading progress--

James Johnson

Dear Craig,

I have been searching for access to the journals of the members of the Scott and Amundsen expeditions (Terra Nova and Fram) to the South Pole.  To date I have been able to identify sources for the writings of Scott, Cherry-Garrard, Wilson, Amundsen, and Ponting.  I have also identified the existence of Lashly's journal and writings by Oates in letters to his family.  I have not yet found a source for the works by Lashly and Oates.  Some of these items will be rather expensive to acquire so before I invest significantly in these works I wanted to determine if an analysis of these writings with respect to how they compare to the writings in Ice and The Last Place on Earth would be suitable for my semester research paper.  I will discuss this with you, if you have time, tomorrow night during the break or after class.  I just wanted to give you a little advance notice.  I would also like to thank you for taking the time to provide the written critique of my mid-term paper.  Hopefully I will be able to take advantage of your suggestions while writing my semester research paper.

Thanks,
James Johnson

Dear James,

Since we discussed this in person the other night, I'll only review that I asked you to consider contacting Inter-Library Loan at UHCL in order to hold down costs for acquiring books. Otherwise the topic sounds perfectly within the course's bounds. Feel free to communicate further.

Barbara Sharp

For my research project, I was looking at doing something regarding the spiritual nature of the people in some of the readings from Ice, specifically the journals (The Voyage of the Jeanette, Six Came Back, and Scott's Last Expedition: The Journals.)  I'll probably include the Byrd piece and the Cherry-Garrard excerpt too.  The focus will be on how each reading captures a different spiritual / psychological aspect.  As I was reading them, I noticed that there was a contrast in how the "writer" of each journal perceived their fate.  There was a difference regarding the "trust factor" or basis of faith.  If you're having trouble following me on this, I can come by your office sometime next week with my book and show you what I'm talking about.   

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Dear Barbara,

This is an intriguing subject that struck me too as I read the Ice selections. We may have spoken of this a bit in class--one idea that occurred, especially in, I think, the Jeanette, was that the organized religious devotions might have served earthly as well as heavenly purposes. Since everything was falling apart, and the men couldn't come together to eat, which is a normal ritual of social bonding, the religious services could achieve some group unity. This also shows up, though less insistently, in Cherry-Garrard's Worst Journey, where hymn-sings are mentioned here and there, though maybe not in the Ice selection.

Sometimes religion and nationalism run together, too. Spirituality becomes "keeping one's spirits up."

You might also consider the impact of other conditions on spirituality, such as closeness to nature (in its cold, hard, dark aspect) or good or bad fortune.

As you write, you might keep in mind (and in play) the significance of the subject. Why are you drawn to it, and why does it matter for the Literature of Exploration? (Some answers are implicit in what we've already said here, but make them pointed, not implicit.)

Joanna Opaskar

I thought I might do something with the concept of a walkabout, but I've since become pretty interested in the option to compare a story of exploration in prose and in film.  I thought I might write about the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and compare/contrast it to "The Sentinel," the short story on which it was originally based.  However, I'm not sure what angle to pursue with that. 

I thought these questions under "Objective 2. Cultural/natural issues" might apply:

    May exploration be linked to issues of Darwinian evolution and Social Darwinism? (survival as adaptability to change - this reminded me of the beginning of the film)

    Can an exploring people see themselves as "explored?"  (This might apply to the idea in the short story that an alien civilization left the sentinel on the moon to alert them when humans had developed space travel, which wouldn't be humans being "explored" so much as watched by an outsider.)

I'm also interested in the idea that in the film 2001, HAL is the most human character, while the humans behave almost mechanically.  But I don't know if that really fits into the topic of exploration...

So, I'm interested in examining these 2 texts, but I haven't found a real direction to take with it.  Does this general topic sound workable?

**********

Dear Joanna,

I'm embarrassed that I've never read "The Sentinel," so my advice is limited. However, I think Clarke co-authored Kubrick's screenplay, and Clarke then may have written a "novelization" of the story plus the screenplay, if that gives you more to work with.

Based on my knowledge of the movie, I agree with both your possible ideas--certainly Darwinism is implicit in the ape scenes. This could be extended to the politicking that appears later in space--Compare that early in "Festival Night" Frank Chalmers comments that the human voyage to Mars is the final variance on primate dominance dynamics.

About exploring and being explored, earth can't know it's been explored until it starts exploring? Your description reminds me of The Day the Earth Stood Still, when the larger interplanetary federation reveals itself only when humans start to become a potential threat with atomic weapons. Likewise in Starship Troopers, the bugs invade only after earth explorers have started invading their space.

Well, I've hardly resolved your theme for you. Maybe the next step would be to do some secondary research on the texts; I'd expect there to be plenty available, given the status of the movie. That research might help you identify some central or standard issues that you could develop or differ with. Feel free to check in again as you get along.

John Granahan

I am interested in space exploration, not surprisingly, since I have spent most of my life working on the Space Program.  I would like to explore whether the concepts of Romantic literature might apply to literature about space exploration and, if they do, how they do.  I envision my Research Paper taking the form of an Analytic/Research Essay (your Option 1in the class Syllabus).  I plan to discuss three common themes in Romantic literature, the concept of the Sublime, loss and separation as causes for deep feeling, and the use of Gothic motifs, and to explore how these are, or may be, used in the literature of space exploration.

In my mid-term paper, I wrote about why Antarctic exploration has given rise to such compelling literature.  One of the reasons is that the vastness of the Antarctic landscape, its remoteness, its wildness and, especially, the extremity of its cold, evoke the Sublime.  That is, they give rise to feelings of awe at the power of the Antarctic.  One would think, given the infinity of space, the hostility and strangeness of its environment, and the dangers to which space explorers are exposed, that the space exploration experience would have no difficulty evoking the Sublime.  This does not seem to have been the case, however, in most of the space literature I have read.  (Here, I will confess to being somewhat of a literary “novice,” not having been aware of the Romantic Sublime prior to this course.  Perhaps, if I went back and reread some of the space literature I have previously read, I would notice in it more evidence of the Sublime).  Assuming my first impression is correct, however, the experience of the Sublime is not overtly present.  One may have to stretch the concept of the Sublime a little bit to see how it is present in space exploration literature.  What I mean by that is that, while everyone can easily imagine what it’s like to be aboard a ship in a violent storm, and experience the Sublime in that setting, space explorers are inside an enclosure and have little sensory perception of the outside environment.  It is difficult, therefore, to create a feeling of the Sublime.  Danger is nonetheless present and just as real as for the crew of the ship at sea.  Most of the dangers a space faring crew faces are not dangers most of us have experienced or will experience in our lifetime.  In order to evoke the Sublime then, the author must find a way to explain to readers the power of the forces that space explorers must deal with and to convey the sense of adventure and risk inherent in the enterprise of space exploration.

Writers of the Romantic Era also widely used the idea of separation and loss as elements of great emotional feeling, both of pain and sweetness (nostalgia).  This is certainly a value that can be exploited in space literature.  Space is a lonely place.  Even the nearest potentially habitable planet, Mars, is so far away that communications, traveling outbound at the speed of light would take three minutes to reach Mars at its nearest approach to Earth.  Settlers on Mars would, due to the lower gravity, become deconditioned, and may not be able to return to Earth’s greater gravity.  Nostalgia for Earth and all that has been lost can and should be a powerful element in any space exploration literature, which purports to be “realistic.”  Arthur C. Clarke exploits this nostalgia in his short story, If I Forget Thee, O Earth…. (from Expedition to Earth, a collection of short stories by Arthur C. Clarke).  Kim Stanley Robinson hints at it in the second chapter of Red Mars, when he describes the Mars explorers as “alienated and solitary enough not to care about leaving everyone they had known behind forever.”

A third element of Romantic era literature is the use of Gothic motifs to create a mood of foreboding or dread.  These play upon our darkest fears, often including the fear of being trapped or buried, and make use of dark settings and a sense of evil as a supernatural force.  While the sensibility of the Space Era is very different from that of the Romantic Era, the experience of space travel does embody some elements, which may be thought of as Gothic.  Certainly, the interior of a spacecraft is a closed, cramped environment from which one cannot escape.  Although it may not be “dark” in the Gothic sense, the absence of natural sunlight, combined with the “closeness” of the physical enclosure, contributes in a subtle way to a psychological sense of darkness.  “Serious” space exploration literature (i.e., fiction, which is scientifically plausible and non-fictional accounts of space exploration), does not address the supernatural, but it does contain a strong sense of the unknown as a force, which may bring about disaster at any time.  Ben Bova, in his novel, Mars, makes use of this with excellent effect.  Several of the crew of the first mission to Mars become infected with a strange illness, which they cannot diagnose or explain, despite their best efforts and consultation with medical experts back on Earth.  The fear is that there it some sort of Mars virus related to the microscopic organisms they had previously isolated.  The mystery of the illness plays out over a period of time during which the sense of strange foreboding increases.  The mystery is ultimately explained, but it becomes clear to everyone that despite our scientific understanding of the universe, we are not fully in control of our fate.  Our awareness of this unknowable and uncontrollable nature of things is our modern way of addressing what was considered in the Romantic Era the supernatural.

Primary Texts will include Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars  and Ben Bova’s Mars.  Both of these texts are of interest to me because they are what I consider “serious” science fiction, as opposed to works of fantasy.  Yet they are not merely technical descriptions of the explorations, but probe the political forces, which have given rise to the missions, and the interpersonal relationships among the crewmembers in an entirely credible manner.  I read Bova’s Mars a few years ago, and consider it one of the best works of science fiction I have ever read.  I had originally planned to draw some comparisons between the literature of space exploration and the literature of Antarctic exploration and would still like to do so if it’s feasible.  I’m not quite sure how to do this, though, because the Antarctic literature we have studied is heavily non-fiction, although we have studied some historically based fictional accounts.  Because of this, I am considering adding one work of non-fiction to the Primary Texts I will utilize.  If I do this I will probably choose Mike Collins’ Carrying the Fire.  This is the story of his Apollo 11 flight.  (Mike Collins is the astronaut who remained in the Command Module orbiting the Moon, while Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon).  I have not read Collins’ book, yet but am considering it because the book received good reviews when it was published and indicated that Collins was a good writer (and hence may be comparable to Apsley Cherry-Garrard).  I realize that a non-fiction work is not likely to have elements of Romantic literature, however, Cherry-Garrard’s Worst Journey in the World contains some descriptions of the Antarctic cold that border on the Sublime.  I wonder if Collins may evoke the same feelings.  I haven’t made a final decision on whether or not to include a non-fiction work, and if I do include one, I haven’t made a final decision that it will be Carrying the Fire.  Some other non-fiction works, which I consider possibilities are listed, below.  If I choose to include a non-fiction work, I will choose only one of these.

I have some concerns about the approach I have described and have listed them, below.  I would like to get your input regarding them. 

1.      I have made a decision to exclude works of science fiction, which may be more in the realm of fantasy than “realistic” science fiction, although the line between these may be arguable.  My primary reason for this is simple personal preference.  Do you think this is too restrictive? 

2.      I also have a concern over the choice between taking the time to read an additional major work, such as Collins’ Carrying the Fire and narrowing the focus to just Mars and Red Mars.  The advantage of doing this, I think, is that adding the non-fiction work may help in making comparisons to Antarctic literature.  The disadvantage is that yield of information relevant to my topic may not be justified by the commitment of time and effort to include another Primary Source.  Do you have any thoughts on this trade-off?

Other Potential Non-Fictional Primary Sources:

1.      Failure Is Not an Option, by Gene Kranz

2.      Lost Moon, by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger (The story of Apollo 13)

3.      Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir, by Brian Burrough

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Dear John,

This is a good, thorough proposal, so thanks. Your first question confused me a little, maybe because the terms seemed crossed with what the proposal was saying. However, both questions may be resolved thus: you can compare different genres with each other as long as you take account of it, suggesting what is gained and lost by doing so. You can even capitalize on the differences as you like. You're concentrating on a set of subjects that both genres represent. However distinct their representations, there must be some overlap if you can identify the subjects in both genres at all.

I like the three subjects you've selected. The main need is to unify them into a single thesis or theme. Two paths can be followed at once. First, as you move from one of your 3 sub-topics to another, look back and forth between them and try to establish connections between their interests, appeals, or methods. Second, stand back and think about what they have in common. Romanticism is one common background, but since Romanticism isn't perfectly contemporary with space travel, you may need to update this bond, maybe as Romantic appeals to the reader or perceptions of the space experience. Not to pile on, but you could even consider including the concept of "romance," a narrative form that often includes a journey or quest. (I've meant to talk about this more in class, but time . . . .)

On a more specific note, the words of the first Apollo astronauts on the moon may have some sublime content. Armstrong flubbed his line, but the idea was somewhat grand. But the great line was Aldrin's: "Magnificent desolation"--which I think is repeated in The Left Hand of Darkness.

I liked your description of the space environment as resembling the gothic and creating its own darkness, so use that somewhere. Also your knowledge of the Clarke and Bova books is helpful. The issue of separation and return continues in Robinson's extended trilogy. Maybe one way to connect the desire and loss theme to exploration is the simultaneous gain and loss explorers feel about their experience.

I look forward to reading more. Inquire further as you like.