a good point

food for thought: shelby suggested tonight that it seems my Walker project is taking over the entire dissertation, and i need to take stock, either exploring how these pieces fit in to the larger picture OR deciding to make the Walker biographical link a much huger part of of the diss, like possibly even a single-author diss, though i don't particularly want to do that.

it's an interesting observation and makes me understand a little better why/how i have been struggling to keep this chapter together: the argument i'm trying to make is about Walker's entire career, not just a single text, segment in time, or whatever. consider these two thesis statements:

1) Alice Walker's "message" or suggestion, from her early works to her recent Buddhist allegory, has never essentially changed.

2) In Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart, Alice Walker explores her message of transitional and spiritual existence using spiritual allegory as her central technique.

Which is more interesting? which is easier to prove? Which could I do in time to be on schedule to defend in September? These are the questions I will attempt to answer tomorrow morning. Yikes.