File spoon-archives/blanchot.archive/blanchot_1997/blanchot.9707, message 56


Date: Mon, 28 Jul 1997 09:07:57 +0000
From: Professor Kevin Hart <Kevin.Hart-AT-arts.monash.edu.au>
Subject: Re: MB: re: Blanchot Before and After




28 July, 1997




Irene Sime,
`Holly Bank',
1 Murrayfield Gardens,
Murrayfield Loan,
CRIEFF, Perthshire PH7 3EE,
Scotland.




Dear Irene,

Thanks for your letter of 27 June and the revised copy of the thesis.
The package arrived last week: I've read the thesis twice and
annotated it extensively. Your revisions have improved the thesis very
considerably, and it is almost ready to be submitted. It still strikes
me as being a little on the short side, and I am trying to determine
if there is indeed a minumum number of words that is required for a
Centre PhD. There is a maximum, I know, but is there a minumum? The
English Department requires at least 60, 000 words, and on a very
quick reckoning your dissertation would fall three or four thousand
words short of that. I'll check out this important detail and email
you the minumum length.

There's no point in adding material simply for the sake of it.
However, I think the thesis needs to be expanded in a couple of areas;
and I suspect that if you do this properly you will have 60 000-70 000
words by the time you have finished. The areas are as follows:

(1) There are several places in the thesis where questions need to be
clarified and/or examined in greater deail, both conceptually and
historically. I've marked these on your typescript, and it should be
clear what has to be done. In particular, you need to make it very
plain what your argument is: you reveal it in your opening, but in a
rather shy way. Once you declare your thesis boldly, it is required
for you to account for why the post-romantic critics you admire
(Blanchot and Nancy in particular) are needed to help us read Hill in
a convincing manner. This is your opportunity to flesh out the theory
behind your thesis and your readings of Hill.

(2) The consideration of Canaan still seems to lack the solidity of
the other sections of your thesis. Is there a dimension of this
material that could be explored in more detail? Is there a theoretical
issue that you haven't raised in the thesis that could be examined in
this final chapter?  

Am I right to think that you are still happy to have Professor Paul
Kane and Professor Chris Wallace-Crabbe as examiners of the thesis?
They still strike me as being very good choices.

Be of stout heart: the end is at hand!

With all good wishes,








Kevin Hart
Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Professor Kevin Hart,
Department of English,
Monash University,
Melbourne, Victoria, 3168,
Australia.
Fax: 61-3-9905 5593
Ph:  61-3-9905 2145
Email: Kevin.Hart-AT-arts.monash.edu.au

   

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