So this week I've been able to dive head first into what made me want to become a librarian in the first place: the art of research. There's something I enjoy so much about having a specific topic, going to the library, and pulling dozens of books off the shelf (without having to pay for anything!) And concentrating on one topic really makes it so easy. That eureka moment when you're so unsure of what you could possibly write twenty-five pages about and then bam! Everything makes sense.
So how did I manage to lasso such an awesome moment this week? Well first I have to thank Casey King for spending lots of time on the conquest of Mexico in the last few weeks. While talking about Cortes, we came across the figure of La Malinche or Dona Marina (her baptized name). Malinche was a Nahua woman given to Cortes as a slave in the Yucutan. Her knowledge of both Nahuatl and Mayan allowed her to become a translator for Cortes, as well as his mistress. History has assigned many roles to La Malinche, but the majority of them fall into two categories: the harlot/traitor figure or the mother/heroin figure. These distinct views on La Malinche in history inspired me to think about writing about her Tabetha Ewing's "Fugitives, Exile, and Extradition" class.
And this is where Jane comes in! I came to Jane with a very preliminary idea: La Malinche was physically an exile, sold into slavery and given to the other, the Spanish. But she is also a historical exile: Her image has been demonized by centuries of art and literature. She is a betrayer of her own people, the word "malinche" actually means something along the lines of "traitor." So how is her historical portrayal significant, especially to the nation of Mexico? At what points in time has La Malinche been reviled and when were attempts made to reinstate her as a positive character? Why is she singled out in the blame-game when hundreds of thousands of native soldiers fought alongside Cortes in the conquest?
I've spent this weekend in the library and have checked out more books than I know what to do with. La Malinche is kind of haunting me. There are no accounts that I've been able to find which give any chronicle of the woman's own words - and she was a translator, a woman who spent her life speaking for others. Why is it so difficult to find out things about her as a historical figure? And how have literary images of her enveloped her realistic presence in history with their portrayals? I have so many questions to ask and barely any answers!
Dear Irina:
ReplyDeleteI'll have to re-read this post when I get to a discouraged place in my own research and need to be reminded of the joy of history research. So, selfishly, thanks! ;-) Reflecting in writing on the process by which you come to a eureka moment is always a great idea, so I'm really glad you used the post to do that.
If you strip the process down, the first thing that happened was that you learned about a period of history that was new and fascinating to you. Very important to note: your interest sprang from *contact with an expert in the field whom you have direct access to*.
Second, on your own you isolated a story within the larger historical narrative that intrigued you and began to *search for secondary and tertiary sources to learn more* about that story. After visiting the library stacks, you used WorldCat for the first time (Milestone moment!)and played around with journal repositories like JSTOR to see what you could find. Important to note: *you worked independently" to learn the general outlines of the little story.
And last, after learning more about the smaller story, *you brainstormed with me a list of questions you have about that story and boiled them down to pointed questions that will guide your next research steps*: "How is [La Malinche's] historical portrayal significant, especially to the nation of Mexico? At what points in time has La Malinche been reviled and when were attempts made to reinstate her as a positive character? Why is she singled out in the blame-game when hundreds of thousands of native soldiers fought alongside Cortes in the conquest?" You then emailed those questions to another expert in the field to see if your research plan made sense.
Important to note: a) this third step was the most mentally demanding, b) it involved talking to someone who asked you questions, and c) and it ended with your checking the validity of your research plan with another expert in your field. What's astonishing and heartening about the third step is that it took so little time--what, 2 hours? If you hadn't involved others, how long do you think it would have taken?
Cheers, Jane
Addendum....
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I found what Presnell says in Chapter 4 to be really helpful. I knew that JSTOR, ProjectMuse and other article repositories often don't have the articles I'm looking for, but after saying a swear word or two I never thought about it too much. So it was interesting to know that JSTOR et al contain the contents of only those journals with which they have an agreement, and they don't give you access to the most recent volumes or issues (though I'm not sure this is entirely true any more--Presnell did write the book in 2006).
Just as I never fully understand the limitations of JSTOR et al, I didn't appreciate the loveliness of indexes before I read Presnell. Indexes (like Historical Abstracts) may not offer the sexy possibility of downloadable articles in their entirety, but they try to be comprehensive and should be our first stop when we're looking for journal articles. If we have time, I'd like to see what we can find on La Malinche with the HA search engine tonight.
Another thing it was great to see in black-and-white is that as a general rule we want each secondary source search to yield no more than 25 to 50 items. If our lists are bigger, we need to refine our searches with Boolean operators. You and I probably both do the AND and OR thing, but I'd really like to practice searches using truncations and parenthetic sets. We could also consider playing around with that a little tonight. Main point: I have a feeling that we can learn to save a gob of time and get better results by becoming more expert searchers. Since each search engine is a bit different from another (think EEBO), we'll have to try hard to curb our impatience to get moving and take the time necessary to learn how to use each one properly.
Would you fill me in tonight about which of these sources gave you the information that you most needed at this early point? And which search strategies you used to find them? What items and search strategies were a waste of time? Particularly interested in your take on the value of going to the stacks versus online databases and how the two may complement each other.