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Contemplating the Past

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Six summers ago, I was privileged to study and conduct literary research with Professor Peter McCullough, esteemed (and delightful) Sohmer Fellow in English Renaissance Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford University. I was enchanted by the Restoration court of Queen Mary Beatrice of Modena, consort to James II. Before returning to the U.S., I met with Peter to discuss a book idea stemming from that research.

Among the women in Mary's court and circle were poets and artists, quite unusual for the time. Back home, I eagerly continued my study of the complexity of court culture, working to uncover as much as I could about these women and their unique literary and artistic accomplishments. Resuming research in Nashville, I realized early on that examining manuscripts and primary sources in the United Kingdom would be critical in following this captivating literary trail.

In Milledgeville, Georgia, she went to the house where Flannery O'Connor lived and wrote. Unlike Walden Pond, it didn't seem like a tourist attraction. "I noticed an authenticity about the place, with its pea fowl and her room on the first floor." It was easy to imagine the writer at work there.

I also needed to feel sense of place to create sense of place. Part of the joy of research—and for me it is joyful—is the ability to explore freely. I wanted to sense Stuart spaces: indeed, in the United Kingdom, one can travel by car, train, or bus through areas still astonishingly unchanged for centuries. Magically, the opportunity presented itself through USN's Helen Meador Foreign Travel Fellowship. For five weeks, I studied Special Collections manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, branching out regularly to manor houses, palaces, villages, and museums relating to my cast of characters.

At our faculty meeting last August, I shared the mood of my travels by placing selected photos to Celtic flute and guitar music. The realization of how completely 17th century women were disregarded made my journey—on many levels—powerful yet poignant. VirginiaWoolf famously wrotein A Room of One's Own: "Shakespeare's ‘sister' draw(s) her life from the lives of the unknown who were her forerunners." Further, wrote Woolf, "By hook or by crook, I hope that you will possess yourselves of money enough to travel and to idle, to contemplate the future or the past of the world, to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream."

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