my proposed research methods (definitley tentaive)

I'm trying hard over here to propose something...it's not working (>o<)/ Let me start with what I know. The articles I have been reading are more than interesting and definitely informative, so I am for sure proposing that I continue to reference them as I form the structure of my final video. It is not as clear, though, how I will use the information I am gathering. To me this indicates that my research needs some serious guidance. I feel like I am at a point now that I can begin to narrow down my focus and come up with some, as Wesch put it "knock your head off" ideas to provide a skeleton for my research. As I move full force into my research I can use this skeleton to build upon and expand the "KYHO" ideas that I come up with resulting in five minutes of aawsumness :D Coming up with the KYHOI's is another story. I think it is super important that I review what direction the rest of the class is moving in to make sure that our video is integrated and streamline. The blog aspect of our class makes this ultra simple and our time spent in class is also very telling of what everyone is thinking. A combination of both these sources will provide me with the aspects that we are focusing on and I can then look back in history to see if, when and under what circumstances these aspects manifested before. This will definitely highlight the common, as well as not-so-common, threads that run through our projects collectively. Once I have a good grasp on my KYHOI's I can start building the musculature for my skeleton. I will primarily do this using the articles I have already read in addition to others that I find relevant to the direction I am heading. I currently have the FABULOUS article by Anne Ferry (Anonymity: The Literary History of a Word) and a review of Elizabeth Eisenstein's AMAZING work (The Printing Press as an Agent of Change). As of right now these two articles are my platform from which I will launch my research. Both articles encapsulate the fundamental ideas that give "anonymity" life and have much to offer in terms of the actual word "anonymity" as well as the cultural conditions that it has existed within and as a result of.

I am also finding articles that refer to anonymity in aspects other than poetry, which is the main focus of Ferry's article. Eisenstein's work focuses more on the conceptual aspects of communication revolutions and not so much on anonymity in and of itself. Therefore, I have found articles spanning throughout the 19th and 20th centuries that talk about anonymity in other forms of literature (i.e. literary criticism, memoirs and religious texts). This variety in content as well as time periods will allow me to spread my research over a wider base of literary aspects to get a better understanding of how people have used anonymity and for what reasons.

The final aspect of my research that I am working on would include a deeper look into uses of anonymity outside of the literary realm. This is not as likely, though, because anonymity outside of the literary realm is a much harder thing to grasp and document. This would be where true participant observation would come in handy. Even if I could find people that lived during the time periods discussed in some of the articles and could obtain a vicarious account of the sense of anonymity often experienced during the climb to industrialization it would never be the same as if I were experiencing it myself. This could be a good thing, though, because I would carry with me my own biases that would cloud my judgment. As of right now I am trying to determine the best approach to moving away from articles as my only source of information. As I continue to read and have discussions about my research I am confident I will come to one conclusion or another about how to broaden my perspective of anonymity.