Hello fellow reader! Welcome to my blog of reflections and thoughts…
My name is Whitney Ramsaran and I am currently doing my masters at UCC in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature. This is a space where I reflect on the seminars I attended and connect it with my area of study and interests. I will also be sharing my thoughts on literature, films, animations and anything I find of interest.
I was born in the Caribbean on the little twin islands of Trinidad and Tobago, where I spent most of my childhood. I moved to Donegal with my family where I enrolled in secondary school and I have lived in Ireland ever since. I did my undergraduate in UCC, studying Arts where I did a double major in English and Asian Studies.
My journey through academia has been great, there were some hardships, but I have enjoyed my time immensely, maybe a bit too much as I am considering doing a Phd. My future plan is to do a CELTA course that will hopefully (fingers crossed) get me a job and experience so that I can save for another 4 years of studying in academia. I would like to continue with Medieval English, as I really enjoy studying the literature of this period. I would like to be able to do translations of my own someday, but this is a dream that seems very far away, sort of like the twinkling stars in the midnight sky, they seem so far away, but can sometimes be closer to us than we think (I apologise for being so cheesy).
I like to read, typical English student, I know. The genres I enjoy are mostly fiction, I refuse to read non-fiction because I find it a bit upsetting to read about what happens in someone else’s life. I mainly enjoy: Fantasy, Sci-fi, African American literature, Classics, Medieval poems and prose, Renaissance literature, East-Asian novels, both contemporary and historical. My favourite books are: The Hobbit and LOTR of course, though I enjoyed The Hobbit more. I loved The Colour Purple, but the movie did traumatise me as a child. I am a fan of Elizabeth Gaskell, my favourite of her novels is North and South, I highly recommend the BBC mini-tv series, it is also one of my favourites. Jane Austen’s Persuasion will always be included in my top 5 list. I am not the biggest fan of the second-chance in romance trope, but this novel, as GenZ would say, hits different. Tolkien’s The Story of Kullervo I enjoy and I also feel the need to mention a medieval text, which is Sir Orfeo. This is the text that I will be working on for my thesis, which makes me happy and excited that I get to work with one of my favourite texts. I would also like to mention that I have been feeling a little homesick, so as a remedy, I have started reading Caribbean literature, particularly from my country as it gives a sense of nostalgia.
Next up, we have films and animations. I love collecting physical media and I have built quite a collection of all my favourite media to watch. I will keep this one short, only listing 5, because if I keep going we might be here all day. To start, I love all the Barbie movies, every single one is amazing, if I had to pick just one, then it would have to be Barbie as Rapunzel. I love the animation Up (it made me cry), North and south (best series of all time), The Rise of Phenixes (Chinese drama) and Master’s Sun (Korean Drama) are all in my top lists.
When I’m not reading, watching something or listening to music, I love to go on walks, as it is meditation for the mind. I love cats and my childhood dream was to be a Zoologist and work with lions. I can be a very superstitious and sometimes paranoid person, as most Caribbean people are. We believe in the supernatural, for example creatures from tales and folklore, it is deeply rooted in our culture and because of this, we tend to be just a bit superstitious, okay maybe a lot, but I believe that anything has the possibility of becoming a reality, no matter how absurd it seems or sounds.
I hope to continue my studies and gain more experiences along life’s journey and quests. When I receive the confirmation that I have been accepted to do my Phd, I will update you all as a new Phd student who has just completed her Masters and graduated.
“Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated”
