Hannah Raisner: The Difficulty of Unfamiliar Political Contexts

My research this summer is fairly straightforward–- in analyzing various references to the works of Dante Aligehieri in British, American, and Italian politics, I don’t need a control group or fancy lab equipment. Thanks to the internet, I don’t even need to leave my bedroom to complete my research!

Yet, as my work has been picking up over the last few weeks I’ve begun to see a few hurdles that I either hadn’t considered prior to beginning the project, or which I had underestimated. The largest hurdle, which I expected, is that it’s very difficult to fully understand a political reference in all its facets when I lack an in-depth understanding of the political context the reference sits within, or even worse, when I don’t understand the language the reference is in.

I’m lucky that I have immediate access to a countless number of resources that allow me to look into the history of political events and to translate Italian into English, but the context of a reference is so much more important than I initially imagined it would be. I previously researched Dante in American politics, and now realize that having a kind of intuitive cultural understanding of most references to Dante in American politics was a huge shortcut. I often knew what politician A was implying about politician B before I even finished observing their reference to Dante. I just don’t know enough about the political landscapes in either England or Italy to be able to make such quick and correct conclusions. I have lots of learning to do!

The good news is that I’m not too concerned about this, and I’m mostly just glad I’ve picked up on this early in my research. It may take a bit more time and effort than I had originally thought, but that’s okay–– research needs to be the best quality that it can be, and I’m willing to put in the work to make sure I end up with work I am proud of. Soon, I should have an abstract which will help guide my research more closely into one direction, making an argument out of the references I’ve sifted through.