Leichenpredigte - Funeral Sermons

Looked at some funeral sermons the other day. I'm not sure whether I really need to go on a research trip for this, as so many are digitized and can be accessed online. It'd be cool though to look at Trauerschriften in general -- the whole paraphernalia of elite mourning in 16th and 17th century Germany.
While looking at these, I became uncertain about the ways in which these sermons would fit into a larger discussion of Prosaromanen. This accompanied doubts I've had about my argument about the literature Prosaromanen, and about how I want to situate my approach to dealing with emotion in 16th and 17th century literature. But somehow that seems like another project altogether which would involve different readings and a different scope and that maybe the question of genre should become a smaller one. I don't know.
BUT it seems useful to hold on to some of the results of my Historia reading. The bit about salvation theology and emotion could be looked at in Melusine and Catharina Regina von Greiffenburg too. Then a chapter on Trauerschriften to help offer a cultural foregrounding of the whole business. It'd be good to get some Catholic literature in there and also some drama. Hmmm..
For now, as prep for seeing my advisor I'll:
1) shore up the paper I've got
2)finish reading list
3)write a draft of a research proposal for considering Leichenpredigte and Trauerschriften?

Beinecke Library

Still really unsure about how to do the archive thing. How do you know enough about what's in an archive to write a prospectus and make a case that you need to be there?
I checked out the catalog in the Beinecke library today. They have small "but significant" holdings in German. It does look like they have quite a few prayers and sermons that could be useful for looking into angels. I even saw some prayers to guardian angels that look promising. There's also an alchemy collection with recipes & such.

Researching with Technology

Went to an excellent workshop on utilizing web 2.0 applications to facilitate research. A very timely topic for me, as I'm reevaluating (actually considering for the first time) how to organize sources, notes, etc. Too many times, I've misplaced a file, or forgotten where that information about the archive was located on the web.
In order to remedy this chaotic state of affairs, I've signed up with bubbl.us to help to to organize my thoughts (bye-bye scraps of paper!) and with diigo to organize my links. These tools, my beloved Google dashboard, and this blog should help me to keep me on task, and my life at a glance.
We shall see!