As I have not posted in a while due to various AS level exams, I thought I would post an update on my current position. Up until now, there have been more pressing engagements as such but from here on in, the true project will begin!
I am travelling to Guernsey for two weeks on the 7th of July, a trip which should serve as a vital part of my project. While I am there, I will be hopefully interviewing a variety of people, both experts and people with first hand experiences. I am contacting these people through my friends on the island which have been incredibly useful in this process, and I am attempting to utilise the Guernsey Branch of the Channel Islands Occupation Society and the Prialux Archive Library to help in my research. My friends on the island have also taken the time to send me current articles of the 'Guernsey Press' that i may be interested in. I have found these very useful in narrowing down the questions I intend to ask in the interviews,and also in finding new areas that i could strive to learn about.
One subtopic that I have especially become intrigued by came across when I read a stream of articles about the recent liberation day celebrations. From these articles I gauged a feeling that Liberation was extremely important to the islanders not just of Guernsey but also of Jersey and the smaller islands too. This led me to thinking, which holds greater emotive power; that of occupation, or liberation? It is an interesting question for my EPQ as the answer to this will undoubtedly be varied yet if overall the occupation held a greater (obviously negative) response, then it would imply that there are indeed raw feelings about the subject, and that would point to a divide between the islands and the mainland. Perhaps this divide is still embodied in a different way; in places I have seen Guernsey as a foreign country that speaks English (and this is not always the case!) due to the differences in currency, economics, road signs and general infrastructure that one would expect to be uniform with the rest of Great Britain.
Obviously this assumption is, well, a grand assumption, but it would be interesting to follow this lead and see if there is any significance behind the interpretations of these articles.
I will also be meeting with my EPQ advisor, the legendary Mr Jones, who will undoubtedly help to narrow down my currently broad project and help find target areas for research.
In my next post I will hopefully give details about my upcoming interviews, and the results of my first advisory meeting.
