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dissertations

when exams finished a couple of weeks ago, i had nothing to stress over so quickly began to consider my dissertation. thankfully, academic stress of some sort is back in full swing.

i'm considering looking at 'the real and the virtual of physical and mental violence (and death) in early modern tragedies'... though i'm not sure how great an area it is to venture into. it almost seems too 'out there' to merit any major findings.

what are people doing/have done theirs on? any tips on how to go about what seems like a mild nightmare before it's even really started?

Reply 1

hobnob

14

Sounds like quite a vast (but fun) topic. :smile:

I think if I were you, I'd start by mapping out my argument to avoid branching out too far and by deciding on the main texts to focus on for that argument. Or you could start the other way round, by deciding in advance what aspects and/or texts you definitely don't want to discuss. But at any rate drawing up a plan of some sort will help to reduce the "mild nightmare" effect a bit.

Just out of interest, which plays do you have in mind? Sounds like a very Websterish title to me, but I'm sure there are plenty of others...

Reply 2

silence

OP

16

will look at kyd's spanish tragedy, some marlowe (edward II and perhaps faustus B text), lear, hamlet and titus will offer something and then perhaps relatively minor plays like the athiest's tragedy (tourner). perhaps some middleton (women beware women, the changeling and the revenger's tragedy) and then some webster in there too if i have the time. i was originally going to look at the way in which deaths on stage change throughout the period (from implied death - persued by a bear - to hangings to stabbings to realtively unrealistic and elaborate poisonings etc). but decided that it would just end up being a catalogue of violent incidents and not be interesting enough. so i'll be looking at how these on stage acts of violence relate with, or get counterbalanced by, the imagery portrayed in the actual text/dialogue. as in what makes certain deaths (which are always virtual given their dramatic nature) seem real to the audience - the action or the language?

Reply 3

hobnob

14

silence

will look at kyd's spanish tragedy, some marlowe (edward II and perhaps faustus B text), lear, hamlet and titus will offer something and then perhaps relatively minor plays like the athiest's tragedy (tourner). perhaps some middleton (women beware women, the changeling and the revenger's tragedy) and then some webster in there too if i have the time. i was originally going to look at the way in which deaths on stage change throughout the period (from implied death - persued by a bear - to hangings to stabbings to realtively unrealistic and elaborate poisonings etc). but decided that it would just end up being a catalogue of violent incidents and not be interesting enough. so i'll be looking at how these on stage acts of violence relate with, or get counterbalanced by, the imagery portrayed in the actual text/dialogue. as in what makes certain deaths (which are always virtual given their dramatic nature) seem real to the audience - the action or the language?

So essentially it's about how the staging of violence and death develops? Sounds really interesting. Might be a bit tricky to structure chronologically without having too generalise too much, but I suppose structuring it thematically could work...

Reply 4

rottcodd

3

Yes, I've only just finished exams and am now begining to stress over my dissertation. There seems like such a lot I can talk about, and I'm finding it really difficult to narrow it down and be specific. Mine is called 'John Barleycorn Must Die: British Folktales Retold'. I'm investigating in partcular the folktale of John Barleycorn, where John gets buried alive, grows again in the form of a crop, is hacked to death, crushed, and turned into alcohol. I'm trying to chart the development of the folktale from the 16th century to the present as there are lots of interesting changes that happen to the tale along the way. I can just see it being really difficult to keep it to 10,000 words without making lots of generalisations. I like the fact that there's hardly, if any, literature on this specific subject, so I feel like I'm doing something quite unique. But that's also incredibly daunting!

Reply 5

the_alba

12

Do you guys still have a dissertation to write this year then, before the academic year finishes? If so, poor you! I just finished mine, on Beckett and Nonsense. I worked on it pretty much every day, little by little, mapping out a structure and writing as I researched (which is a bit unusual, but it works for me).

Reply 6

silence

OP

16

mine's not in until may 08, but i know that october will come sooner than expected and then the whole year always seems to fly by.

i'm in a similar situation steerpike about not much literature on the subject. to be fair, it sounds like your might have a bit less written on it so i'm not in a position to complain! good luck.

Reply 7

rottcodd

3

Yeah, mine is also not due in until next year, but I have to hand in 'advanced drafts' (god knows what that's supposed to be mean) by September.

Reply 8

silence

OP

16

i'd guess that an advanced draft would be the structure and the sort of points you're going to argue in each chapter, maybe with reference to certain books and articles you've already come across. it's weird - i get the feeling we're meant to know more than we do about how to do dissertations, despite it being a once in a lifetime thing (unless you go on to do an MA etc).

Reply 9

the_alba

12

Well, the subject I wrote mine on also did not have very much secondary criticism. After I finished I worried that it may look under-researched, as I didn't really mention Beckett studies or use very many critics. But I made a point of explaining at the beginning and end of the dissertation that it's a nascent / overlooked topic in Beckett's oeuvre, hence the lack of concrete criticism (a critical flaw in Beckett studies I was trying to address etc etc).

Reply 10

Loki

9

I'm doing my first dissertation on Slavery in the American Gothic(probably Melville/Hawthorne) and my second dissertation on British Gothic and the Unconscious(I do joint-honours and have managed to convince both department to let me take a dissertation each semester).

The plan I'm currently following is just to read most of the short fiction of Melville/Hawthorne and move on from there. I already have a vague idea of what the dissertation will branch into, but I'm choosing to select and concentrate on definite source material first.

Reply 11

~Sam~

15

At Cardiff, our dissertation's optional so I'm still trying to decide whether to do one or not. What do you all think? Pros and cons of a dissertation?

Reply 12

hobnob

14

~Sam~

At Cardiff, our dissertation's optional so I'm still trying to decide whether to do one or not. What do you all think? Pros and cons of a dissertation?

Well, I don't know how dissertations at Cardiff work exactly... Generally, though, I'd say the main advantage about a dissertation is that you get a chance to write in more depth on a topic you're particularly interested in and get to do a bit more research than you would for a regular piece of coursework. The disadvantage of that is that it's not necessarily the best option if you want to play safe (I think it was somebody from Bristol who recently mentioned it was quite hard to achieve a very good mark on your dissertation). However, that needn't always be the case, and you might consider it the option that's more fun, which in turn might lead you to do better on it...
It's pretty much up to you - if you've got a topic you'd like to write a dissertation on, I'd say go for it. :smile:

Reply 13

Jelkin

17

Did you do a personal study? That might be a good indicator of whether a dissertation would suit you. My friend's at Cardiff and wasn't going to do a dissertation until she got 78 on her personal study :biggrin:

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