Literature dissertation panic please help!:)
Hi guys,
I'm in my final year and am stumped for help, so was wondering if current/past students could offer advice, since my university is offering next to no advice other than 3-4 timetabled meetings with supervisors for the year.
I am wanting to write about the north of England, and it being presented as alien or about its presentation of itself.
One of my texts is Wuthering Heights and I'm hoping to talk about nature, language, representation etc.
In an ideal world I want to talk about a more contemporary text, but am struggling to find hardly any secondary reading dealing with works post 1930s, even the more "famous" ones, and some of the potential texts don't have any at all.
Would you guys recommend taking on this? I want to do something a bit more original and with current issues, but don't want my work to suffer for lack of scholarship. Is it safer just to compare it to another Bronte novel/Gaskell work?
If you were to compare, how is it worth structuring the dissertation? Find common themes and differences seems the best way, and elaborating on how they feed my argument.
Sorry for the ramble - the main thing I am asking is about if lack of secondary reading on a text is a problem.
Thank you!!
I'm in my final year and am stumped for help, so was wondering if current/past students could offer advice, since my university is offering next to no advice other than 3-4 timetabled meetings with supervisors for the year.
I am wanting to write about the north of England, and it being presented as alien or about its presentation of itself.
One of my texts is Wuthering Heights and I'm hoping to talk about nature, language, representation etc.
In an ideal world I want to talk about a more contemporary text, but am struggling to find hardly any secondary reading dealing with works post 1930s, even the more "famous" ones, and some of the potential texts don't have any at all.
Would you guys recommend taking on this? I want to do something a bit more original and with current issues, but don't want my work to suffer for lack of scholarship. Is it safer just to compare it to another Bronte novel/Gaskell work?
If you were to compare, how is it worth structuring the dissertation? Find common themes and differences seems the best way, and elaborating on how they feed my argument.
Sorry for the ramble - the main thing I am asking is about if lack of secondary reading on a text is a problem.
Thank you!!
Original post by HAZZZA
Hi guys,
I'm in my final year and am stumped for help, so was wondering if current/past students could offer advice, since my university is offering next to no advice other than 3-4 timetabled meetings with supervisors for the year.
I am wanting to write about the north of England, and it being presented as alien or about its presentation of itself.
One of my texts is Wuthering Heights and I'm hoping to talk about nature, language, representation etc.
In an ideal world I want to talk about a more contemporary text, but am struggling to find hardly any secondary reading dealing with works post 1930s, even the more "famous" ones, and some of the potential texts don't have any at all.
Would you guys recommend taking on this? I want to do something a bit more original and with current issues, but don't want my work to suffer for lack of scholarship. Is it safer just to compare it to another Bronte novel/Gaskell work?
If you were to compare, how is it worth structuring the dissertation? Find common themes and differences seems the best way, and elaborating on how they feed my argument.
Sorry for the ramble - the main thing I am asking is about if lack of secondary reading on a text is a problem.
Thank you!!
I'm in my final year and am stumped for help, so was wondering if current/past students could offer advice, since my university is offering next to no advice other than 3-4 timetabled meetings with supervisors for the year.
I am wanting to write about the north of England, and it being presented as alien or about its presentation of itself.
One of my texts is Wuthering Heights and I'm hoping to talk about nature, language, representation etc.
In an ideal world I want to talk about a more contemporary text, but am struggling to find hardly any secondary reading dealing with works post 1930s, even the more "famous" ones, and some of the potential texts don't have any at all.
Would you guys recommend taking on this? I want to do something a bit more original and with current issues, but don't want my work to suffer for lack of scholarship. Is it safer just to compare it to another Bronte novel/Gaskell work?
If you were to compare, how is it worth structuring the dissertation? Find common themes and differences seems the best way, and elaborating on how they feed my argument.
Sorry for the ramble - the main thing I am asking is about if lack of secondary reading on a text is a problem.
Thank you!!
That is a rather vague topic with no rationale behind it. If you were more selective then you might consider how landscape is portrayed in a particular time and how this reflects the interests of the writer and time (e.g. If a writer decides to set their novel in the countryside while the rest of society is focused on industrialization or war that tells you something). Alternatively you could focus on one writer and see how landscape is used in a number of their works or compare multiple writers' views on the north of England (e.g. do those from the north portray it duffetently to those from elsewhere).
For example you could consider how rural or urban landscapes are used throughout time. Seems to me Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier uses urban landscapes to discuss similiar economic issues to Gaskell's North and South. Likewise the countryside in Burnett's The Secret Garden is portrayed in a similiar way to Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
Secondary resources will not be a problem once you have picked your primary works.
Original post by HAZZZA
Hi guys,
I'm in my final year and am stumped for help, so was wondering if current/past students could offer advice, since my university is offering next to no advice other than 3-4 timetabled meetings with supervisors for the year.
I am wanting to write about the north of England, and it being presented as alien or about its presentation of itself.
One of my texts is Wuthering Heights and I'm hoping to talk about nature, language, representation etc.
In an ideal world I want to talk about a more contemporary text, but am struggling to find hardly any secondary reading dealing with works post 1930s, even the more "famous" ones, and some of the potential texts don't have any at all.
Would you guys recommend taking on this? I want to do something a bit more original and with current issues, but don't want my work to suffer for lack of scholarship. Is it safer just to compare it to another Bronte novel/Gaskell work?
If you were to compare, how is it worth structuring the dissertation? Find common themes and differences seems the best way, and elaborating on how they feed my argument.
Sorry for the ramble - the main thing I am asking is about if lack of secondary reading on a text is a problem.
Thank you!!
I'm in my final year and am stumped for help, so was wondering if current/past students could offer advice, since my university is offering next to no advice other than 3-4 timetabled meetings with supervisors for the year.
I am wanting to write about the north of England, and it being presented as alien or about its presentation of itself.
One of my texts is Wuthering Heights and I'm hoping to talk about nature, language, representation etc.
In an ideal world I want to talk about a more contemporary text, but am struggling to find hardly any secondary reading dealing with works post 1930s, even the more "famous" ones, and some of the potential texts don't have any at all.
Would you guys recommend taking on this? I want to do something a bit more original and with current issues, but don't want my work to suffer for lack of scholarship. Is it safer just to compare it to another Bronte novel/Gaskell work?
If you were to compare, how is it worth structuring the dissertation? Find common themes and differences seems the best way, and elaborating on how they feed my argument.
Sorry for the ramble - the main thing I am asking is about if lack of secondary reading on a text is a problem.
Thank you!!
A few: Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth, Grahame Green's Brighton Rock or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting!
Original post by The Empire Odyssey
A few: Elizabeth Gaskell's Ruth, Grahame Green's Brighton Rock or Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting!
The OP wants to write about northern landscapes and you suggest novels not always set in the north (Ruth), or set in Brighton and Edinburgh?
Original post by evantej
The OP wants to write about northern landscapes and you suggest novels not always set in the north (Ruth), or set in Brighton and Edinburgh?
Yeah - I have no idea why I said Brighton! I was thinking of Newcastle aha! Whoops!
Edinburgh is in the north tho, so 1/3 ain't bad!
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