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Adv. Higher English Dissertation

My class has been given until next week to choose our (preferably) novels for our dissertation, however, our teacher wants us to start planning our dissertations this week.

Can anyone suggest books which have similar themes? I would rather avoid science fiction books like 1984 and A Clockwork Orange, and books about war and the supernatural. I would have liked to do something by Dickens but we have been advised against it because we are reading two of his books as our literary unit.

I had originally intended to write about a combination of an Austen book, 'Jane Eyre' and something modern like 'The Time Traveller's wife', talking about the treatment of women in society during different time periods, but I was told to avoid Austen and Bronte as they are severely overdone.

Any advice? Should I go on with my first idea or should I change books?
Reply 1
Avatar for Mr Porter
Mr Porter
12
I think your idea is too broad at the moment, and maybe you should focus it, if you were to go ahead, onto a specific area? Jane Eyre would work well with Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, in terms of exploring madness. Charlotte Bronte's Villete
would also work in exploring the feminist-self, under oppression.

If this sounds interesting I can send you some more resources and famous critical essays.

But as I said females and madness is a pretty well covered topic. I don't know if it's are 'overdone' per se, but you certainly won't be dramatically redefining it.
Reply 2
Avatar for srm4
srm4
OP
Original post by Mr Porter
I think your idea is too broad at the moment, and maybe you should focus it, if you were to go ahead, onto a specific area? Jane Eyre would work well with Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys, in terms of exploring madness. Charlotte Bronte's Villete
would also work in exploring the feminist-self, under oppression.

If this sounds interesting I can send you some more resources and famous critical essays.

But as I said females and madness is a pretty well covered topic. I don't know if it's are 'overdone' per se, but you certainly won't be dramatically redefining it.




These books do sound interesting, but I wish I could choose a topic that's not been talked about many times before. To be honest, I'm a little bit lost in choosing what to write about as I haven't been given any guidance by my teacher :s-smilie:

Do you have any suggestions on other themes/topics I could do? I really want to write about something that will stand out against the rest :smile:
Reply 3
Avatar for Mr Porter
Mr Porter
12
Original post by srm4
These books do sound interesting, but I wish I could choose a topic that's not been talked about many times before. To be honest, I'm a little bit lost in choosing what to write about as I haven't been given any guidance by my teacher :s-smilie:

Do you have any suggestions on other themes/topics I could do? I really want to write about something that will stand out against the rest :smile:


The problem is still that it'll be difficult to write on a totally new topic, and whilst it's less interesting it'll be better to get a good mark if you don't push yourself too out there.

Do you have a copy of some AH English past papers? Browse through their essay questions and see if any authors stand out to you. Did your teacher say anything about preferring you choose one author, or compare different ones? You could always try to go, alternatively, the hard route and choose difficult writers but that just depends on how willing you are to put in the work.

Or if you could tell me some areas of interest, or things you like to read about? Are you interested in a certain time-period or a country's literature?

Another way you can get ideas is by browsing university courses actually. I know for Edinburgh they have course titles for different years, say Modernism and the Market, and have a prescribed reading list of relevant books. Have a browse and see if anything catches your interest.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/undergraduate/current/honours/core-option-2013-2014

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