English Lit Dissertation Topic Help!

Hey! I have to propose a dissertation topic to my tutor in two weeks and I only have a rough idea of what I want to do as I still need to do a lot of reading over the summer.

I am interested in how depression is constructed in literature as I seem to gravitate towards things that are emotionally aware and honest- writers like Plath, for example. So I would like to pick an author and three of their books to understand how they articulate their depression through their writing.

I thought about F Scott Fitzgerald to look at Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and one more. I still need to narrow the theme down, maybe to analysing how the narrative style aids the emotional element to their writing.

But I wondered, is this too cliche? Obviously once I have done some more close reading I will be able to define exactly what my title will be- but is Fitzgerald too overdone? I don’t want to have a forgettable dissertation which is unoriginal and doesn’t show my individuality.

I also thought about looking at Kazuo Ishiguro for the same kind of topic of depression/the human condition. So I could do that instead!

Any advice for the dissertation is appreciated :smile:

Reply 1

cheadle

Your 3rd Fitzgerald work could be The Crack-Up? (it's a short story)

I can't say if he's been overdone - your supervisor will advise on that - but if you know Fitzgerald's work quite well that would be a good start.