The goal of
this paper is to get you thinking like literary scholars; to introduce you to
some of the tools of scholarship, and some of the problems of it, and to begin
the process of working up an interesting long-term project. That said, I
understand that most of you will not complete the project; this paper will
serve, then, as your effort in investigating one of the many fascinating
problem areas in Victorian literature.
Here's how
you do it:
Choose a
general topic area. The topic areas are broad and general, and I have only
listed some possible authors for each topic. Note that some "topics"
might also simply authors--you may choose to find out what's current with that
author and to work from there.
Next, start
reading around. Our anthology includes short excerpts from a variety of works
that can provide "context" or a counterpoint to some of what we're
reading; start there, and explore some connections. It also has an excellent
bibliography on several topics and on all the anthologized authors. Your research
proposal need not be centrally focused on an author we've discussed in class,
although it should include a discussion of at least one author we've read.
Then: Do your
research. You should have been following VICTORIA already; that will be one
source of ideas for you. Others include: the VICTORIA
Research Web
(on-line); various periodicals, including Victorian Studies, Victorian
Literature and Culture, The Victorians Institute Journal, Victorian Poetry,
Nineteenth-Century
Literature,
and others (go browse in the library!); web-sites devoted to single authors or
single issues; the MLA Bibliography (available on-line
from the library's web-site); and the bibliographies in most of the critical
editions we've read. Get a sense of the scope of the problem: you probably
shouldn't try to tackle, for example, evolutionary thinking in Victorian
literature--it's just too big. But the issue of breeding has been raised in
relation to The Mill on the Floss--that might be a place to start.
Finally: turn
in a 5-7 page paper in the form of a research proposal. This should indicate
the scope of the problem, some of the previous work that's been done on the
topic, and a tentative thesis. I know these have to be tentative! That's ok;
the point is to get far enough along that you can start to draw some
conclusions of your own, even if you don't have time to test them fully. Attach
to this paper a 1-2 page annotated bibliography. Your annotations should
indicate whether or not you've read the work, its relevance to your topic, and
any reservations you have about the source. The paper is due April 27, the last
day of class.
Finally,
finally: have fun! Really. This is meant to get you excited about how research
is done in literary studies, and to get you thinking about the kinds of
resources available to the literary scholar. There's lots out there, some
better than others. This is your chance to evaluate it and glean some useful
and (I hope) interesting information and ideas.
General Topic
Areas (These are just a few suggestions):
Victorian
humor (Lear, Carroll)
The Woman
Question (Browning, Eliot, Wood, Rossetti)
Victorian
Religion and Science (Tennyson, Arnold, Eliot, Hopkins)
Art &
Aesthetics (Tennyson, Brownings, Ruskin, Rossettis, Pater, Hopkins, Wilde)
Industrialism,
Work, the Question of Progress (Dickens, Eliot, Arnold)
More?