BA Eng w Cult Studs Dissertation topic
Jan. 30th, 2012 09:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI'm reading the assignment outlines and stuff for the Dissertation Preparation module.
I have to choose a topic and do an anotated bibliography.
Choosing a Topic
When selecting a dissertation topic, remember that you are going to have to live with it for the best part of a year. It is therefore vital that you choose a subject that interests you, and that can be sustained for 10 to 12,000 words. This does not necessarily mean that you need a very wide area or lots of different texts. You should aim for depth of coverage, and detailed critical analysis, rather than breadth of scope. On the whole, it is best to deal with one or at most two texts. The ideal topic is one that is relatively narrow and sharply defined, but which raises large and important issues. For instance, a dissertation on ‘The Representation of Madness in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre’ has a fairly tight and limited focus, but it can be used to raise issues about the representation of women in Victorian fiction, the development of the novel in the nineteenth century or the literary portrayal of madness. It can engage with a range of theoretical perspectives, from the Anglo American feminism of Gilbert and Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic and Elaine Showalter’s The Female Malady to the post colonial theories of Gayatri Spivak and Helen Savory.
You need to ensure that there is a reasonable amount of secondary material (historical, critical or theoretical) with which you can engage in order to show how your reading of the text(s) and your interpretation of the issue(s) relate to those of other people.
So... I wish to write about Doctor Who, because what else am I going to concentrate on for a year?
I should probably focus on bits of Doctor Who made after summer 2008, which is the last time I studied Doctor Who.
I have some books from the 2008 study spree, some essays books... okay possibly one essays books. The UEA library has a bunch of stuff.
Since I know a lot of people who know a lot of Doctor Who I thought I'd short cut and ask, what relevant academic books are there since 2008?
Or before that, but I'm more likely to have heard of them.
These are the Doctor Who non-fiction I actually own, though I'm sure there should be an extra Writers Tale in there somewhere. Maybe some other stuff. *pokes*
Also, what relevant not-books are there that are still academic?
I read a lot of LJ and DW reviews, but suspect that using them as secondary sources would not impress teachers.
I'm going to get the folder out as soon as I dare poke the big heap of previous work. It seems to have ended up quite far down. I know I bought a folder box to put previous work in, why haven't I used it? But as is I have about a metre high of work propped in a desk hutch and finding any specific part is... challenging.
I realise this looks a lot like 'do my homework for me' but rest assured I will be spending many afternoons in the library doing said homework myself (which is a happy thought on this particular topic). This is just asking all my sources.
As for topic... I know I want to avoid things that might require me to read things that mention Freud. Just on basic principle. Unfortunately I seem to have chosen the wrong degree area for that...
So I have no idea how to narrow it down.
I'll likely do counting for Doctor Who episodes. Has someone done that? Bechdel test, how many women, how many people of color? It's not on Characters Count, but its a big internet and that site is impossible to google for.
Women in Doctor Who is waaaay too broad, right?
I probably won't do anything about class because I'm still a bit vague about class, like the definitions and stuff. Maybe if it's really obvious though.
Topic is hard. It's like, here, pick your favourite shiny thing, now ignore almost all of it.
I have to choose a topic and do an anotated bibliography.
Choosing a Topic
When selecting a dissertation topic, remember that you are going to have to live with it for the best part of a year. It is therefore vital that you choose a subject that interests you, and that can be sustained for 10 to 12,000 words. This does not necessarily mean that you need a very wide area or lots of different texts. You should aim for depth of coverage, and detailed critical analysis, rather than breadth of scope. On the whole, it is best to deal with one or at most two texts. The ideal topic is one that is relatively narrow and sharply defined, but which raises large and important issues. For instance, a dissertation on ‘The Representation of Madness in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre’ has a fairly tight and limited focus, but it can be used to raise issues about the representation of women in Victorian fiction, the development of the novel in the nineteenth century or the literary portrayal of madness. It can engage with a range of theoretical perspectives, from the Anglo American feminism of Gilbert and Gubar’s The Madwoman in the Attic and Elaine Showalter’s The Female Malady to the post colonial theories of Gayatri Spivak and Helen Savory.
You need to ensure that there is a reasonable amount of secondary material (historical, critical or theoretical) with which you can engage in order to show how your reading of the text(s) and your interpretation of the issue(s) relate to those of other people.
So... I wish to write about Doctor Who, because what else am I going to concentrate on for a year?
I should probably focus on bits of Doctor Who made after summer 2008, which is the last time I studied Doctor Who.
I have some books from the 2008 study spree, some essays books... okay possibly one essays books. The UEA library has a bunch of stuff.
Since I know a lot of people who know a lot of Doctor Who I thought I'd short cut and ask, what relevant academic books are there since 2008?
Or before that, but I'm more likely to have heard of them.
These are the Doctor Who non-fiction I actually own, though I'm sure there should be an extra Writers Tale in there somewhere. Maybe some other stuff. *pokes*
Also, what relevant not-books are there that are still academic?
I read a lot of LJ and DW reviews, but suspect that using them as secondary sources would not impress teachers.
I'm going to get the folder out as soon as I dare poke the big heap of previous work. It seems to have ended up quite far down. I know I bought a folder box to put previous work in, why haven't I used it? But as is I have about a metre high of work propped in a desk hutch and finding any specific part is... challenging.
I realise this looks a lot like 'do my homework for me' but rest assured I will be spending many afternoons in the library doing said homework myself (which is a happy thought on this particular topic). This is just asking all my sources.
As for topic... I know I want to avoid things that might require me to read things that mention Freud. Just on basic principle. Unfortunately I seem to have chosen the wrong degree area for that...
So I have no idea how to narrow it down.
I'll likely do counting for Doctor Who episodes. Has someone done that? Bechdel test, how many women, how many people of color? It's not on Characters Count, but its a big internet and that site is impossible to google for.
Women in Doctor Who is waaaay too broad, right?
I probably won't do anything about class because I'm still a bit vague about class, like the definitions and stuff. Maybe if it's really obvious though.
Topic is hard. It's like, here, pick your favourite shiny thing, now ignore almost all of it.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 09:50 am (UTC)Doctor Who and the Bechdel Test
season 1-4
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 10:08 am (UTC)http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1757927.html
there's a bunch of stuff
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1757683.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1839401.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1757927.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1757683.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1747350.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1746062.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1740968.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1730885.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1730169.html
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 10:10 am (UTC)I made a list:
issues of gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, and any other society structuring power imbalances you can think of. Class, region, generation... probably some more, there's always more. I think that colonialism thing is a bit different to racism. Religion needs its own box too. More more more.
I weren't talking on Torchwood though
doctor who @ uea era
Date: 2012-01-30 10:37 am (UTC)posted my class notes a lot, they might have interesting comments... nope, just me linking to another bit of me
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1335846.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1463603.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1458655.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1456667.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1455919.html essay titles
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1452607.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1450066.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1442186.html
http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1439137.html
Re: doctor who @ uea era
Date: 2012-01-30 10:49 am (UTC)http://beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1368089.html
Re: doctor who @ uea era
Date: 2012-01-30 11:37 am (UTC)http://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2376556.html
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 11:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 06:09 pm (UTC)http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=%22dr+who%22&as_sdt=0%2C5&as_ylo=2007&as_vis=0
(you can of course further refine the search via domain, subtopic etc. to ensure you're getting references to the show rather than a phrase (...the doctor who did this... ))
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/index
This one is mostly useful through inserting a reference you already know, and it comes up with other articles that cited it. Sometimes it comes up with really interesting stuff and sometimes it has nothing on your reference.
Have fun
no subject
Date: 2012-01-30 10:01 am (UTC)Or before that, but I'm more likely to have heard of them.
There's The Unsilent Library and Triumph of a Time Lord, and also slightly less academically Chicks Dig Time Lords, and the latest edition of Lance Parkin's AHistory. I was really unimpressed by Timeless Adventures. I've tagged all my Doctor Who non-fiction as 'dwnf' on LibraryThing.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-01 06:52 am (UTC)