How do Devise an Honours Thesis Topic
Some students are initially overwhelmed at the idea of writing their own thesis and can’t think where to begin. Some good starting points include the following:
Think about what has interested you most in your undergraduate studies. Was there a play, a film, an idea that really captured your attention? Was there an essay that you absolutely loved writing and felt proud of when you’d finished?
Have you done any reading that you haven’t been required to do for your degree? What was it about? This could be a clue to your real interests.
Are you drawn to a particular part of the bookshop when you go browsing? What do you think about/read about in your own time? Don’t underestimate what might appear simply ‘personal’ or ‘pleasurable’ interests here. Many fascinating theses have been written about fantasy novels, for example, or action films.
What would you love to know more about? What do you think is important? There may be a way of developing these things into a thesis.
Another option is to talk to your lecturers. If you completed a subject that you particularly enjoyed, make an appointment with the lecturer to talk through possible ideas.
Sample Thesis Proposal
Topic Area
Victorian Women’s Fiction
Thesis Title
Novel Selves: Victorian Women’s Writing
Research Questions
How did Victorian women view the novel as a genre? What were its possibilities? What opportunities for ‘self-formation’ did the genre open up? Did different narrative approaches have different effects? How did specific novels such as Charlotte Bronte’s Villette and Jane Eyre explore the invention of female subjectivity? What limits to female possibility do novels like this reveal?
Bibliography
Barton, A. (1988) The Victorian Novel, London: Penguin.
Bronte, C. (1972) Villette, London: Virago.
- (1969) Jane Eyre, London: Virago.
Peterson, D. (2005) Rethinking the Self in the Victorian Novel, New York: Routledge.
Rutherford, J. (1999) The History of Women’s Writing in the 19th Century, Chicago: MacMillan.
Young, A. (2007) Bronte’s Fractured Voices: The Novels of Charlotte Bronte, San Francisco: MIT Press.