Phd Topic

[Booky]

Hello everyone,

I've got to find a topic for my phd-proposal but I can't seem to fix my mind on anything. The problem is I want to do something very ORIGINAL, but I fear that if it's not trendy at the same time, my proposal won't be accepted...
I don't like current trends like feminism and (post)colonialism though.

So could anyone help me find an amazing topic? I would be most grateful!

Cheers and have a nice week! :)

[Virgil]

Booky, you don't specify what's your area of expertise: Modern, post-modern, Victorian, Romanticism, etc.? Which writers are you comfortable in writing on? I'd love to throw some ideas at you, but you've got to put me in the correct ball park first.

[Etienne]

My guess is that he's not doing a phd...

[jon1jt]

Hello everyone,

I've got to find a topic for my phd-proposal but I can't seem to fix my mind on anything. The problem is I want to do something very ORIGINAL, but I fear that if it's not trendy at the same time, my proposal won't be accepted...
I don't like current trends like feminism and (post)colonialism though.

So could anyone help me find an amazing topic? I would be most grateful!

Cheers and have a nice week! :)

there is nothing VERY ORIGINAL, at best you find gaps in literature and make your case, hopefully a compelling one, my friend. most of what will amount as your dissertation is all ready written for you. academic writing is creative writing, so don't kid yourself.

feminism and post-colonialism are "current trends?" you must be in a doctorate program.

[Petrarch's Love]

Booky-- As a fellow grad. student, also entering the proposal stage, I think I can safely assure you that you are absolutely not going to find a dissertation topic from someone else on a message board, nor should you want to. It has to be something that comes out of your interests and something that you want to say about a piece of literature. I frankly find it odd that you jump first to the theories and methodologies that you don't find attractive rather than talking about the things you study. What period or genre or group of writers do you work with? Do you have a few works or authors that you want to write on? Have you read up on the criticism connected with these works/authors (both the more recent stuff and a survey of the major things written about them between the time they were written and the present)? What do you like and not like about what the critics have said? If you don't like feminist and post-colonialist readings, is there a type of reading you do like? Or is there a way of reading the texts you're interested in that you haven't seen done but would like to do yourself? Academic work isn't really a series of grand statements as much as it is an ongoing conversation, and the dissertation is your official entry into that conversation. What do you want to contribute?

A few final questions: Do you not get along with your adviser very well? He/she should be someone you feel comfortable going to to talk this out with. Or do you have fellow graduate student friends you feel comfortable exchanging ideas with? Colleagues can be helpful.

[jon1jt]

Booky-- As a fellow grad. student, also entering the proposal stage, I think I can safely assure you that you are absolutely not going to find a dissertation topic from someone else on a message board, nor should you want to. It has to be something that comes out of your interests and something that you want to say about a piece of literature. I frankly find it odd that you jump first to the theories and methodologies that you don't find attractive rather than talking about the things you study. What period or genre or group of writers do you work with? Do you have a few works or authors that you want to write on? Have you read up on the criticism connected with these works/authors (both the more recent stuff and a survey of the major things written about them between the time they were written and the present)? What do you like and not like about what the critics have said? If you don't like feminist and post-colonialist readings, is there a type of reading you do like? Or is there a way of reading the texts you're interested in that you haven't seen done but would like to do yourself? Academic work isn't really a series of grand statements as much as it is an ongoing conversation, and the dissertation is your official entry into that conversation. What do you want to contribute?

A few final questions: Do you not get along with your adviser very well? He/she should be someone you feel comfortable going to to talk this out with. Or do you have fellow graduate student friends you feel comfortable exchanging ideas with? Colleagues can be helpful.

you have patience i'll give you that.

all you have to do is read booky's request to know that he's not a ph.d student. NO reasonable ph.d student would post a request like that one on...of all things, a message board! besides, he would have done a masters and completed a thesis which would likely have become the inspiration for going on academically as the basis for his dissertation. that's just the way it works.

booky's looking for an "amazing topic." c'mon.

[blackbird_9]

I'm getting my phd too. I waas thinking of doing my proposal on how intergalactic/ alien literature affects the psychosis of cuddle fish. What do you guys think?

[Etienne]

I'm getting my phd too. I waas thinking of doing my proposal on how intergalactic/ alien literature affects the psychosis of cuddle fish. What do you guys think?

Amazing topic.

[Scheherazade]

Since this thread is not serving its original purpose, it will now be closed.


Booky> If you are still looking for a topic, please start another thread.