dissertation ideas- help!

Having noticed the huge similarities in terms of theme and character between knut hamsun's hunger and john fante's ask the dust, i'd love to focus my dissertation around these two books. However the problem is we have to look at a trio of books! Can anyone suggest a third book that would fit in well with these two? I was considering notes from the underground, or the outsider by camus, but somehow they don't seem to fit and i don't want a third novel to feel "tacked on".
Any help or suggestions for novels would be fantastic, also any insight into comparison points/ common themes/ contrasts between hunger and ask the dust would be much appreciated, as i still have to determine the question on which to focus upon, its my first dissertation (gulp) and really still in the fledgling stages.
Any kind of insight/ advice will help me enormously, don't be shy! Thanks for your time.

I hope that dissertation is applied differently from wherever you are writing than from where I am. Dissertations are generally not done until at least Master's degrees - and if you are doing a Master's in Literature and are unable to determine your own novel choices or questions, then I cringe at the state of higher education. On another note, I apologize for not actually being able to help as I am not familiar enough with Ask the Dust.

I don't know Ask the Dust, either, but concerning Hunger I have to think of Beckett's Molloy... somehow... maybe that's quite a stretch...

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Originally Posted by Charles Darnay

I hope that dissertation is applied differently from wherever you are writing than from where I am. Dissertations are generally not done until at least Master's degrees - and if you are doing a Master's in Literature and are unable to determine your own novel choices or questions, then I cringe at the state of higher education. On another note, I apologize for not actually being able to help as I am not familiar enough with Ask the Dust.

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please don't be put out by the state of higher education, i'm only fifteen! the "dissertation" forms part of our english course, perhaps it would put you at ease if i referred to it as an enormous essay! i came here looking for advice as i'd love to do my essay on hunger but its quite obscure and i'm finding it hard to determine novels that would be comparable with it, for example due to a common theme. Any ideas would be really appreciated.

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Originally Posted by loe

I don't know Ask the Dust, either, but concerning Hunger I have to think of Beckett's Molloy... somehow... maybe that's quite a stretch...

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I will definitely look into comparing with Beckett, perhaps the story 'The End' would be fitting as it shares a similarly wretched protagonist! and similar themes of isolation from society/ spirituality- might just work, but i'm worried it might be feel a bit forced to compare the two..i'll keep it in mind as a possibility. Must read molloy, all i know about it is the infamous pebble sucking!

Have no idea about that.

From what I know, "The Hunger" is influenced greatly by Dostoevsky. So looking at something like "Notes From Underground" or "Crime and Punishment" might be a good idea. Again, I know basically nothing about "Ask the Dust" but after a quick search, I think that the protagonist bears some resemblance to Raskolnikov, even if the plot is not similar at all to "Crime and Punishment." I think a character-focused essay is probably the way to go if this is the direction you wish to take.

Best of luck.

I've done a comparative style of essay, the sort that you're talking about. My advice would be to pick your two major novels and use your third as a minor one to highlight elements present in both the novels, or to pick one major novel and use the other two as support. Otherwise it starts to become a list of "X is like Y because of Z, but Y does A differently from X" and doesn't really have an argument.

I would also say that picking a really classic novel to compare with your other two may mean that you end up not fully exploring that novel or that you underplay historical context. So personally I'd stick to twentieth-century novels/twenty-first century.