World Lit Help - Need help with finalising a research question

[bohemian03]

I was thinking about my Wold Lit 1 topic and this is what i came up with. What do you guys think? (I know I still need to find what effect these images have on the book)

1. The repulsive imagery of the pimple from Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and the "hanging intestines" from Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (not necessarily the hanging intestines but the whole image of Santiago Nasar being stabbed - How would I phrase that?)

Edited August 6, 2009 by bohemian03

[Mattias]

Music, eh?

If you studied a book which maybe had some hidden poetry or something, that's kind of like a musical pattern in a way...

so maybe you could focus more on poetry rather than music...

i dunno

something to think about?

[Tilia]

I haven't read any of those books, but my advice is to dare changing topic if you have a problem.

[Sandwich]

Comparative essays should be evenly balanced between two works of literature. If you can't find at least one point which is obvious and shared between the two, you should change the topic. Otherwise you won't be comparing -- or you'll be comparing an insignificant feature, at best! Then there'll be no point to your comparison. The examiners probably won't be hugely impressed that you're doing more or less an analysis of a point you find interesting in book one and then comparing it with some tenuous points in book two. You may as well just write a commentary on book one, and it's no longer a decent comparison. Remember there are marks for selecting your question.

My advice would be to pick a different topic. No matter how interesting a theme is within one book, if it's not immediately obvious in the other, it's not a winning topic.

[bohemian03]

Ok. I will change the topic then. Thanks so much for the help! Although I would have loved to do music...

[Tilia]

Ok. I will change the topic then. Thanks so much for the help! Although I would have loved to do music...

I had a similar problem with my EE. I wanted to write about synaesthesia, but when I realized how diffucult that'd be, I changed.

I think it takes some bravery to change from a beloved topic, so well done!

[bohemian03]

Ok. I will change the topic then. Thanks so much for the help! Although I would have loved to do music...

I had a similar problem with my EE. I wanted to write about synaesthesia, but when I realized how diffucult that'd be, I changed.

I think it takes some bravery to change from a beloved topic, so well done!

Oh trust me, I had to change my EE topic too... it was horrible.

[bohemian03]

I am currently having a lot of trouble finding a good topic for my World Lit.

I'm studying A chronicle of a Death Foretold, Death and the Maiden, and Rashomon.

I was wondering what steps you all took in finding your topic. In other words, how did you find your topic? ex. starting out with spider web brain storming etc.

I need all the help I can get because I simply cannot find a topic . I've tried several such as importance of music etc. (I know it's vague) but it didn't work out in the end.

Thanks!

[Sandwich]

To find mine, I found my very favourite part of one of my novels and decided I desperately wanted to write about it

We did The Leopard by Giuseppi Tomasi di Lampedusa and there's this scene in it in which Don Fabrizio dies, and it's more or less his thoughts as he dies and it's simply beautifully written. I read it and decided if I ever had to write anything about the book, it would have to include that scene. Then I went through the scene and found themes within it to match up with my other book (Antigone). I came up with a list of several - time and death were most obvious, so I drew up a list of points from each book for both, and death related best across the two of them! Of course you have to have a favourite part, but it really helps if you write about something which had an effect on you, or so I find.

EDIT: Just thought I'd add that when I say I drew up a list of points, I mean that I thought of all major incidences of death in both novels (e.g. death of a regime, death of a family, death of power, death of a bloodline, death of individuals) and then saw how much I could link them together and contrast them with each other and how they contributed to the storyline. Literally just a list from one novel-- you know it's a good one to compare if you can do a list from a single novel and think of points to set it against without having to refer back to the other novel (assuming you remember enough of it and have read it!).

Edited July 9, 2009 by Sandwich

[sweetnsimple786]

For WL1, I compared and justified the female antagonists in Like Water for Chocolate and So Long a Letter.

In my opinion, the best topics are the obscure ones or the highly debatable ones. I like to stick up for the antagonists, so I'll examine the underlying social pressures as well as the specific situation's circumstances. It's usually quite original and fun to argue.

[Vvi]

I know how hard it can be to think of a topic for WL; I finished my WL1 5 months after everyone else in class because I couldn't find one. I started out with two different books, Heat and Dust and Therese Raquin, and wanted to compare the use of nature and pathetic fallacy. That theme failed because Heat and Dust is a very bad book from a literary point of view (veyr poor metaphors and overall structure, our teacher doens't understand herself why she let us read it).

It was easier to narrow down my choices of books because I'd written my WL2 first, so I couldn't do my WL1 on the same book (A Doll's House). I only had Therese Raquin Strdinberg's The Father to choose from. I read both, highlighting and annotating interesting themes (blanace of power in a relationship, the importance of the two lead females' personalities) and then saw some links.

Just let your mind wander and think "What in the world could possibly connect these two novels?" Someone wrote a WL on the importance of food in two novels, so it doens't even have to be anything to do directly with the characters. Or you could write your WL2 first if you have a clearer idea of where to go with that, and then you'll be forced to think of themes for the remanining books.

[SandraDJ]

Anything that you're interested in will work! Just pick a topic (from the novel) that you are passionate about, as long as it is comparable ... and there you go

[Tilia]

It simply occurred to me. When I was reading Medea, I realized that there were several similarities between her and the mothers in Like Water For Chocolate, and when I read Crime and Punishment, I thought that I could turn the epilogue into a biblical story.

I suggest that you try to write down the themes in the books and see if they have some in common. Remember that even though it's supposed to be a comparison, the things you're comparing don't have to be very similar.

If it's hard finding a common theme, you can always try to compare language, use of literary features, how something is portrayed, what techniques the author used to convey this or that etc. Or pick two important scenes in the works and compare them.

Just remember whatever you choose, keep it narrow!

Vvi: Was the WL about food possibly using Like Water For Chocolate?

Edited July 10, 2009 by Tilia

[rrswong]

I think you have to be really interested in the topic you choose. Our teacher told us that our topic has to be something that is very narrow, so maybe go back and read your books and try to pick out very fine topics similar to both of them (or maybe even three) if you want to go that way.

[Chelleee]

strangely enough, when i was reading through my books (the cherry orchard, hedda gabler and oedipus rex). one thing i kept noticing was class class class and it just kind of stuck in my mind

so when it came to "brainstorming" for topics i knew i wanted to do something on class however by the time i started writing it had changed.

normally it's something that you realise or take interest in while reading the book. sorry i know this isn't very helpful

if nothing hits you straight off the bat, try find comparisons between the novels, pick out similarities and develop these until it is refined enough to become a topic - and bug your teacher all the way, that's what they're there for.

[karenzae]

Our class read Lysistrata, Hedda Gabler, and Miss Julie. The obvious connection between them was women, but we were advised to find something else in common between them because you lose marks for originality when you do the same topic a million people before you have already done. I tried looking at the plays from a completely different angle- because all three are plays, I decided to look at how they had been staged in the past and how different stagings had interpreted the plays' core themes. The whole time we were reading these plays, I kept thinking that I would love to see them on stage, since I've always thought that plays are written to be seen and heard. As I started to do some research I narrowed in on Miss Julie and Lysistrata because I noticed that both plays had been staged in different ways that made the themes more relevant to the audiences they were performed for. For example, the class struggle between Julie and Jean in Miss Julie had been translated into a struggle between a black man and a white woman (performed in South Africa during the apartheid).

I guess my advice is to try to think outside the box while also keeping in mind things you've thought about as you were reading your books or plays. I actually didn't like Miss Julie at all because I found it really misogynistic. I even asked my teacher why we still bothered to read it, because I wasn't sure what it still had to offer modern readers (he didn't have a good answer). Researching the ways directors have adapted it to modern times helped me understand and apprectiate certain aspects of the play I hadn't before. For me (and I'm not sure if this is true for other people or not) writing about a play I didn't like was effective because when I don't like something, I feel like I need to understand it better so that I might be able to appreciate it more.

[Tilia]

I think you have to be really interested in the topic you choose. Our teacher told us that our topic has to be something that is very narrow, so maybe go back and read your books and try to pick out very fine topics similar to both of them (or maybe even three) if you want to go that way.

Well, you have to be interested, of course, but to be really interested is not necessary. WLs are short and only 10-20%, it's not as another EE. But I agree, since they are so short, make it as narrow as you possibly can.

I don't advise you to compare three books, my teacher says that it gets harder and it will take more words. And why do more work than you have to?

[herong2x]

I suggest that you read the books you are most interested in from the start till the end. After that, you might be able to find a part that you are most interested in or find it peculiar in some ways. It is also important that with the topic you choose, you should be able to do a certain comparison with it: similarities and differences. For mine, my books were Like Water for Chocolate and the House of the Spirits where I will be examining the issue of dominance (LWFC - Mama Elena to Tita, HOS - Esteban to Clara) and the influence (or significance) the oppressed have on the two major settings of the books (LWFC - Tita to kitchen, HOS - Clara to the House).

I actually stumbled upon this topic when I was discussing some ideas for it with my classmate, where she mentioned a number of topics. After some pondering, I have decided to combine the two topics into one. Also remember that you have to research on the significance of your topic in the books.

[hanz]

I did mine on (The Outsider) by Camus and (Metamorphosis) by Kafka and my topic was : The effect of using Sound imagery and tone in oth novels . i compared the uses both writers did as well as some charachter comparisons and literary techniques. anyone can comment on this ?

[bohemian03]

I was thinking about my Wold Lit 1 topic and this is what i came up with. What do you guys think? (I know I still need to find what effect these images have on the book)

1. The repulsive imagery of the pimple from Rashomon by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and the "hanging intestines" from Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (not necessarily the hanging intestines but the whole image of Santiago Nasar being stabbed - How would I phrase that?)