SOME IDEAS FOR THE FOCUS OF ADVANCED HIGHER SPECIALIST STUDY
(Dissertation):
A comparative study of the literary techniques employed by Raymond Chandler in
The Big Sleep, Ian Rankin in Resurrection Men and William McIlvanney in Laidlaw to
create protagonists who are cynical and alienated from the society in which they
operate as detectives – focusing on dialogue and narrative voice, exploring how
these contribute to the reader’s impression of the character of each protagonist.
An exploration of social realism effectively depicted in far-fetched/unreal situations
such as those portrayed in Orwell’s works, Animal Farm and 1984.
A comparative study of the various types of allegory used by William Golding in Lord
of the Flies, C. S. Lewis in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and George
Orwell in Animal Farm.
An exploration of the portrayal of the alienation depicted in The Bell Jar by Sylvia
Plath and Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger.
Exploration of the characterisation of the ‘misfit’ in the novels Catcher in the Rye by
J. D. Salinger, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.
A comparative study of the literary presentation of the adolescent male central
characters in Lionel Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin, Nick Hornby’s About A
Boy and Mark Haddow’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
An exploration of the portrayal of the central female characters in Jane Eyre, The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Wuthering Heights, through comparative consideration of
narrative stance, theme and characterisation.
Discussion of the characterization and role of the female in a range of texts covering
a particular period in history.
A comparative evaluation of the influence of colonialism on the presentation of the
central characters in Jean Rhys’s The Wide Sargasso Sea, Chinua Achebe’s Things
Fall Apart and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
The literary portrayal of disaffected America and its effect on society, focussing on
narrative voice and the portrayal of major and minor characters in three texts: The
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver and
Catcher in the Rye by JDS.
A comparative study of how Arthur Golden, Sylvia Plath and Daphne Du Maurier
effectively handle the relationships their female protagonists have with other
characters.
An exploration of the way writers’ techniques and ideas illustrate the rites of passage
theme of main characters within a storyline, looking specifically at To Kill a
Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Carry Me Down by M J Hyland and The Silver Darlings
by Neil M Gunn.
A comparative study of the theme of survival as portrayed in Dune by Frank Herbert,
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and The Hobbit by J R R Tolkein. [Substitute any of
these with The Road by Cormac McCarthy.]
A study of the effective use of humour, irony, satire in a group of texts, eg Terry
Pratchett’s novels.
A study of the duality of man as portrayed in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and
Frankenstein.
An exploration of obsessive love as portrayed in Enduring Love by Ian McEwan and
The Collector by John Fowles).
A comparative study of the theme of revenge portrayed in Moby Dick by Herman
Melville and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.
A comparative study of the literary techniques used to convey mental illness in The
Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, The Hours by Michael Cunningham and The Wide Sargasso
Sea by Jean Rhys.
The development of the American detective/crime novel from Mickey Spillane to
Jeffrey Deever.
A study of the effective setting of actual historical events as a backdrop to fictional
works using Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna and
Modern gothic trends as portrayed in Carlos Zafon’s Shadow of the Winds, The
Angel’s Game and Prince of the Mist.
The Millennium trilogy by Steig Larsson: crime writing in Modern Europe.
How one book changes the reading of another.
How authors reflect their view of society.
An analysis of the importance of setting in Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas
Hardy and Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte.
How an author has used their real life - as shown in autobiography - in their fiction
work.
Discuss the thematic significance of the devil as a character in Scottish literature.
Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde and Dracula – gothic horror and how it reflects/
portrays 19th century attitudes to love and religion.
The Bell Jar, Catcher in the Rye and The Yellow Wallpaper – difference in depictions
of a descent into madness.
The tribal nature of society in Fever Pitch and Lord of the Flies.
Angela Carter’s writing – The Magic Toyshop and stories from The Blood Chamber –
how she depicts female sexuality through fairy tales.
Sunset Song and Tess of the D’Urbervilles – how the narrative technique reveals the
indomitable spirit of the central female character.
Douglas Coupland’s portrayal of American consumerism using his novels Shampoo
Planet and Generation X.
The progress of the women’s movement since the 1960s – using Erica Jong’s Fear
of Flying and Fanny.
Atonement + Remains of the Day + Howard’s End – the changes in British* national
identity over the first half of the 20th century, focussing on emotional repression and
social class. [*Technically this is Englishness in post-colonial Britain but perhaps it
could work for British / Scottish perspective.]
Philip Roth’s trilogy – looking at the author’s cynicism; history repeating itself; the
way society conspires to destroy the three characters in all three books.
Othello, Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet – the demise of the leading male characters.
Macbeth and Hamlet – how both protagonists cause their own downfall through a
personal flaw.
Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton – comparison of themes using Daddy, Ariel and
Lazarus, and Sylvia’s Death and Her Kind.
The corruption / death of the American Dream through hedonism – using Great
Gatsby + Tender is the Night + The Beautiful and Damned
The treatment of female protagonists as passive sexual commodities in Margaret
Atwood’s Bodily Harm + The Handmaid’s Tale.
Great Gatsby + 1984 – the failure of the protagonists’ dreams.
Changing role / portrayal of women in Emma or Sense and Sensibility + A Thousand
Spendid Suns + The Handmaid’s Tale.
The degeneration of a character / the documenting of the character’s struggle with
religion, morality and strength of passions using Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
+ Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner + Gideon Mack (James
Robertson)