ba thesis topics english literature

English Literature Thesis Topics

The topics listed here cover a broad range of areas, from classic literature and timeless themes to modern trends and future directions. Whether you’re interested in Shakespearean plays, postcolonial narratives, feminist criticism, or the intersection of literature and technology, this collection is designed to help you find a topic that sparks your intellectual curiosity.

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We encourage students to explore these diverse areas, select a topic that resonates with their academic interests, and embrace the opportunity to contribute original thought to the ever-expanding field of English literature. Each topic provides a platform for critical thinking, analysis, and scholarly innovation.

400 English Literature Thesis Topics and Ideas

This comprehensive list of English literature thesis topics provides students with a valuable resource for identifying the ideal focus for their academic thesis. English literature is a vast field, encompassing a rich history of classical works, modern writings, and future-oriented literature studies. Whether you’re interested in exploring traditional literary criticism or investigating contemporary interdisciplinary approaches, this list is designed to cover the full spectrum of English literature, including its classic roots, evolving trends, and potential future directions.

By organizing topics into distinct categories, from Shakespearean studies to modern postcolonial and environmental literature, this list allows students to delve into areas of personal interest and academic curiosity. It spans various literary movements, theoretical approaches, and critical perspectives, offering students the flexibility to choose topics that resonate with their goals while also engaging with the current scholarly discourse in literature. Whether you are passionate about classic works like Hamlet or keen to investigate emerging fields like AI-generated literature, this list provides inspiration for developing a thesis that is both engaging and academically rigorous.

1. Shakespearean Studies

• The Representation of Women in Macbeth
• Ambition and Power in Julius Caesar
• The Supernatural in Hamlet
• The Role of Madness in King Lear
• Politics and Authority in Henry V
• Identity and Disguise in Twelfth Night
• Fate vs. Free Will in Romeo and Juliet
• Love and Conflict in Othello
• Comedy and Tragedy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Gender and Power in The Taming of the Shrew
• Colonialism in The Tempest
• Kingship and Tyranny in Richard III
• The Use of Language in As You Like It
• Moral Dilemmas in Measure for Measure
• Deception and Betrayal in Much Ado About Nothing
• Political Intrigue in Antony and Cleopatra
• Family and Revenge in Titus Andronicus
• Honor and Society in Coriolanus by
• The Role of the Fool in King Lear
• Justice and Mercy in The Merchant of Venice

2. Victorian Literature

• Gender Roles in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Social Critique in Hard Times by Charles Dickens
• Religious Doubt in In Memoriam A.H.H. by Alfred Tennyson
• The Role of Women in Middlemarch by George Eliot
• The Gothic in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Class and Society in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• Morality in Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• The Industrial Revolution in North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
• The Idea of Progress in The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
• The Double Life in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Alienation in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Melancholy and Loss in Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
• The Nature of Work in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• Decadence and Aestheticism in The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• Family and Inheritance in Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• Nationalism in Kim by Rudyard Kipling
• Supernatural Elements in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
• The Role of the Outsider in The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• Evolution and Darwinism in The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
• Public vs. Private Life in Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

3. Modernist Literature

• The Fragmentation of Identity in The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
• Alienation in Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• Symbolism in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Stream of Consciousness in Ulysses by James Joyce
• Disillusionment in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Role of Memory in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
• War and Trauma in A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• Existentialism in The Trial by Franz Kafka
• The Role of Time in To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• Epiphany in Dubliners by James Joyce
• Art and Modernity in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• The Use of Myth in The Cantos by Ezra Pound
• The Lost Generation in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
• Political Commitment in Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
• Gender Identity in Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• The Concept of Truth in The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot
• Imagism in In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound
• Colonialism in A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
• Paranoia in The Castle by Franz Kafka
• The Failure of Communication in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

4. Postcolonial Literature

• The Colonial Gaze in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• Identity and Resistance in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• Gender and Race in Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Postcolonial Trauma in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Cultural Hybridity in The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
• Colonial Exploitation in Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
• Language and Power in Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
• The Clash of Cultures in Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
• Decolonization in A Grain of Wheat by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
• Displacement in White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• The Politics of Land in The Famished Road by Ben Okri
• The Immigrant Experience in Brick Lane by Monica Ali
• Gender Roles in Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
• Rewriting History in The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
• Religion and Empire in The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
• Diasporic Identity in Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Legacy of Slavery in Kindred by Octavia Butler
• The Postcolonial City in The Bone People by Keri Hulme
• Fragmentation of Self in Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Exile and Longing in Crossing the River by Caryl Phillips

5. Romantic Poetry

• Nature and the Sublime in Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
• Revolutionary Ideals in Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake
• Melancholy in the Odes of John Keats
• The Role of the Imagination in Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Individualism in Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• The Gothic in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Sensuousness in To Autumn by John Keats
• Political Disillusionment in Don Juan by Lord Byron
• Nature as a Reflection of Emotion in Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
• The Quest for Truth in Adonais by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Freedom and Rebellion in Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Love and Mortality in Bright Star by John Keats
• The Conflict between Nature and Society in The Prelude by William Wordsworth
• The Role of Myth in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake
• Transcendentalism in The Excursion by William Wordsworth
• The Spiritual Journey in Mont Blanc by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• The Sublime in Frost at Midnight by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• The Influence of Greek Mythology in Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Nature’s Healing Power in Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth
• Romantic Love in She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron

6. Feminist Literary Criticism

• The Role of Patriarchy in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Feminist Perspectives in Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Female Autonomy in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Women’s Agency in Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• The Politics of Reproduction in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• The Representation of Motherhood in Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Gender and Sexuality in Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• The Struggle for Identity in The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• Gender and Power in The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Femininity in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• The Subversion of Gender Norms in Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• Gender Dynamics in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Role of Women in Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• Female Friendship in The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
• Power Structures in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• The Maternal in Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Intersectionality in The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Gender Identity and Performance in Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• Patriarchy and Rebellion in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Feminist Themes in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

7. LGBTQ+ Literature

• Queer Identity in Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• Transgender Narratives in Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
• Queer Spaces in Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• The Representation of Homosexuality in Maurice by E.M. Forster
• Lesbian Identity in Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
• Queer Desire in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Gender Fluidity in Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• LGBTQ+ Narratives in Angels in America by Tony Kushner
• Homophobia in The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
• Identity and Sexuality in Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
• Queerness in The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• The Construction of Gender in Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
• The Closet in Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
• Homosexuality in The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
• Queer Friendship in Carol by Patricia Highsmith
• Gender Performance in Paris is Burning (documentary) by Jennie Livingston
• Same-Sex Desire in Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
• Queer Family Structures in Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
• Transgender Identity in Nevada by Imogen Binnie
• The Role of Sexuality in The Hours by Michael Cunningham

8. American Literature

• The American Dream in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Racism and Justice in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Isolation in Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• The Frontier in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
• Slavery and Freedom in Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Failure of the American Dream in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
• War and Identity in The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
• Class Struggle in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Gender Roles in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Post-War Disillusionment in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• The Role of Nature in The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• The Immigrant Experience in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
• Gender and Power in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
• The Road as a Metaphor in On the Road by Jack Kerouac
• Memory and Trauma in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Role of Money in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Family Dynamic in The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
• Transcendentalism in Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• Race and Identity in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• Power and Corruption in All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

9. Environmental Literature

• Eco-criticism in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• Anthropocentrism in The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Nature as a Character in The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• Climate Change in Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• Ecological Collapse in The Overstory by Richard Powers
• Environmental Activism in Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• The Impact of Industrialization in Hard Times by Charles Dickens
• Wilderness and Survival in Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• The Role of the Ocean in Moby Dick by Herman Melville
• Animal Rights in Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Nature and Spirituality in Walden by Henry David Thoreau
• The Exploitation of Nature in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Climate Fiction in The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Human-Nature Relationships in My Ántonia by Willa Cather
• Environmental Justice in Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
• Natural Disasters in The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
• Nature’s Role in Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
• Colonialism and the Environment in The Tempest by William Shakespeare
• The Nature of Human Control over the Earth
• Environmental Ethics in The Road by Cormac McCarthy

10. Gothic Literature

• Fear and Madness in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Supernatural in Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Identity and Monstrosity in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• The Role of the Gothic Villain in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• The Haunted House in The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
• Gothic Doubles in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Gothic Horror in The Monk by Matthew Lewis
• The Sublime in The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
• The Role of the Gothic Heroine in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Supernatural Elements in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Use of Fear in The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
• Madness in The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• The Vampire Myth in Dracula by Bram Stoker
• The Gothic Landscape in Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
• Isolation in The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
• Gothic Romance in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• The Power of the Uncanny in The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
• Dark Romanticism in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Spectral in The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
• The Gothic and the Sublime in The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

11. Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Utopian and Dystopian Elements in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Magic and Politics in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Artificial Intelligence in Neuromancer by William Gibson
• The Role of Technology in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
• Time Travel in The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
• Post-Apocalyptic Themes in The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• The Concept of Free Will in The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Alien Contact in The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• Religion and Power in Dune by Frank Herbert
• Gender Roles in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• The Ethics of Genetic Engineering in Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
• Alternate History in The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
• The Role of Mythology in American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• The Hero’s Journey in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Virtual Reality in Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Alienation in Solaris by Stanisław Lem
• The Search for Immortality in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The Influence of Fantasy on Young Adult Literature
• Cyberspace and Identity in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
• The Role of Magic in Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

12. Literature and Technology

• The Impact of Digital Culture on Literature
• The Representation of the Internet in Fiction
• AI and Narrative Structure in Contemporary Novels
• The Rise of E-books and the Future of Reading
• Social Media in Contemporary Literature
• Technology and Dystopia in 1984 by George Orwell
• The Digital Divide in Literature
• The Role of Surveillance in The Circle by Dave Eggers
• The Impact of Smartphones on Human Relationships in Fiction
• The Intersection of Technology and the Body in Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Digital Immortality in Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
• The Impact of Technological Advancement on Society in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• Cybernetics and Identity in Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow
• The Influence of Video Games on Narrative Fiction
• The Role of Algorithms in Literature
• Digital Surveillance and Privacy in The Circle by Dave Eggers
• Technology and Alienation in Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
• The Role of Virtual Reality in Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• The Future of Literature in a Post-Print World
• The Ethics of Cloning in Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

13. Children’s and Young Adult Literature

• Coming-of-Age in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
• Fantasy as Moral Instruction in Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
• Identity in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Friendship and Loyalty in Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Rebellion in The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
• The Power of Storytelling in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Role of Family in Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Fantasy and Reality in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Courage in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• The Role of Prophecy in Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan
• The Nature of Heroism in The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• Magic as Metaphor in Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Gender Roles in The Giver by Lois Lowry
• Freedom and Control in The Maze Runner by James Dashner
• Identity and Society in Divergent by Veronica Roth
• The Role of Fate in The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Friendship and Sacrifice in Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
• Love and Loyalty in Holes by Louis Sachar
• The Power of Imagination in Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
• Overcoming Adversity in The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

14. Literature and Film Adaptations

• Fidelity and Adaptation in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• The Use of Visual Symbolism in The Great Gatsby (2013) directed by Baz Luhrmann
• Narrative Differences in The Lord of the Rings Films by Peter Jackson
• The Role of Music in Film Adaptations of Wuthering Heights
• Visual Storytelling in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) directed by Robert Mulligan
• Cinematic Interpretation of The Harry Potter Series
• The Influence of Casting in Adaptations of Romeo and Juliet
• The Impact of CGI on The Chronicles of Narnia Film Series
• Translation from Page to Screen in Life of Pi
• The Role of the Director in Adapting The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Changes in Tone and Pacing in The Handmaid’s Tale (TV series) by Margaret Atwood
• Faithfulness to Source Material in The Hobbit Films
• The Visual Representation of Dystopia in 1984 (1984) directed by Michael Radford
• Character Development in The Fault in Our Stars Film
• The Impact of Technology on Science Fiction Adaptations like Blade Runner
• The Role of the Actor in Portraying Literary Characters
• Narrative Compression in The Godfather (1972) directed by Francis Ford Coppola
• The Challenges of Adapting Magical Realism in Like Water for Chocolate
• Comparing Literary Themes in Dracula Adaptations
• The Relationship Between Authorial Intent and Film Interpretation in Atonement

15. World Literature

• Translation and Meaning in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• Cultural Identity in The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Globalization in The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• Colonialism and Postcolonialism in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• The Role of Storytelling in My Name Is Red by Orhan Pamuk
• Religion and Politics in Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
• Gender and Power in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Magical Realism in Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• Memory and Trauma in The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
• The Influence of Western Culture in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• The Role of Tradition in The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
• The Politics of Language in Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
• War and Displacement in The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
• Resistance and Liberation in Petals of Blood by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
• Religion and Society in Snow by Orhan Pamuk
• Diaspora and Identity in Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Nationalism in The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
• Class Struggles in The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
• Postcolonial Allegory in The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh
• The Clash of Cultures in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

16. Literature of War and Conflict

• War Trauma in Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Masculinity and War in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• Conflict and Morality in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
• The Role of Propaganda in 1984 by George Orwell
• Nationalism in All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
• The Ethical Dilemmas of War in For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
• The Impact of War on Family in The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
• Disillusionment and War in A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
• The Role of Women in Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• Survival and Identity in The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Psychological Trauma in The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
• The Nature of Courage in The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
• The Role of History in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• The Destruction of Innocence in Atonement by Ian McEwan
• Memory and Guilt in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Human Cost of War in Regeneration by Pat Barker
• War and Morality in Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje
• The Role of Patriotism in Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
• The Consequences of War in The Sorrow of War by Bảo Ninh
• The Politics of War in The Quiet American by Graham Greene

17. Ethnic and Minority Literature

• The Immigrant Experience in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Native American Identity in Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
• African American Women in The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• The Role of Tradition in Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
• The Struggle for Identity in Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
• The Politics of Race in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Experience of Exile in The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• The Influence of Oral Tradition in Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• Cultural Assimilation in American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
• The Role of Memory in Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Intersectionality in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Search for Belonging in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
• The Role of Music and Culture in Jazz by Toni Morrison
• Family and Identity in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• Gender and Power in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• The Impact of Colonization in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• The Influence of Community in Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
• The Struggle for Identity in Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
• The Role of Tradition in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie

18. Literature and Politics

• Totalitarianism in 1984 by George Orwell
• Class Struggle in Germinal by Émile Zola
• The Role of Propaganda in Animal Farm by George Orwell
• Political Corruption in All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
• Revolution in A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
• The Politics of Gender in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Postcolonial Politics in Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih
• The Impact of War on Politics in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
• Political Power and Morality in Macbeth by William Shakespeare
• The Role of the State in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Influence of Religion on Politics in Paradise Lost by John Milton
• Class Conflict in Hard Times by Charles Dickens
• Political Rebellion in One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• Fascism and Resistance in The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
• Revolution in The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Oppression and Rebellion in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• The Nature of Power in King Lear by William Shakespeare
• The Role of the Individual in Society in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• The Collapse of Political Systems in The Road by Cormac McCarthy

19. Literary Theory and Criticism

• Deconstruction in Of Grammatology by Jacques Derrida
• Psychoanalytic Criticism in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• Reader-Response Theory and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• Feminist Criticism in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
• Marxist Criticism in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Postcolonial Criticism in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• The Role of the Author in Death of the Author by Roland Barthes
• Structuralism in Mythologies by Roland Barthes
• New Historicism in The Tempest by William Shakespeare
• Post-Structuralism in Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
• Gender Theory in Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• Queer Theory in Maurice by E.M. Forster
• Cultural Studies in Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
• Narratology in Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Formalism in Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
• Psychoanalytic Theory in The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
• Intertextuality in Ulysses by James Joyce
• The Politics of Representation in Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Myth Criticism in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

20. Future Trends in English Literature

• Climate Change and Eco-Fiction in Contemporary Literature
• AI-Generated Literature and Its Impact on Creativity
• Virtual Reality and Interactive Storytelling in the Digital Age
• The Rise of Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction) as a Subgenre
• The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Future Literary Criticism
• The Impact of Social Media on the Future of Narrative Structures
• Climate Change as a Central Theme in Contemporary Fiction
• The Ethics of AI-Created Characters in Literature
• The Future of Genre Fiction in a Post-Digital World
• The Use of Augmented Reality in Literary Storytelling
• Dystopian Visions of the Future in Contemporary Fiction
• The Representation of Technology in Post-Humanist Literature
• The Future of Digital Reading Platforms and Their Influence on Storytelling
• The Role of Climate Change in Speculative Fiction
• The Intersection of Biotechnology and Literature in the 21st Century
• Future Narratives in Video Games as Literary Works
• The Use of Blockchain for Copyright in Future Publishing
• The Influence of Artificial Intelligence on the Writer’s Craft
• The Future of Feminist Dystopian Fiction in the Digital Age
• The Role of Environmental Activism in Future Literary Movements

This list of English literature thesis topics highlights the breadth and depth of the field, covering both classic literary studies and contemporary issues. From Shakespearean drama to postcolonial narratives and future trends in eco-criticism and AI-generated literature, these topics encourage students to explore diverse academic terrains. By choosing a topic that aligns with your academic goals and personal interests, you have the opportunity to contribute original thought and analysis to the rich tradition of English literature. Whether you are drawn to classical themes or emerging fields, this comprehensive range of topics is designed to inspire your research and support your academic success.

The Range of English Literature Thesis Topics

English literature, as an academic discipline, encompasses an expansive and dynamic range of works that reflect the complexities of human experience. It provides critical insights into cultural, political, and philosophical ideas, tracing the evolution of society through time. From classical texts to contemporary narratives, English literature enables scholars to engage with ideas of identity, power, morality, and existence. The scope of thesis topics within this field is equally broad, offering students the opportunity to explore themes such as gender studies, postcolonialism, environmentalism, and more. English literature thesis topics cover everything from historical perspectives to cutting-edge developments, allowing students to choose areas that resonate with their academic interests and aspirations.

Current Issues

One of the most prevalent themes in modern English literature studies is the exploration of identity . This subject manifests in various forms, such as racial, sexual, and cultural identity, and is a rich area for thesis research. In texts like Beloved by Toni Morrison, the legacy of slavery is examined through personal and collective trauma, allowing for a nuanced understanding of African American identity. Similarly, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri offers a deep exploration of immigrant identity and the challenges of cultural assimilation. Students choosing English literature thesis topics related to identity can delve into how authors interrogate the self in relation to society and history, making this an essential and timely area of study.

Another significant issue in contemporary literature is gender studies , where the focus is on how gender roles are constructed and deconstructed in literary texts. Feminist literary criticism has grown, expanding the field’s understanding of how women are portrayed in both classical and modern literature. Works like The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood offer a dystopian critique of patriarchy and the oppression of women, while Orlando by Virginia Woolf explores gender fluidity and challenges traditional notions of masculinity and femininity. English literature thesis topics related to gender provide an opportunity for students to engage with evolving conversations about feminism, LGBTQ+ rights, and gender equality in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Postcolonialism is another key area of current literary studies, as authors from formerly colonized regions reclaim their narratives and challenge colonial discourse. Writers such as Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart and Jean Rhys in Wide Sargasso Sea offer perspectives that critique the cultural dominance of Western powers and highlight the struggles of those marginalized by imperialism. English literature thesis topics in this area can investigate themes like cultural hybridity, resistance, and the complexities of identity in a postcolonial world. By examining postcolonial texts, students can contribute to discussions about global inequality, representation, and historical legacy.

Recent Trends

In recent years, eco-criticism has emerged as a prominent trend in English literature studies, driven by growing concerns about environmental sustainability and climate change. This literary approach analyzes the relationship between literature and the environment, emphasizing how nature is represented and how human activity impacts it. Books like The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver engage with environmental issues, making eco-criticism an important area for thesis topics. As environmental crises continue to unfold globally, English literature thesis topics in eco-criticism enable students to explore literature’s role in raising awareness and promoting environmental activism.

Another evolving area in literary research is the rise of digital humanities , which merges traditional literary analysis with modern technology. Digital humanities projects use computational tools to analyze vast bodies of text, helping scholars to identify patterns, trends, and relationships in literature that were previously difficult to uncover. This trend has expanded the scope of English literature thesis topics, allowing students to investigate topics such as the digitization of literary archives, the impact of e-books on reading habits, and the influence of social media on literary production. Digital humanities represents an exciting frontier in literary studies, providing new methodologies for analyzing texts and fostering interdisciplinary research.

Intersectionality has also become a central concept in contemporary literary theory, focusing on how various forms of social stratification—such as race, gender, class, and sexuality—intersect to shape individual experiences. Works by authors like Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie engage with intersectionality, addressing how multiple identities overlap and influence characters’ lives. English literature thesis topics that incorporate intersectionality offer students the chance to critically analyze the nuanced portrayals of marginalized voices in literature and how these portrayals contribute to broader social justice movements. As societal discussions on race, gender, and inequality intensify, intersectional approaches in literature offer crucial insights into these complex dynamics.

Future Directions

Looking to the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is expected to significantly impact the study of literature. AI-generated literature, where computers create entire narratives, raises questions about authorship, creativity, and the role of human imagination. English literature thesis topics that focus on AI in literature can examine how technology is reshaping the narrative process and whether AI-generated texts can be considered true works of art. Students might also explore the ethical implications of AI in literature, such as the potential erasure of human writers in favor of automated storytelling. This emerging field offers a fascinating blend of literature, technology, and philosophy, opening new avenues for literary research.

Another exciting future trend is the rise of climate fiction (cli-fi) , a genre of speculative fiction that focuses on the impact of climate change on the planet and humanity. With the growing urgency of the climate crisis, cli-fi has gained prominence as a literary form that not only entertains but also educates readers about environmental issues. Novels like The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi and The Road by Cormac McCarthy depict dystopian futures where natural disasters and resource scarcity threaten human survival. English literature thesis topics in this area allow students to engage with contemporary concerns about environmental degradation, exploring how literature can inspire climate action and influence public discourse.

As technology continues to advance, its influence on narrative forms will likely deepen. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are already making their way into literature, offering readers immersive experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds. Future narratives may incorporate interactive storytelling, where readers can actively shape the plot through their choices. English literature thesis topics that explore these developments could investigate the ways in which AR and VR are transforming the reading experience, the role of the reader as co-creator, and how these technologies challenge traditional notions of narrative structure. As AR and VR become more mainstream, they will likely revolutionize how stories are told and experienced.

English literature offers an expansive range of thesis topics, providing students with the opportunity to explore critical issues in identity, gender, postcolonialism, eco-criticism, and emerging technologies. Through literature, students can gain deeper insights into cultural, political, and social dynamics, while also contributing to ongoing scholarly conversations. As the field continues to evolve, the diverse subjects covered in English literature thesis topics reflect both historical legacies and future innovations. Whether examining classical works or engaging with cutting-edge trends, students have the chance to shape their research to address the pressing questions of their time, making valuable contributions to the world of literary studies.

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Sample Topics

Literature and Culture: Great Britain (Prof. Feldmann)

Topics for Bachelor and Master theses

1. the following is a list of titles chosen for bachelor or master theses. it is meant as a guideline for finding a suitable topic of your own:.

Beeton’s Book of Household Management as Self-Help Manual for the Victorian Housewife

Blurring Identity Boundaries: The Liminality of Gender and Race in Jackie Kay’s Trumpet and Why Don’t You Stop Talking

Lost in Austen as a Post-Modern Re-Creation of Pride and Prejudice

Commercial Aesthetics: Representations the Female Body in Victorian Advertisements

Domestic Spaces in Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and Stoker’s Dracula (1897)

Transcending the Eyes: Marginalised Discourses of Perception in Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor

The Representation and Function of the Female Body and Motherhood in Richard III

Negotiating ‘Irishness’ in Transnational Spaces between an (Imagined) Homeland and the Diaspora

Negotiating Identity in Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and its 1992 Film Adaptation

Travelling the Slum: Voyeurism and the Sensational in Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor

Gothic Fiction and Representations of Science: Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde  and H.G. Wells’  The Time Machine

‘A brave man’s blood is the best thing on this earth when a woman is in trouble’: Types of Masculinity in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

‘Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears a Crown’: Zur Darstellung englischer Königinnen in zeitgenössischen Spielfilmen

Chick Lit zwischen Tradition und Innovation – ein Vergleich von Erzählerinnen, Protagonistinnen und Milieus am Beispiel von Helen Fielding und Janet Evanovich

‘Tedious virtue, fascinating evil’? Forms and Functions of the Villain in Gothic Melodrama

Detecting the Neo-Victorian: The Detective as an Element in the Intertextuality in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Crime Writing

Kulturelle Differenzen und Identitäten in zeitgenössischer britischer Literatur und Film

Konstruktionen städtischer Armut in der 2. Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts

Neue Helden braucht das Land? Zur Darstellung von Arbeiterklasse und Männlichkeit im Kontext der Neuformulierung eines Mythos im Britischen Film der 1990er Jahre

Konzepte der Liebe in William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew und in filmischen Adaptionen

2. Here are some additional fields you might want to consider when choosing a topic:

Popular culture and popular myths

Popular cultural practices, such as tourism

Forms of canonization and popularization

The ‘cultural work’ of texts and their ideological functions

The intersections of categories of difference (e.g. gender, class, ethnicity, religion, age…)

The interplay of discourses in texts (e.g. scientific, economic, political…)

Discourses of gender and sexuality

50 Dissertation Topic Ideas in English Literature

Young people who strive to obtain a master's degree face a need to write a dissertation in their chosen major. It's considered the most important paper they need to deliver during their academic career. Besides, it represents a wonderful chance to demonstrate advanced writing and analytical skills, critical thinking, and knowledge they've gained during the curriculum. Furthermore, such an assignment provides an opportunity to affect an academic environment positively and pamper your ego a bit. So, if you want to graduate with an outstanding result, you should do your best to deliver a high-grade-worthy paper. Your way to success will start with examining potentially suitable dissertation topic ideas, so it is not worth underestimating its importance. Therefore, we'll go deep down this question to make sure you have something to think about when it comes to working on your paper..

How to Work on Research Topics in English Literature

The very name of its assignment suggests that you will not do without proper research, so you should make enough room in your schedule for this stage. You will have to present a report about your findings and discuss the results provided. Bear in mind that writing a dissertation involves a completely different level of responsibility, diligence, and work than similar assignments you got in the past. It stands out from other academic papers with its complexity since it requires more reading, studying, and writing as well.

If you are new to this type of work, it is worth searching for guidelines on the internet, examining decent ready-made papers, and doing background research to understand what theme is more suitable for you. Allocate enough time to look through all thesis topics in English literature that seem appealing to you. It is a complex and multifaceted field of study, so you will hardly do everything properly if you proceed to write when the deadline is already around the corner. The best thing you can do is to choose a theme from your current field of interest. Thus, you will have enough motivation and inspiration to stay on track with research and writing. Pay attention to the following moments:

• Your dissertation should be based on high-quality research, so you can show your understanding of the subject you work on.
• You should demonstrate your analytical skills, choosing only relevant literature on your theme.
• You should develop a research question and address it in your paper, ensuring your dissertation possesses a clear focus.

Research Proposal Ideas

You will have to write a dissertation proposal and present it to your professor or committee to ensure it is suitable and up to date. Don't postpone this task for too long since time is your biggest enemy when it comes to working on such an assignment. Your research process will spin around literary texts, so you will hardly do without visiting a library. A note-taking process is crucial for developing decent ideas and the research process itself. If you don't know what categories it would be interesting to try, pay attention to the following options:

• cultural diversity;
• translated texts;
• genre studies;
• historical development;
• cinematography and literature.

How to Choose a Dissertation Topic in English Literature

If your professor hasn't provided you with a specific theme, it is up to you to decide what you want to write about. Your field of interest should become the main benchmark in picking up the right topic. Reflect on the books or literature aspects that you liked most of all while studying. The research process involves a lot of routine tasks, and if you are not interested in the subject, it will be much harder to stay focused. It is one of the reasons why experts suggest doing background research to ensure that you will not face issues with finding enough trustworthy information to back up your ideas. You can examine some critical literature to determine the most valuable perspectives to take as well as the gaps that you can potentially address in your dissertation. It will not be superfluous to create a well-crafted outline, so you have the required points in front of your eyes.

If you have selected a topic but are not sure about the exact title for your paper, you can come up with several working options. They may have a bit different focus but stay within one theme. In this case, you should keep both of them in mind when doing your research. Thus, it will be easy to make the right final choice. Even though there is no strict rule on how many primary texts a student must include in their dissertation, utilize at least two of them to make your arguments look more powerful. It is worth considering the cultural, historical, and theoretical background of a text to make sure it's reasonable and manageable for such a paper. Finally, you should develop a proper research question since it will guide the research and writing process. Keep it in mind all the time, so your paper can provide robust evidence of its significance.

Literature Topics for a Research Paper

Everyone who proceeds to work on a dissertation has tremendous experience under the belt in writing different papers. Thus, they know that choosing a broad theme is a road to nowhere since it's hard to devote enough attention to all key aspects and preserve the focus. It's worth resorting to special techniques aimed at helping you to narrow down the theme. Most of them suggest free writing within the subject, so you can define which one sounds the best. If you cannot opt for a theme, consider the following options:

• Correlation between English literature of the 18th and 19th centuries.
• How did the Renaissance affect English literature?
• Key differences between English literature in the USA and the UK.
• Fundamental writing methods of female writers of the 18th century.
• What are the most popular writers in the detective genre nowadays?
• What was the most important work of Jane Austen?
• Impact of the digital revolution on English literature.
• In-depth analysis of poetry from the Second World War.
• Feminism's growth in twentieth-century literature.
• Peculiarities of post-colonialism literature.
• Female heroes in English Literature.
• Correlation between famous Shakespeare's sonnets.
• Gender roles in classic English literature.
• Medieval traditions depicted in Geoffrey Chaucer's works.
• Ambiguous issues presented in Thomas More's Utopia.
• Development of suspense in famous English literary works.
• John Donne: A comparison of sermons and metaphysical love poems. 
• Impact of Jane Austen's novels on modern women.
• Key differences between books and film adaptations of Joanne Rowling's Harry Potter.
• How Elizabeth Gaskell depicted society and family in her works.
• The most famous feminist works and their influence on modern society.
• Peculiarities and depth of Thomas Hardy's poems 1913.
• Religious doubts depicted by George Eliot.
• Main inspiration sources of Shakespeare.
• Peculiarities of rustic writing in the nineteenth century.
• Role of costumes in Dickens's famous works.
• Correlation between sex and violence in modern English literature.
• How politics affected English literature in the nineteenth century.
• The special role of water in Virginia Woolf's works.
• Gender stereotyping and patriarchy in The Chronicles of Narnia.
• Correlation between modernism and postmodernism.
• The negative influence of postmodernism on the novel.
• Travel writing in the twenty-first century.
• The crucial role of philosophy in English literature of the twentieth century.
• Depiction of architecture in Thomas Hardy's works.
• The effect Milton's Paradise Lost had on seventeenth-century literature.
• How science affected nineteenth-century novels.
• Development of modern literature with the help of high technologies.
• Psychological tools used in writing modern novels.
• Self-searching with the help of literature works.
• Poststructuralist views of language in contemporary poetry.
• Popular literature genres among representatives of Z generation.
• Why did Joanne Rowling choose a male alias for working in a detective genre?
• Can a graphic novel be considered a literature work?
• Most successful film adaptations of the last decade.
• The accuracy of history presented in historical novels.
• An analysis of homosexuality in modern English literature.
• Influence of LGBT movement on the development of modern English literature.
• The key appealing features of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
• Could literature do well without Shakespeare?

How to Structure Your Literature Dissertation

When you decide on the most appealing dissertation topic in English literature, you can proceed to create the first draft of an outline. The latter will help you keep in mind all the crucial moments you should consider when writing your paper. In addition, most professors pay special attention to the structure of dissertations provided by students, so if you want to get the highest grade for your paper, don't forget to involve the following things:

• title page;
• acknowledgments;
• declaration;
• list of contents;
• introduction: you should present background information, project value, main research purposes and objectives, and the research question;
• literature review : presentation of relevant theories and analysis of literary works within the chosen theme to address the research question;
• methodology: presentation of data and analysis methods and tools utilized;
• findings and analysis: presentation of the crucial research results in detail with the help of visual tools like charts, tables, graphs, etc.;
• discussion and conclusion: presentation of personal interpretation of findings, demonstration of the connection between the results and arguments taken from the literature, highlighting of the research significance, and summarizing of the whole research, recommendations on the further development of the theme;
• references;
• bibliography;
• appendices: presentation of some additional pieces of information, graphs, diagrams utilized to complete your paper that stay beyond its body paragraphs. The main aim of this part is to broaden some data and provide additional explanations.

In fact, your professor should specify all the requirements for your dissertation, but if they have skipped some moments, it is better to clarify everything that stays unclear to you beforehand. Don't leave such things unattended since the final grade will affect only your academic performance and further career development.

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Digital Commons @ USF > College of Arts and Sciences > English > Theses and Dissertations

English Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2024 2024.

The Drama of Last Things: Reckoning in Late Medieval and Early Modern English Drama , Spencer M. Daniels

African Spirituality in Literature Written by Women of African Descent , Brigét V. Harley

Hidden Monstrosities: The Transformation of Medieval Characters and Conventions in Shakespeare's Romances , Lynette Kristine Kuliyeva

Making the Invisible Visible: (Re)envisioning the Black Body in Contemporary Adaptations of Nineteenth-Century Fiction , Urshela Wiggins McKinney

Lawful Injustice: Novel Readings of Racialized Temporality and Legal Instabilities , Danielle N. Mercier

“Manne, for thy loue wolde I not lette”: Eucharistic Portrayals of Caritas in Medieval and Early Modern English Literature and Drama 1350-1650 , Rachel Tanski

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Of Mētis and Cuttlefish: Employing Collective Mētis as a Theoretical Framework for Marginalized Communities , Justiss Wilder Burry

What on earth are we doing (?): A Field-Wide Exploration of Design Courses in TPC , Jessica L. Griffith

Organizations Ensuring Resilience: A Case Study of Cortez, Florida , Karla Ariel Maddox

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Using Movie Clips to Understand Vivid-Phrasal Idioms’ Meanings , Rasha Salem S. Alghamdi

Writing Supports for Honors Thesis Students: An Applied Program Evaluation Study , Krysta Banke

An Exercise in Exceptions: Personhood, Divergency, and Ableism in the STAR TREK Franchise , Jessica A. Blackman

Vulnerable Resistance in Victorian Women’s Writing , Stephanie A. Harper

Curricular Assemblages: Understanding Student Writing Knowledge (Re)circulation Across Genres , Adam Phillips

Anthropocene Fiction: Empathy, Kinship, and the Troubled Waters at the End of the World , Megan Mandell Stowe

PAD Beyond the Classroom: Integrating PAD in the Scrum Workplace , Jade S. Weiss

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Social Cues in Animated Pedagogical Agents for Second Language Learners: the Application of The Embodiment Principle in Video Design , Sahar M. Alyahya

A Field-Wide Examination of Cross-Listed Courses in Technical Professional Communication , Carolyn M. Gubala

Labor-Based Grading Contracts in the Multilingual FYC Classroom: Unpacking the Variables , Kara Kristina Larson

Land Goddesses, Divine Pigs, and Royal Tricksters: Subversive Mythologies and Imperialist Land Ownership Dispossession in Twentieth Century Irish and American Literature , Elizabeth Ricketts

Oppression, Resistance, and Empowerment: The Power Dynamics of Naming and Un-naming in African American Literature, 1794 to 2019 , Melissa "Maggie" Romigh

Generic Expectations in First Year Writing: Teaching Metadiscoursal Reflection and Revision Strategies for Increased Generic Uptake of Academic Writing , Kaelah Rose Scheff

Reframing the Gothic: Race, Gender, & Disability in Multiethnic Literature , Ashely B. Tisdale

Intersections of Race and Place in Short Fiction by New Orleans Gens de Couleur Libres , Adrienne D. Vivian

Mental Illness Diagnosis and the Construction of Stigma , Katie Lynn Walkup

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Rhetorical Roundhouse Kicks: Tae Kwon Do Pumsae Practice and Non-Western Embodied Topoi , Spencer Todd Bennington

9/11 Then and Now: How the Performance of Memorial Rhetoric by Presidents Changes to Construct Heroes , Kristen M. Grafton

Kinesthetically Speaking: Human and Animal Communication in British Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century , Dana Jolene Laitinen

Exploring Refugee Students’ Second Language (L2) Motivational Selves through Digital Visual Representations , Nhu Le

Glamour in Contemporary American Cinema , Shauna A. Maragh

Instrumentalization Theory: An Analytical Heuristic for a Heightened Social Awareness of Machine Learning Algorithms in Social Media , Andrew R. Miller

Intercessory Power: A Literary Analysis of Ethics and Care in Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon , Alice Walker’s Meridian , and Toni Cade Bambara’s Those Bones Are Not My Child , Kelly Mills

The Power of Non-Compliant Logos: A New Materialist Approach to Comic Studies , Stephanie N. Phillips

Female Identity and Sexuality in Contemporary Indonesian Novels , Zita Rarastesa

"The Fiery Furnaces of Hell": Rhetorical Dynamism in Youngstown, OH , Joshua M. Rea

“We developed solidarity”: Family, Race, Identity, and Space-Time in Recent Multiethnic U.S. American Fiction , Kimber L. Wiggs

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Remembrance of a Wound: Ethical Mourning in the Works of Ana Menéndez, Elías Miguel Muñoz, and Junot Díaz , José Aparicio

Taking an “Ecological Turn” in the Evaluation of Rhetorical Interventions , Peter Cannon

New GTA’s and the Pre-Semester Orientation: The Need for Informed Refinement , Jessica L. Griffith

Reading Rape and Answering with Empathy: A New Approach to Sexual Assault Education for College Students , Brianna Jerman

The Karoo , The Veld , and the Co-Op: The Farm as Microcosm and Place for Change in Schreiner, Lessing, and Head , Elana D. Karshmer

"The weak are meat, and the strong do eat"; Representations of the Slaughterhouse in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature , Stephanie Lance

Language of Carnival: How Language and the Carnivalesque Challenge Hegemony , Yulia O. Nekrashevich

Queer Authority in Old and Middle English Literature , Elan J. Pavlinich

Because My Garmin Told Me To: A New Materialist Study of Agency and Wearable Technology , Michael Repici

No One Wants to Read What You Write: A Contextualized Analysis of Service Course Assignments , Tanya P. Zarlengo

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Beauty and the Beasts: Making Places with Literary Animals of Florida , Haili A. Alcorn

The Medievalizing Process: Religious Medievalism in Romantic and Victorian Literature , Timothy M. Curran

Seeing Trauma: The Known and the Hidden in Nineteenth-Century Literature , Alisa M. DeBorde

Analysis of User Interfaces in the Sharing Economy , Taylor B. Johnson

Border-Crossing Travels Across Literary Worlds: My Shamanic Conscientization , Scott Neumeister

The Spectacle of The Bomb: Rhetorical Analysis of Risk of The Nevada Test Site in Technical Communication, Popular Press, and Pop Culture , Tiffany Wilgar

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Traveling Women and Consuming Place in Eighteenth-Century Travel Letters and Journals , Cassie Patricia Childs

“The Nations of the Field and Wood”: The Uncertain Ontology of Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Literature , J. Kevin Jordan

Modern Mythologies: The Epic Imagination in Contemporary Indian Literature , Sucheta Kanjilal

Science in the Sun: How Science is Performed as a Spatial Practice , Natalie Kass

Body as Text: Physiognomy on the Early English Stage , Curtis Le Van

Tensions Between Democracy and Expertise in the Florida Keys , Elizabeth A. Loyer

Institutional Review Boards and Writing Studies Research: A Justice-Oriented Study , Johanna Phelps-Hillen

The Spirit of Friendship: Girlfriends in Contemporary African American Literature , Tangela La'Chelle Serls

Aphra Behn on the Contemporary Stage: Behn's Feminist Legacy and Woman-Directed Revivals of The Rover , Nicole Elizabeth Stodard

(Age)ncy in Composition Studies , Alaina Tackitt

Constructing Health Narratives: Patient Feedback in Online Communities , Katie Lynn Walkup

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Rupturing the World of Elite Athletics: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Suspension of the 2011 IAAF Regulations on Hyperandrogenism , Ella Browning

Shaping Climate Citizenship: The Ethics of Inclusion in Climate Change Communication and Policy , Lauren E. Cagle

Drop, Cover, and Hold On: Analyzing FEMA's Risk Communication through Visual Rhetoric , Samantha Jo Cosgrove

Material Expertise: Applying Object-oriented Rhetoric in Marine Policy , Zachary Parke Dixon

The Non-Identical Anglophone Bildungsroman : From the Categorical to the De-Centering Literary Subject in the Black Atlantic , Jarad Heath Fennell

Instattack: Instagram and Visual Ad Hominem Political Arguments , Sophia Evangeline Gourgiotis

Hospitable Climates: Representations of the West Indies in Eighteenth-Century British Literature , Marisa Carmen Iglesias

Chosen Champions: Medieval and Early Modern Heroes as Postcolonial Reactions to Tensions between England and Europe , Jessica Trant Labossiere

Science, Policy, and Decision Making: A Case Study of Deliberative Rhetoric and Policymaking for Coastal Adaptation in Southeast Florida , Karen Patricia Langbehn

A New Materialist Approach to Visual Rhetoric in PhotoShopBattles , Jonathan Paul Ray

Tracing the Material: Spaces and Objects in British and Irish Modernist Novels , Mary Allison Wise

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

Representations of Gatsby: Ninety Years of Retrospective , Christine Anne Auger

Robust, Low Power, Discrete Gate Sizing , Anthony Joseph Casagrande

Wrestling with Angels: Postsecular Contemporary American Poetry , Paul T. Corrigan

#networkedglobe: Making the Connection between Social Media and Intercultural Technical Communication , Laura Anne Ewing

Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase and Frame Analysis of Texts about the Herbicide Agent Orange , Sarah Beth Hopton

'She Shall Not Be Moved': Black Women's Spiritual Practice in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, Beloved, Paradise, and Home , Rondrea Danielle Mathis

Relational Agency, Networked Technology, and the Social Media Aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing , Megan M. Mcintyre

Now, We Hear Through a Voice Darkly: New Media and Narratology in Cinematic Art , James Anthony Ricci

Navigating Collective Activity Systems: An Approach Towards Rhetorical Inquiry , Katherine Jesse Royce

Women's Narratives of Confinement: Domestic Chores as Threads of Resistance and Healing , Jacqueline Marie Smith

Domestic Spaces in Transition: Modern Representations of Dwelling in the Texts of Elizabeth Bowen , Shannon Tivnan

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Paradise Always Already Lost: Myth, Memory, and Matter in English Literature , Elizabeth Stuart Angello

Overcoming the 5th-Century BCE Epistemological Tragedy: A Productive Reading of Protagoras of Abdera , Ryan Alan Blank

Acts of Rebellion: The Rhetoric of Rogue Cinema , Adam Breckenridge

Material and Textual Spaces in the Poetry of Montagu, Leapor, Barbauld, and Robinson , Jessica Lauren Cook

Decolonizing Shakespeare: Race, Gender, and Colonialism in Three Adaptations of Three Plays by William Shakespeare , Angela Eward-Mangione

Risk of Compliance: Tracing Safety and Efficacy in Mef-Lariam's Licensure , Julie Marie Gerdes

Beyond Performance: Rhetoric, Collective Memory, and the Motive of Imprinting Identity , Brenda M. Grau

Subversive Beauty - Victorian Bodies of Expression , Lisa Michelle Hoffman-Reyes

Integrating Reading and Writing For Florida's ESOL Program , George Douglas Mcarthur

Responsibility and Responsiveness in the Novels of Ann Radcliffe and Mary Shelley , Katherine Marie McGee

Ghosts, Orphans, and Outlaws: History, Family, and the Law in Toni Morrison's Fiction , Jessica Mckee

The "Defective" Generation: Disability in Modernist Literature , Deborah Susan Mcleod

Science Fiction/Fantasy and the Representation of Ethnic Futurity , Joy Ann Sanchez-Taylor

Hermes, Technical Communicator of the Gods: The Theory, Design, and Creation of a Persuasive Game for Technical Communication , Eric Walsh

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Rhetorical Spirits: Spirituality as Rhetorical Device in New Age Womanist of Color Texts , Ronisha Witlee Browdy

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50+ Important English Literature Dissertation Topics

Choosing a dissertation topic in English literature can be both exciting and daunting. With a wealth of genres, historical periods, and critical approaches, the possibilities are vast. This comprehensive guide presents over 50 important dissertation topics across various themes and periods, helping you find inspiration for your research.

1. Renaissance Literature

1.1 shakespearean tragedies.

Explore the complexities of human nature, fate, and morality in plays like “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” or “Othello.” Analyze themes such as ambition, revenge, and madness.

1.2 Metaphysical Poetry

Investigate the works of poets like John Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell. Focus on their use of metaphysical conceits, religious themes, and exploration of love and mortality.

1.3 Female Voices in Renaissance Literature

Examine the representation of women in the works of male authors or explore the writings of female authors like Mary Sidney and Lady Mary Wroth.

2. Victorian Literature

2.1 social criticism in dickens’ novels.

Analyze Charles Dickens’ critique of social issues such as poverty, child labour, and class disparity in novels like “Oliver Twist,” “David Copperfield,” and “Bleak House.”

2.2 The Brontë Sisters

Compare and contrast the themes of gothic elements, gender roles, and family dynamics in the works of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë.

2.3 The Role of Women in Victorian Society

Explore the depiction of women and their societal roles in the works of authors like Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy.

3. Modernism

3.1 stream of consciousness in james joyce’s “ulysses”.

Examine the narrative technique of stream of consciousness and its impact on modernist literature through Joyce’s “Ulysses.”

3.2 Alienation in Franz Kafka’s Works

Investigate themes of alienation, bureaucracy, and existential angst in Kafka’s stories like “The Metamorphosis” and “The Trial.”

3.3 Gender and Identity in Virginia Woolf’s Novels

Analyze Woolf’s exploration of gender, identity, and consciousness in works like “Mrs. Dalloway” and “Orlando.”

4. Postcolonial Literature

4.1 identity and displacement in salman rushdie’s works.

Explore themes of identity, migration, and cultural hybridity in Rushdie’s novels such as “Midnight’s Children” and “The Satanic Verses.”

4.2 Postcolonial Feminism in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novels

Examine the intersection of postcolonial themes and feminist issues in Adichie’s works like “Half of a Yellow Sun” and “Americanah.”

4.3 Representation of Colonialism in J.M. Coetzee’s Novels

Analyze how Coetzee portrays the impacts of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa in novels like “Disgrace” and “Waiting for the Barbarians.”

5. Contemporary Literature

5.1 environmental themes in margaret atwood’s works.

Investigate the portrayal of environmental issues and dystopian futures in Atwood’s novels like “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Oryx and Crake.”

5.2 The Digital Age in Dave Eggers’ “The Circle”

Examine the critique of technology, surveillance, and privacy in Eggers’ novel “The Circle.”

5.3 Multiculturalism in Zadie Smith’s Novels

Analyze how Smith addresses themes of multiculturalism, identity, and social dynamics in novels like “White Teeth” and “Swing Time.”

6. American Literature

6.1 the american dream in f. scott fitzgerald’s “the great gatsby”.

Explore the critique of the American Dream and the pursuit of wealth in Fitzgerald’s classic novel.

6.2 Race and Identity in Toni Morrison’s Works

Investigate Morrison’s exploration of African American identity, history, and culture in novels like “Beloved” and “Song of Solomon.”

6.3 The Southern Gothic Tradition in William Faulkner’s Works

Analyze the use of gothic elements, decaying settings, and complex family dynamics in Faulkner’s novels like “The Sound and the Fury” and “As I Lay Dying.”

7. Gothic Literature

7.1 the role of the supernatural in edgar allan poe’s stories.

Examine Poe’s use of supernatural elements, psychological horror, and themes of madness in his short stories.

7.2 Female Gothic in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

Explore the representation of gender, creation, and monstrosity in Shelley’s seminal gothic novel.

7.3 Victorian Gothic in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”

Analyze the themes of sexuality, fear of the other, and the clash between modernity and ancient evil in Stoker’s “Dracula.”

8. Science Fiction and Fantasy

8.1 dystopian themes in george orwell’s “1984”.

Investigate Orwell’s critique of totalitarianism, surveillance, and control in his dystopian novel “1984.”

8.2 World-Building in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings”

Examine Tolkien’s creation of Middle-earth, focusing on themes of heroism, power, and the struggle between good and evil.

8.3 Gender and Power in Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”

Analyze the depiction of gender, power dynamics, and resistance in Atwood’s dystopian novel.

9. Children’s Literature

9.1 moral lessons in aesop’s fables.

Explore the use of anthropomorphism and moral teaching in Aesop’s classic fables.

9.2 Fantasy and Reality in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” Series

Investigate the blend of fantasy and reality, the hero’s journey, and themes of friendship and bravery in the “Harry Potter” series.

9.3 Colonialism and Race in “Peter Pan”

Examine J.M. Barrie’s portrayal of colonialism, race, and the concept of the “other” in “Peter Pan.”

10. Romantic Literature

10.1 nature and the sublime in william wordsworth’s poetry.

Analyze Wordsworth’s depiction of nature, the sublime, and the human experience in his poetry.

10.2 Love and Loss in John Keats’ Poetry

Investigate the themes of love, loss, and mortality in Keats’ poetic works.

10.3 Gothic Elements in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”

Explore the blending of Romantic and Gothic elements in Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein.”

11. Feminist Literature

11.1 feminist themes in virginia woolf’s “a room of one’s own”.

Examine Woolf’s arguments about women’s rights, creativity, and the need for financial independence in her extended essay.

11.2 Intersectionality in Audre Lorde’s Works

Analyze Lorde’s exploration of intersectionality, identity, and resistance in her poetry and essays.

11.3 Gender and Power in Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar”

Investigate Plath’s portrayal of gender roles, mental illness, and societal expectations in her semi-autobiographical novel.

12. Historical Literature

12.1 historical accuracy in hilary mantel’s “wolf hall”.

Examine Mantel’s depiction of Thomas Cromwell and the Tudor court, focusing on historical accuracy and narrative style.

12.2 The Representation of War in Erich Maria Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front”

Analyze Remarque’s portrayal of the horrors of World War I and its impact on soldiers.

12.3 The French Revolution in Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities”

Investigate Dickens’ depiction of the French Revolution, class struggle, and redemption in “A Tale of Two Cities.”

13. Comparative Literature

13.1 comparing dystopian societies in “1984” and “brave new world”.

Analyze the similarities and differences in the dystopian societies depicted by George Orwell and Aldous Huxley.

13.2 The Hero’s Journey in “The Odyssey” and “The Lord of the Rings”

Examine the use of the hero’s journey archetype in Homer’s epic poem and Tolkien’s fantasy series.

13.3 Themes of Revenge in “Hamlet” and “The Count of Monte Cristo”

Compare and contrast the themes of revenge, justice, and morality in Shakespeare’s play and Dumas’ novel.

14. Mythology and Literature

14.1 the role of myth in james joyce’s “ulysses”.

Investigate how Joyce incorporates and reinterprets classical myths in his modernist novel “Ulysses.”

14.2 Greek Tragedy in Modern Literature

Analyze the influence of Greek tragedy on contemporary works, focusing on themes of fate, hubris, and catharsis.

14.3 Mythical Motifs in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” Series

Explore the use of mythical motifs, creatures, and archetypes in the “Harry Potter” series.

15. Queer Literature

15.1 queer identity in james baldwin’s “giovanni’s room”.

Examine Baldwin’s exploration of queer identity, love, and societal norms in his novel “Giovanni’s Room.”

15.2 Gender and Sexuality in Oscar Wilde’s Works

Analyze Wilde’s depiction of gender, sexuality, and societal hypocrisy in his plays and novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray.”

15.3 The Intersection of Race and Sexuality in Audre Lorde’s Poetry

Investigate Lorde’s exploration of the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality in her poetry.

Choosing a dissertation topic in English literature requires careful consideration of your interests, the scope of available research, and the depth of the material. The above list provides a diverse array of topics across different periods, genres, and themes, offering a solid foundation for your academic exploration. Whether you are drawn to the timeless works of Shakespeare, the social critiques of Victorian literature, the innovative narratives of modernism, or the diverse voices of contemporary literature, there is a rich vein of material to explore in your dissertation.

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College of Arts & Sciences

Thesis Topics

You are invited to pursue any topic that falls under the English department’s purview, and the Honors Committee will assume that you will pursue it with scholarly rigor, intellectual seriousness, and artistic integrity. You should follow your own interests and commitments in defining your project, though you should avail yourself of the advice of those faculty members whose expertise will help you focus your ideas and give them depth. Again, we welcome critical, creative, interdisciplinary, mixed genre, and hybrid creative/critical projects. Most successful applicants have derived their projects from interests developed during their time as English majors at Georgetown. During the actual writing of the thesis, of course, you will work closely with a faculty mentor.

Here is a partial list of the kinds of literary and interdisciplinary topics that Honors students have pursued over the past few years:

• Polyphony in the novels of Cormac McCarthy
• Women in post-Stonewall gay male literature
• Madness and skepticism in Hamlet and Don Quixote
• Dialogism in Toni Morrison and Christa Woolf
• The Booker Prize as post-colonial phenomenon
• Jazz in the Harlem Renaissance
• The scientific revolution and 18th-century narratives
• Irvine Welsh and dialect writing
• Sound and structure in scripts
• Identity and memory in Maxine Hong Kingston
• Influence of the internet on writing
• The written legacy of oral narratives in Amerindian culture
• Medieval women troubadours
• African-American women writers and their Biblical heritage
• Adult-child discourse in real-life conversation and classic children’s literature
• The role of bible-making in the works of Blake, Wordsworth, and Hardy
• Morality plays in the Middle Ages and the twentieth century

In addition, Honors students have written short story collections, memoirs, and collections of poetry. Students have also written hybrid creative/critical projects, such as a critique of postcolonial memoir within a postcolonial memoir. Those students who propose creative projects should have developed their skills through taking courses with the Georgetown English Department creative writing faculty or through participation in campus and professional journals and other creative venues.

British Literature Research Paper Topics for Students

Generating thesis topics for English literature students can be a daunting task. The topics not only need to be relevant to quality literature, but they also need to pique the readers’ interest. When composing a research paper on English literature, it’s important to consider a variety of potential thesis topics. In this article, we have listed some of the best English literature thesis topics for students that you are sure to benefit from when working on your English research paper, literature review, dissertation, presentation, or even British novels.

Types of English Literature Thesis Topics

Choosing a Topic

When choosing the best English literature thesis topics for your major, it is important to consider a few key factors. First, you should choose a topic that is of interest to you and that you can research thoroughly. Additionally, you should consider the scope of the topic and make sure that it is neither too broad nor too narrow. 

Besides, it is important to make sure that the topic has plenty of available sources so that you can conduct your research effectively. When selecting English thesis topics, it can be helpful to identify a particular theme or author that you want to focus on. This can help narrow down the ideas and give you a better foundation for your paper. 

At the same time, it is important to consider the time period you want to focus on. This can help you determine which texts are relevant to your topic and provide a better understanding of the context in which your paper will be written. It is also important to consult your professor or a librarian for guidance. They can provide helpful resources and tips for selecting the right British literature research paper topics. 

You can also look for scholarly articles and other resources that can help you gain a better understanding of the matter and find top thesis topics in English literature students. Finally, it is important to remember that the best topics are those that you are passionate about. Researching a topic that you find interesting can make the research process more enjoyable and help you write a better paper.

To help Engish language students find the best English major thesis topics, we’v listed some of the top best ideas that you are welcome to avail of: 

• 1. The Evolving Role of Women in Twentieth-Century Literature
• 2. Intersections of Religion and Politics Across Literary Eras
• 3. Exploring Gender Roles: A Comparative Analysis
• 4. Tracing the Origins of a Chosen Novel: A Historical Inquiry
• 5. Morality Plays in Middle Ages and Twentieth Century Literature
• 6. Animals in Children’s Literature: Their Significance and Function
• 7. Modernism and Realism: A Comparative Study
• 8. An Analysis of First World War Poetry
• 9. William Shakespeare’s Most Influential Work: An Examination
• 10. Unpacking Female Masculinities in Old English Literature
• 11. The Accuracy of History in Historical Novels: A Critical Assessment
• 12. The Impact of the Renaissance Era on Literature
• 13. Fairy Tales in Literature: Exploring their Significance and Meanings
• 14. Gender Representation in Gothic Novels: An Interpretive Study
• 15. The Historical Origins of Children’s Literature: A Scholarly Investigation
• 16. Character Comparisons in Popular Books and Movies: A Literary Analysis
• 17. Criticism vs. Symbolism: A Comparative Analysis
• 18. Literary Traditions in the United States and Great Britain: A Comparative Study
• 19. Quantum Physics in Literature: An Exploration of its Applications
• 20. Nineteenth-Century Poetic Imagination and Astronomy: An Interdisciplinary Study

Research Methods

If you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere when seeking literature thesis topics, we recommend you apply some of the tried and tested topic research methods that have already helped dozens of students all over the globe.

Utilize existing research studies. One of the most effective research methods for selecting the best British Literature research paper topics is to review existing research studies. This can be done by searching for scholarly articles related to the topic in question, as well as by examining published books and other media related to British Literature. Doing so can provide invaluable insight into the best topics to focus on in order to produce a well-researched and comprehensive paper. 

Consult with professionals. Consulting with professors, librarians, and other professionals who specialize in British Literature can also be a great way to find the best topics for your research paper. These individuals can provide valuable advice on what topics have been popular in the past, as well as provide information on any new topics that may be of interest to explore.

Conduct interviews . Another great research method is to conduct interviews with experts or individuals who have studied British Literature. Interviewing these people can help to gain insight into their opinions on the best topics to pursue, as well as provide a unique perspective on the material.

Utilize online resources. Utilizing online resources such as blogs, sample works, websites, and forums can also be a great way to find the best research paper topics for British Literature. These resources can provide insight into what topics are currently being discussed, as well as provide ideas for topics that may not have been previously explored.

Use primary sources. Finally, it is important to make use of primary sources when dealing with research topics for English literature students. Utilizing primary literary sources such as manuscripts, diaries, letters, and other original documents can provide invaluable insight into the topics of interest.

Before choosing your English literature thesis topic, it is essential to review class materials, such as the course syllabus, curriculum, and previously written works, to gain inspiration and save time during the decision-making process and research. It is crucial to choose an interesting and unique topic that is related to the class and that others are not likely to write about. 

Once you have a topic in mind, discuss it with classmates or your professor and research it to ensure that there is enough information available to write a profound paper. If there is insufficient information, it is better to change your topic than to risk submitting a weak paper. It is also essential to have a debatable thesis statement to present an evaluative judgment, perspective, or interpretation. However, it is wise to get your instructor’s approval before starting on your chosen topic to ensure that it fits the assignment appropriately. Finally, consistently search for research information and take notes to organize your thoughts and findings.

In conclusion, selecting a British Literature research paper topic can be a daunting task. However, by using the methods discussed above, English literature students can more easily select suitable topics that are both interesting and relevant to the class. Additionally, it is important to remember to consult one’s professor and peers when selecting a topic, as well as utilize primary sources when conducting research. With careful research and thoughtful consideration, students can find the best British Literature research paper topics for their major.

About Terry Qin

Terry Qin is a 27-year-old R&D engineer from Shenzhen currently living in the US. He is interested in programming, new trends and blogging.

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English Language and Literature Dissertation

Module overview.

The BA English Language and Literature Dissertation enables you to bring together the fruits of your studies in English Literature, Language, and Linguistics or to focus on one or the other field according to your interests. You may choose a topic within English Literature, within English Language and Linguistics, or combine these fields. You will independently develop a topic for study that pursues your interests, and develop it with the support of your supervisor(s). An optional joint supervision arrangement between English and Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics will enable you to access supervision in both disciplines and support you to bring linguistic, literary, and cultural studies approaches together, as appropriate to your chosen topic.

Aims and Objectives

Learning outcomes, transferable and generic skills.

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• use appropriate software and applications (e.g. word processing; data analysis and visualisation tools; PowerPoint or similar presentation software) to successfully present your work.
• plan and deliver an independent research project within a set time-frame
• demonstrate research skills including: the use of subject-specific bibliographical tools; the use of electronic and physical resources; the use of subject-specific software and applications (as appropriate)
• produce an extended essay that is logically structured, coherently argued, supported by a detailed bibliography and, where applicable, illustrations

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

• engage with and critically assess previous work on the chosen subject
• identify and develop a sustained argument that addresses an appropriate research question
• where applicable, make connections between different critical and linguistic methodologies and use interdisciplinary modes of approaching the subject
• identify, analyse, and synthesise secondary and primary sources appropriate to your research topic

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the field of enquiry, topic, author, or period you have selected as your chosen area of study
• relevant theoretical and/or critical approaches applicable to your chosen area of study

The dissertation is an extended piece of work, of c. 8000 words, which results from the in-depth study of a topic in any of the broad fields of study that constitute your degree in English Language and Literature: English Literary Studies; Cultural Studies; English Language and Linguistics or any combination of these. You will benefit from tutor-led project planning sessions in English and/ or LCL (as appropriate to your topic), and you will be allocated to a supervisory team comprising one member of staff from English and one member from LCL, with the lead supervisor in the discipline closest to your project. You will deliver your project independently in accordance with module deadlines, but taking into consideration oral and written feedback from your supervisor.

The subject of study will be different for each student, but some elements will be common to all projects. These include:

• project planning, including ethics assessments, logistics, time management and milestones;
• identification and formulation of research questions and objectives;
• identification of appropriate data sets and/or textual sources, methodologies and/or theoretical approaches; collation and analysis of primary source data and/or texts;
• identification and analysis of relevant secondary sources;
• critical analysis of material and formulation of independent response;
• communication of project aims and outcomes in verbal and written forms.

Learning and Teaching

Teaching and learning methods.

Teaching methods include:

Lectures on Dissertation research and writing skills

• These will include sessions dealing with defining and planning a research project; writing a proposals; consideration of ethics and (where appropriate) data management.

Group seminars/workshops

These will include delivering presentations on your research plans, receiving feedback, and exposure to other students' project plans.

Learning activities include:

research and independent study

regular meetings with your supervisor

revising your work to incorporate verbal and written feedback

Internet Resources

The Royal Literary Fund Guide to Writing an Undergraduate Dissertation .

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Individual Oral Presentation

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Draft piece

Dissertation proposal.

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External

• Course modules
• Acoustical engineering
• Biomedical and medical engineering
• Civil engineering
• Every day I’m completely immersed in an environment that’s creative in all aspects
• Everything I learn feels so relevant, even If it’s a subject rooted in the past
• Maritime engineering
• Photonics and optoelectronics
• Social statistics and demography
• A missing link between continental shelves and the deep sea: Have we underestimated the importance of land-detached canyons?
• A seismic study of the continent-ocean transition southwest of the UK
• A study of rolling contact fatigue in electric vehicles (EVs)
• Acoustic monitoring of forest exploitation to establish community perspectives of sustainable hunting
• Acoustic sensing and characterisation of soil organic matter
• Advancing intersectional geographies of diaspora-led development in times of multiple crises
• Aero engine fan wake turbulence – Simulation and wind tunnel experiments
• Against Climate Change (DACC): improving the estimates of forest fire smoke emissions
• All-in-one Mars in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) system and life-supporting using non-thermal plasma
• An electromagnetic study of the continent-ocean transition southwest of the UK
• An investigation of the relationship between health, home and law in the context of poor and precarious housing, and complex and advanced illness
• Antibiotic resistance genes in chalk streams
• Being autistic in care: Understanding differences in care experiences including breakdowns in placements for autistic and non-autistic children
• Biogeochemical cycling in the critical coastal zone: Developing novel methods to make reliable measurements of geochemical fluxes in permeable sediments
• Bloom and bust: seasonal cycles of phytoplankton and carbon flux
• British Black Lives Matter: The emergence of a modern civil rights movement
• Building physics for low carbon comfort using artificial intelligence
• Building-resolved large-eddy simulations of wind and dispersion over a city scale urban area
• Business studies and management: accounting
• Business studies and management: banking and finance
• Business studies and management: decision analytics and risk
• Business studies and management: digital and data driven marketing
• Business studies and management: human resources (HR) management and organisational behaviour
• Business studies and management: strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship
• Carbon storage in reactive rock systems: determining the coupling of geo-chemo-mechanical processes in reactive transport
• Cascading hazards from the largest volcanic eruption in over a century: What happened when Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai erupted in January 2022?
• Characterisation of cast austenitic stainless steels using ultrasonic backscatter and artificial intelligence
• Climate Change effects on the developmental physiology of the small-spotted catshark
• Climate at the time of the Human settlement of the Eastern Pacific
• Collaborative privacy in data marketplaces
• Compatibility of climate and biodiversity targets under future land use change
• Cost of living in modern and fossil animals
• Creative clusters in rural, coastal and post-industrial towns
• Deep oceanic convection: the outsized role of small-scale processes
• Defect categories and their realisation in supersymmetric gauge theory
• Defining the Marine Fisheries-Energy-Environment Nexus: Learning from shocks to enhance natural resource resilience
• Design and fabrication of next generation optical fibres
• Developing a practical application of unmanned aerial vehicle technologies for conservation research and monitoring of endangered wildlife
• Development and evolution of animal biomineral skeletons
• Development of all-in-one in-situ resource utilisation system for crewed Mars exploration missions
• Ecological role of offshore artificial structures
• Effect of embankment and subgrade weathering on railway track performance
• Efficient ‘whole-life’ anchoring systems for offshore floating renewables
• Electrochemical sensing of the sea surface microlayer
• Engagement with nature among children from minority ethnic backgrounds
• Enhancing UAV manoeuvres and control using distributed sensor arrays
• Ensuring the Safety and Security of Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems
• Environmental and genetic determinants of Brassica crop damage by the agricultural pest Diamondback moth
• Estimating marine mammal abundance and distribution from passive acoustic and biotelemetry data
• Evolution of symbiosis in a warmer world
• Examining evolutionary loss of calcification in coccolithophores
• Explainable AI (XAI) for health
• Explaining process, pattern and dynamics of marine predator hotspots in the Southern Ocean
• Exploring dynamics of natural capital in coastal barrier systems
• Exploring the mechanisms of microplastics incorporation and their influence on the functioning of coral holobionts
• Exploring the potential electrical activity of gut for healthcare and wellbeing
• Exploring the trans-local nature of cultural scene
• Facilitating forest restoration sustainability of tropical swidden agriculture
• Faulting, fluids and geohazards within subduction zone forearcs
• Faulting, magmatism and fluid flow during volcanic rifting in East Africa
• Fingerprinting environmental releases from nuclear facilities
• Flexible hybrid thermoelectric materials for wearable energy harvesting
• Floating hydrokinetic power converter
• Glacial sedimentology associated subglacial hydrology
• Green and sustainable Internet of Things
• How do antimicrobial peptides alter T cell cytokine production?
• How do calcifying marine organisms grow? Determining the role of non-classical precipitation processes in biogenic marine calcite formation
• How do neutrophils alter T cell metabolism?
• How well can we predict future changes in biodiversity using machine learning?
• Hydrant dynamics for acoustic leak detection in water pipes
• If ‘Black Lives Matter’, do ‘Asian Lives Matter’ too? Impact trajectories of organisation activism on wellbeing of ethnic minority communities
• Illuminating luciferin bioluminescence in dinoflagellates
• Imaging quantum materials with an XFEL
• Impact of neuromodulating drugs on gut microbiome homeostasis
• Impact of pharmaceuticals in the marine environment in a changing world
• Impacts of environmental change on coastal habitat restoration
• Improving subsea navigation using environment observations for long term autonomy
• Information theoretic methods for sensor management
• Installation effect on the noise of small high speed fans
• Integrated earth observation mapping change land sea
• Interconnections of past greenhouse climates
• Investigating IgG cell depletion mechanisms
• Is ocean mixing upside down? How mixing processes drive upwelling in a deep-ocean basin
• Landing gear aerodynamics and aeroacoustics
• Lightweight gas storage: real-world strategies for the hydrogen economy
• Long-term change in the benthos – creating robust data from varying camera systems
• Machine learning for multi-robot perception
• Marine ecosystem responses to past climate change and its oceanographic impacts
• Mechanical effects in the surf zone - in situ electrochemical sensing
• Microfluidic cell isolation systems for sepsis
• Migrant entrepreneurship, gender and generation: context and family dynamics in small town Britain
• Miniaturisation in fishes: evolutionary and ecological perspectives
• Modelling high-power fibre laser and amplifier stability
• Modelling soil dewatering and recharge for cost-effective and climate resilient infrastructure
• Modelling the evolution of adaptive responses to climate change across spatial landscapes
• Nanomaterials sensors for biomedicine and/or the environment
• New high-resolution observations of ocean surface current and winds from innovative airborne and satellite measurements
• New perspectives on ocean photosynthesis
• Novel methods of detecting carbon cycling pathways in lakes and their impact on ecosystem change
• Novel technologies for cyber-physical security
• Novel transparent conducting films with unusual optoelectronic properties
• Novel wavelength fibre lasers for industrial applications
• Ocean circulation and the Southern Ocean carbon sink
• Ocean influence on recent climate extremes
• Ocean methane sensing using novel surface plasmon resonance technology
• Ocean physics and ecology: can robots disentangle the mix?
• Ocean-based Carbon Dioxide Removal: Assessing the utility of coastal enhanced weathering
• Offshore renewable energy (ORE) foundations on rock seabeds: advancing design through analogue testing and modelling
• Optical fibre sensing for acoustic leak detection in buried pipelines
• Optimal energy transfer in nonlinear systems
• Optimizing machine learning for embedded systems
• Oxidation of fossil organic matter as a source of atmospheric CO2
• Partnership dissolution and re-formation in later life among individuals from minority ethnic communities in the UK
• Personalized multimodal human-robot interactions
• Preventing disease by enhancing the cleaning power of domestic water taps using sound
• Quantifying riparian vegetation dynamics and flow interactions for Nature Based Solutions using novel environmental sensing techniques
• Quantifying the response and sensitivity of tropical forest carbon sinks to various drivers
• Quantifying variability in phytoplankton electron requirements for carbon fixation
• Resilient and sustainable steel-framed building structures
• Resolving Antarctic meltwater events in Southern Ocean marine sediments and exploring their significance using climate models
• Robust acoustic leak detection in water pipes using contact sound guides
• Silicon synapses for artificial intelligence hardware
• Smart photon delivery via reconfigurable optical fibres
• The Gulf Stream control of the North Atlantic carbon sink
• The Mayflower Studentship: a prestigious fully funded PhD studentship in bioscience
• The calming effect of group living in social fishes
• The duration of ridge flank hydrothermal exchange and its role in global biogeochemical cycles
• The evolution of symmetry in echinoderms
• The impact of early life stress on neuronal enhancer function
• The oceanic fingerprints on changing monsoons over South and Southeast Asia
• The role of iron in nitrogen fixation and photosynthesis in changing polar oceans
• The role of singlet oxygen signaling in plant responses to heat and drought stress
• Time variability on turbulent mixing of heat around melting ice in the West Antarctic
• Triggers and Feedbacks of Climate Tipping Points
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• Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates

Published on June 7, 2022 by Tegan George . Revised on November 21, 2023.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical early steps in your writing process . It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding the specifics of your dissertation topic and showcasing its relevance to your field.

Generally, an outline contains information on the different sections included in your thesis or dissertation , such as:

• Your anticipated title
• Your abstract
• Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review, research methods, avenues for future research, etc.)

In the final product, you can also provide a chapter outline for your readers. This is a short paragraph at the end of your introduction to inform readers about the organizational structure of your thesis or dissertation. This chapter outline is also known as a reading guide or summary outline.

Table of contents

How to outline your thesis or dissertation, dissertation and thesis outline templates, chapter outline example, sample sentences for your chapter outline, sample verbs for variation in your chapter outline, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about thesis and dissertation outlines.

While there are some inter-institutional differences, many outlines proceed in a fairly similar fashion.

• Working Title
• “Elevator pitch” of your work (often written last).
• Introduce your area of study, sharing details about your research question, problem statement , and hypotheses . Situate your research within an existing paradigm or conceptual or theoretical framework .
• Subdivide as you see fit into main topics and sub-topics.
• Describe your research methods (e.g., your scope , population , and data collection ).
• Present your research findings and share about your data analysis methods.
• Answer the research question in a concise way.
• Interpret your findings, discuss potential limitations of your own research and speculate about future implications or related opportunities.

For a more detailed overview of chapters and other elements, be sure to check out our article on the structure of a dissertation or download our template .

To help you get started, we’ve created a full thesis or dissertation template in Word or Google Docs format. It’s easy adapt it to your own requirements.

 Download Word template    Download Google Docs template

It can be easy to fall into a pattern of overusing the same words or sentence constructions, which can make your work monotonous and repetitive for your readers. Consider utilizing some of the alternative constructions presented below.

Example 1: Passive construction

The passive voice is a common choice for outlines and overviews because the context makes it clear who is carrying out the action (e.g., you are conducting the research ). However, overuse of the passive voice can make your text vague and imprecise.

Example 2: IS-AV construction

You can also present your information using the “IS-AV” (inanimate subject with an active verb ) construction.

A chapter is an inanimate object, so it is not capable of taking an action itself (e.g., presenting or discussing). However, the meaning of the sentence is still easily understandable, so the IS-AV construction can be a good way to add variety to your text.

Example 3: The “I” construction

Another option is to use the “I” construction, which is often recommended by style manuals (e.g., APA Style and Chicago style ). However, depending on your field of study, this construction is not always considered professional or academic. Ask your supervisor if you’re not sure.

Example 4: Mix-and-match

To truly make the most of these options, consider mixing and matching the passive voice , IS-AV construction , and “I” construction .This can help the flow of your argument and improve the readability of your text.

As you draft the chapter outline, you may also find yourself frequently repeating the same words, such as “discuss,” “present,” “prove,” or “show.” Consider branching out to add richness and nuance to your writing. Here are some examples of synonyms you can use.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or research bias, make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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When you mention different chapters within your text, it’s considered best to use Roman numerals for most citation styles. However, the most important thing here is to remain consistent whenever using numbers in your dissertation .

The title page of your thesis or dissertation goes first, before all other content or lists that you may choose to include.

A thesis or dissertation outline is one of the most critical first steps in your writing process. It helps you to lay out and organize your ideas and can provide you with a roadmap for deciding what kind of research you’d like to undertake.

• Your chapters (sometimes subdivided into further topics like literature review , research methods , avenues for future research, etc.)

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

George, T. (2023, November 21). Dissertation & Thesis Outline | Example & Free Templates. Scribbr. Retrieved September 9, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/dissertation/dissertation-thesis-outline/

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Department of English Language and Literature

B.A. Thesis

Bc thesis: language proficiency and cultural studies.

The thesis must be written in English and must contain a brief summary in Czech.

It must have an introduction, a theoretical part, the main body and a conclusion. The introduction must state the aims of the thesis, a basic hypothesis and expected results. The brief theoretical part should put forward relevant ideas found through study of theoretical literature published on the subject. The main body of the thesis should be a presentation, analysis and discussion of facts and opinions published in newspapers, journals, opinion polls, on the Internet, etc. In addition, it is recommended that the author should conduct a brief survey of opinions of students, learners of English, citizens in general, etc. on the basis of self-created questionnaires. The thesis must have a conclusion stating whether the hypothesis has been confirmed, and what results have been obtained and how.

The overall form should be a long academic essay that should follow the principles learned in the Academic Writing classes that are part of the department’s curriculum.

It should have a minimum of 40 standard pages (72 000 symbols) and a list of cited sources (using the MLA citation rules) and excluding appendices.

Any attempt at plagiarizing will disqualify the thesis and will lead to its non-acceptance.

The thesis is submitted only electronically unless the supervisor or the opponent request a printed copy.

Students are strongly encouraged to come up with their own ideas for the thesis’ topic. Sample topics:

• Choose an area of culture in which you think Czech and British society differs significantly, and discuss the difference.
• In what ways is the English language changing the world?
• How have newer communication technologies (the Internet, cellular phones, ICQ, etc.) influenced communication and language?
• What, and how, do people read in the 21st century?
• The impact of English on today’s Czech.

Bc Thesis: Literary Studies

The Literary Studies Bachelor’s thesis should focus on an interpretation of one, or at the most two novels or plays (if the candidate wishes to choose short fiction or poetry, the chosen work or works is/are to be discussed with the supervisor).

The thesis must be written in English and must contain a brief summary in Czech. It must have an introduction, a theoretical part, the main body and a conclusion.

The introduction must state the aims of the thesis. A brief theoretical part should put forward relevant ideas found through the study of theoretical literature published on the subject. It should also give a brief outline of the context in which the text under discussion was produced. Autobiographical data should be mentioned only where relevant for the interpretation. The main body of the thesis should be a critical analysis and therefore, a retelling of the plot of the novel or play should be given only if relevant to the interpretation under question.

The overall form should be a long academic essay that should follow the principles learned in the Academic Writing classes and British and American Literature classes that are part of the department’s curriculum.

• Using two novels by two different writers (Orwell, Burgess, McEwan, Martin Amis and others) analyze and discuss the development of dystopia as a theme in post-WWII British literature.
• Analyze and discuss the narrative techniques and strategies in one or two novels by a contemporary British author (Rushdie, Ishiguro, McEwan, Martin Amis, Barnes, Byatt, Swift, Winterson, Smith)
• Discuss the quest for identity in one or two novels by a contemporary British hyphenated writer (Naipaul, Kureishi, Smith, Ali, Caryl Phillips, Syal, Howard Jacobson, Alderman and others.)
• Taboo topics in Kate Chopin’s short stories.
• Crime and punishment in Native Son by Richard Wright.

Bc Thesis: Translation

Translation and stylistic analysis  Part 1: The student translates 15 – 30 standard pages of short fiction, poetry, drama or philosophy written by one author. The text should not span more than one genre and must be written in complex and idiomatic English, ideally with direct speech and dialect. The output format is a side-by-side English-Czech translation. The source text must be an original English piece of writing which has not been officially translated into Czech by the time the topic is assigned (according to generally available information), or which has been translated by the author of the prospective BA thesis himself/herself.

Part 2: Approx. 10 – 25 standard pages will be devoted to a stylistic analysis of the text and/or authorial comment which rests primarily on the theoretical framework (see Theory) and which clarifies or justifies e.g. the choice of language register (possibly colloquial), the Czech idiom used in the target translation, etc.

A juxtaposition of two or more Czech translations Alternatively, students might also choose to write a thesis which seeks to compare and contrast two or more Czech translations of a book written in English. The juxtaposed translations should have been published at least 15 years apart (see the last sample topic) so that the thesis might also explore the shift in Czech vernacular and other cultural considerations. The thesis must not exceed 35 standard pages, excluding bibliography. Direct quotes from the English original and Czech translations should constitute less than 20 per cent of the text.

Students are strongly encouraged to come up with their own ideas for the thesis’ topic.

The thesis needs a brief theoretical framework. This will draw primarily (though not exclusively) on the following publications: Levý, J. (1958): Úvod do teorie překladu, Praha, Panorama. Mounin, G. (1992): Teoretické problémy překladu, Praha, Karolinum – nakladatelství UK Sample topics:

• The translation and stylistic analysis of Nicola Keegan’s Swimming (one chapter).
• Exploring the contrast between the highly intellectualised inner monologue and raw vernacular found in Oxherding Tale by Charles Johnson – a translation and stylistic analysis of one chapter.
• Nuances and ambiguities in Alasdair Gray’s short stories – a translation and stylistic analysis.
• Two Czech translations of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando – a juxtaposition.

Bc. Thesis: English Linguistics

This thesis should have a minimum of 40 standard pages (72 000 symbols), including the title page, table of contents, key words, abstract, introduction, conclusion, footnotes/endnotes, reference to primary and secondary sources, a Czech summary, etc. It should embody original research carried out by the author (with reasonable guidance provided by the supervisor) and should be based on careful scrutiny of authentic data. It must be stressed that compilations of various secondary sources alone do not constitute the thesis and will not be accepted. The results of the original research should be adequately presented and thoroughly interpreted, and, most importantly, convincing conclusions should be drawn from the research.

The thesis will be written in English. Its formulation should be clear, succinct and coherent, adhering to all conventions common in academic writing (for this thesis – the MLA citation style will be used).

• Nuances of Implicational Fall-Rise
• The Role of Phonetico-Morphological Patterns of Selected Acronyms
• Qualifying genitive in contemporary English
• Indefinite Specific Subjects in English Texts

Note: Second-year students are encouraged to come up with their own proposals for their Bc. theses in all the disciplines taught at the Department (Modern English, Cultural Studies, Linguistic disciplines, British and American literature and Translation). Individual students can contact the teachers of the subjects of their proposed theses in order to consult the feasibility of their topics.

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Department of English and American Studies

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Suggested topic areas for Diploma theses

(These are areas offered by the individual teachers. You can also approach most teachers with your own suggestions.)

Nikola Fořtová, B.A., M.A.

• E-learning, m-learning: application of new technologies in teaching

prof. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A.

• Medieval English Literature
• Contemporary British Literature
• British cultural studies

Stephen Paul Hardy, B.A., P.G.C.E, M.A., Ph.D.

• British & Irish 17th, 19th, & 20th Century Literature (all genres)
• British Poetry (1558–2012) and North American 20th Century Poetry
• British Cultural History (20,000 B.C.–2012)
• British Film/TV/Media or any aspect of 20th C British Cultural Studies and North American Film and Popular Music

Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D.

• Australian literature and cultural studies
• Contemporary American literature
• Ethnic minority literatures in North America and Australia
• Indigenous literatures

doc. PhDr. Jana Chamonikolasová, Ph.D.

Prof. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D.

• Methodology: Discourse analysis, pragmatics, critical discourse analysis, stylistics, sociolinguistics
• Areas: Language in the media, language and law, language and society
• Topics: Representation of social groups, interaction and interactivity,discourse coherence in spoken and written language, discourse patterns in media communication, modern genres of English, diachronic genre analysis (historical pragmatics)

doc. Mgr. Tomáš Kačer, Ph.D.

• Modern and contemporary British drama and theatre (plays, playwrights, performance analyses; history/theory)
• American drama and theatre (plays, playwrights, performance analyses; history/theory)
• British theatres and theatre festivals
• Other forms of performance and culture

PhDr. Simona Kalová, Ph.D.

• Practical aspects of teaching and learning
• Educational assessment and evaluation

Mgr. Renata Kamenická, Ph.D.

• Empirical translation studies of contemporary translation practices
• Translator’s style; style in/of translation
• Psycho-cognitive aspects of/in translation
• Individual vs. shared discursive strategies in translation
• Translations vs. non-translations; translation-specific tendencies
• Translation practice/theory interface (in both directions)
• Intralingual translation

doc. Michael Kaylor, M.A., PhD

• Romantic and Victorian poetry
• The Modernist novel in Britain and Ireland
• English Decadence
• The Bloomsbury Group
• Walt Whitman
• Theory of Biography
• Gay Studies, homoeroticism in the Arts
• Literary canonicity

Mgr. Filip Krajník, Ph.D.

• William Shakespeare/Early-Modern English Drama (BA/MA)
• Late Mediaeval English Literature (BA only)
• Literary Representations of Sleeping and Dreaming (BA/MA)
• Philip K. Dick (BA/MA)
• Literary Translation (BA/MA)

doc. PhDr. Naděžda Kudrnáčová, CSc.

• Syntax-semantics interface

James Little, Ph.D.

• Irish studies
• Theatre studies
• Samuel Beckett studies
• The literature of coercive confinement

Mgr. Linda Nepivodová, Ph.D.

• Language Testing
• Error Correction
• Second Language Acquisition

Mgr. Jana Pelclová, Ph.D.

• Stylistic analysis - analysis or comparison of the register of advertising, e_communication, F2F conversation, narrative stylistics (BA)
• Discourse of advertising - linguistic analysis of selected topics (e.g. figures of speech, spokenness vs. writtenness, pragmatic principles, humour, word-picture contextualisation, etc.) (MA)
• Topics in Pragmatics - analysis of authentic conversation, fictional conversation, pragmatic aspects in the discourse of advertising, etc. (MA)
• Discourse analysis - selected topics in the discourse of children's literature, advertising, CMC, politics, etc. (MA)

doc. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D.

• Canadian film and TV
• American film and TV
• Cinematic representation of American minorities; films by minority filmmakers
• American literature
• American history and/or culture
• American cultural studies

Ing. et Mgr. Jiří Rambousek, Ph.D.

• History and bibliography of Czech translations from English
• Reflection of older translations in contemporary Czech periodicals
• Selected contrastive aspects of English and Czech as reflected in translation
• Cognitive views of translation and the translator
• Personalities of the early history of the Department of English and American Studies

Mgr. Jitka Sedláčková, Ph.D.

• Second Lanuage Acquisition
• Individual Learning Differences in Second Language Learning
• Students with Specific Needs and EFL
• Reading Skills and Reading Strategies in EFL

Jeff Smith, M.F.A, Ph.D.

• Literatures and cultures of the United States
• Popular arts, culture and media
• Relationship of politics to literature and the arts
• Historical development of US cultures and politics

PhDr. Don Sparling, B.A.

• Canadian literature (all genres, with a special interest in historical fiction and drama)
• Multiculturalism in Canada, interculturalism in Quebec
• The French-English relationship in Canada (all aspects - historical, social, cultural, educational [e.g. immersion schooling], etc.)
• Canadian culture (all aspects except film, where doc. Pospíšil is your man)
• Contemporary issues relating to the indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit, Métis)
• Depending on the topic, other areas that you might have a particular interest in

PhDr. Kateřina Tomková, Ph.D.

• Accents of English and their perceptions
• Oral presentation, rhetorics and elocution
• Common pronunciation mistakes and theire radication
• Statistical procession of most common pronunciation errors
• Articulatory settings in E and CZ
• The use of authentic material such as sitcoms and films in teaching oneself better speaking skills
• Musical aptitude correlating with FL acquisition

Jeffrey A. Vanderziel, B.A.

• History, culture, representation and/or literature of indigenous peoples in North America
• History and/or culture of minorities in North America
• LGBTQ history, culture, literature

PhDr. Jitka Vlčková, Dr.

• Australians in different historical periods (BA)
• Indigenous and other minorities in Australia - history and/or cutlture (BA)
• Australian cultural studies (BA/MA)
• Registers in English. Australian English. Aboriginal English. Intercultural communication (MA)
• Gender roles, language, media, communication, legislation, minorities, mainstream cultures; issues of discrimination and/or racism (MA)

Mgr. Olga Zörnerová

• marketing transcreation
• localisation and related topics (MT, MTPE, style guides, terminology, working with agencies and LSPs)
• video game localisation

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BA Thesis English Language and Culture

Admission requirements.

You write your bachelor’s thesis in the last semester of your degree programme. You must have completed at least the first two years of the programme. For full-time students, this means that you must already have earned approx. 150 EC (or will do so in the near future). For part-time students this means approx. 160 EC. Following the thesis seminar is obligatory.

Description

You conclude the bachelor’s programme by writing a thesis. Once your thesis has been approved, you will receive a mark. If you wish to have an evaluation meeting with your supervisor, you can request one. The thesis is worth 10 ECTS and must be between approx. 7,500 and a maximum of 10,000 words in length, including footnotes, bibliography and appendix.

**For tips and a more detailed description of the procedure, see the website .

Course objectives

To be determined in consultation with the supervisor, according to the Course and Examination Regulations (OER). See the website website .

The timetables are available through My Timetable .

Mode of instruction

Obligatory Library instruction, thesis seminar and independent research. You can also use this digital module from Leiden University Libraries at the start of your thesis .

Assessment method

Independently written bachelor’s thesis.

The thesis will be assessed on at least the following aspects: a. an adequate formulation and application of the research question; b. an adequate critical analysis of secondary literature; c. an adequate critical analysis of source material; d. use of language, structure and design of the thesis.

The thesis counts for 100% of the mark.

If your bachelor’s thesis does not demonstrate the learning outcomes, you can resit it once. You must submit the revised version before the end of the first month of the following semester. For more information, see the website .

Discussion of thesis

At student’s request.

Reading list

In consultation with supervisor.

Registration

The thesis request form and plagiarism statement are available from the Education Administration Office or through the website .

For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.

For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Student administration Arsenaal