Literature

Examine artists who have taken successful careers from internet niches (E.L. James, Kris Straub, etc.) and how they pivoted from this success to a more mainstream kind of fame. E.L. James took a Twilight fanfiction and turned it into a successful novel trilogy with barely any edits. Kris Straub turned his Candle Cove creepypasta into a successful Syfy original series. What goes into the process of bringing the internet into line with traditional media?

Analyse the history and evolution of the Mills and Boon romance novels. How the content and cover art changed throughout the years.

Analyse how female protagonists are represented as the hero in YA novels. It could be interesting to include an examination of the extent by which these female protagonists rely on the male characters and how they differ from male protagonists depicted as the hero in other novels.
An interesting take on this topic could also include how these female characters reflect the women of today.

This is a topic that I constantly am grappling with as I have seen it done in good ways and have seen it done in very, very bad ways. How much insight can an older white man give about the black experience during the 1960s? Of course, it's easy to just recount history, but is there anything emotionally informative about this? How can a privileged white male know what it's like to be a minority? I personally feel like it's more intriguing to learn about experiences first hand. For example, I'm taking a discourses in disability class taught by a blind professor.

Though I’m French, most of the books I’ve read are foreign novels, and by foreign, I mean Americans (except for Harry Potter and a couple of other exception, but not that much), while the books I have to read for classes are French and especially French – or French-written – classics. It made me realize that I don’t really know classic books from other countries – I might have heard of them, but I’d never read them – while using American contemporary novels in my essays isn’t the best way to have a good grade! I was then wondering… quite a few things!

Pell-mell: How domestic and foreign literature is tackle elsewhere in Europe, elsewhere outside Europe, in the USA, in the UK, for instance? Are there contemporary foreign books – French books for instance – that are famous in the US, the UK, in Sweden, in Brazil, anywhere outside of its original country? What define “classic”? Does it depends on the country, or is Goethe’s concept of “Weltliteratur” (basically, global literature) real, widespread? To what extent time define whether a book is a “classic”? And, finally, any reading advice concerning foreign classics?

[I’m not quite fluent in English yet, so I hope it was understandable, and not too messy!]

When reading a feminist novel, or one based on that movement, if differentiates greatly between the gender of the author. Women, I find, speak more passionately about the subject, and are willing to stand up and ridicule the opposite sex with great meaning and intention. However, when a man is writing a book about feminism, it's through an entirely new set of eyes. He may or may not judge the patriarchy as harshly or express similar views, even though it's the same concept.

It's almost a cliche at this point that the central characters in any story are rarely the most interesting ones. More often than not they tend to be relatively bland, and the story grows out of their interactions with a cast of more interesting side characters. However, every so often a protagonist will end up being the most interesting character in their story. For instance, in Osamu Tezuka's "Buddha" manga, the Buddha is actually one of the more well-rounded and relatable characters, even given that the legends about him tend to paint him as an almost perfect, untouchable being. What are some other examples of this phenomenon, where the main protagonist really is the most interesting, or one of the most interesting, characters? What is it about them that makes them so interesting?

Explore the nature of personal identity in Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved.” This could include the nature of the character Beloved, notably in her relationships with other characters (most importantly Sethe) and her opaque origins. Additionally, the book can be examined for commentary on the dehumanizing effect of American slavery on African American identity, and how this effect lingers, thus making “Beloved” resonant.