It's a Literary "Where's Waldo"

[ordinaryfool]

To my literary-minded friends: If you were to study/write a paper or papers on any "major author" (which seems quite open to interpretation in the opinions of my professors) besides Shakespeare, who would you choose

Comments

[ladynorbert]

I'd go for Jane Austen, simply because Pride and Prejudice is probably my favorite book ever.

Barring her, I'd probably pick J. K. Rowling.

[ordinaryfool]

This probably means I'm the worst English major ever (so don't tell anybody! lol) but I have yet to read any of Jane Austen's work. She's definitely been on my "to read" list forever, and I own several of her novels, but for whatever reason I just haven't gotten around to reading them, and I've made it to my last semester of college without ever being in a class that has included her. Sad, but true. So I suppose I could use this project as a way to finally read Austen :)

[ladynorbert]

Don't feel too bad! I was an English major too, and I didn't read my first Austen novel until about eight years after I graduated. Not a single English class I ever took in high school OR college ever talked about her at all! The number one reason I decided to read her at last? Ms. Rowling said she's her favorite author of all time and she finds her "utterly un-put-downable." That was a good enough recommendation for me! And I have to agree, I find her un-put-downable too.

[ordinaryfool]

Okay, that does make me feel better :) I'm surprised, though, that while so many people love Austen, she seems to be easily ignored, because now that I think about it, besides never being in a high school or college class that assigned any of her work, I don't think I remember her coming up much in discussions, either. Definitely not in high school, anyway. "Utterly un-put-downable" does sound intriguing, though, so I'm going to make sure I start reading some Austen sooner rather than later!

[keeperofthekeys]

I'd at least go for someone non-male/non-white. I wish I could make suggestions, but sadly I do not have any suggestions.

Except maybe Nora Roberts. You could do an entire thesis on woman's erotica industry (primarily novels) vs men's (pr0n) and how that reflects on societal views of human sexuality.

That might be kinda ballsy though.

[ordinaryfool]

I totally love that idea though. This past semester I took a Gender and Communication course (which wasn't nearly as good as I was hoping - and I realized how dumb many Communications majors are - but I digress) and for my final project I chose to look at the types of books men and women read, primarily looking at romance novels/chick lit. I ended up arguing that chick lit in particular is not only forcing a lot of gender stereotyping on its readers and especially making women feel they need to be in relationships (and heterosexual ones, at that), but that the genre is also part of why women writers find it more difficult to find critical success. I actually really enjoyed working on it...even if it turned out I was an overachiever and my paper was at least twice as long as everyone else's :P But making the jump to erotica would be really interesting, and I bet my advisor for my minor (who happens to be English faculty) would totally go for it. I'll have to give this some thought now :)

[ydelegato]

Personally, I'd probably go for Hemingway or Douglas Coupland... although it's iffy as to whether or not the latter counts as a "major" author.

But Austen's not a bad choice, either - enough novels (six) to write about, but a compact-enough body of work that you don't have to read everything under the sun. Only downside? She's a very common choice, I'm sure.

T.S. Eliot would be good, too. Some other good writers from (roughly) that era: Evelyn Waugh, Thornton Wilder, Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde. (How alliterative!)

If you want to do multiple authors, I was just reading about the "great letter writers": George Bernard Shaw, GK Chesterton, Hilaire Belloc, and HG Wells

[ordinaryfool]

I had a feeling I could count on you to suggest Coupland :) And I think one could make an argument that he's a major contemporary author. I hadn't considered Hemingway, though, and he'd be a good choice as well. I like all your suggestions, actually (and the alliteration!), and I'll have to look up the "great letter writers," because that sounds really interesting.

[whatparanoia]

i know nothing abotu this sort of thing. my opinion is: do it about a lady writer. idk who, but make sure it's a woman!

YEAH *pompoms*