Literary Afterlives: Chosing an author for senior essay

liquidlogan

Hello everyone,

I need your help.

Starting in July, I will begin the process of reading through the canonical works of an important literary figure who died before 1880 for the purpose of a senior essay. I quote the course description:

Each member of the seminar will start by choosing a writer who died before 1880 (it could be long before 1880); will spend the year charting the reception and reputation of that writer, concentrating on the period from 1800 to 2000; and will produce an original piece of scholarship as a final essay.

Also keep in mind that authors can neither be over documented or underdocumented. So as much as I'd love to do Shakespeare, he's not an option. Neither is obscure author #451 that nobody but you and your mum have heard of. Of important note is that in addition to reading the works of the authors, a key component to success in this class is engaging in academic research. And that means that most likely authors who are brought to English by translation will most likely be out of the question since English is the only language I can comfortably use in an academic scenario.

Let me tell you a little bit about my literary studies and interests in literature. First and foremost, I have spent most of my academic career studying the English early modern dramatists up until 1642. With some of the playwrights, Shakespeare namely, I have read many plays attributed to him. I have also read, to give you a smattering of the authors, John Webster, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Middleton, Beaumont and Fletcher, John Marston, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd, John Lyly, Ben Jonson, John Ford and others. I am fairly well versed in the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres and their conventions.

That being said, though I feel my focus on literature has been on the stage with Shakespeare, the nature of my English major has allowed me to take courses which have introduced me to other authors which I feel comfortable with tackling. On top of that, I am happy to extend my knowledge of other literary periods and, by virtue of the fact that I need to read the vast majority of the works of any author and do research on them to begin with, you learn new things no matter what. I don't bite my thumb at any authors, so I'm open to suggestions.

A couple of notes to be strategic about what I am going to read. Of the play, the novel, the short story and the poem, I am the least enthusiastic about reading the entire catalogue of poems for practical reasons--I am taking other courses in addition to this, and would prefer longer texts which I can easily differentiate between than, say, a catalogue of over a hundred poems. Poets are welcome as suggestions, and indeed I enjoy quite a few poets that I have listed below, but in all likelihood I'd rather opt for someone else.

So, I've compiled a list of some of the authors. Here it is. Feel free to add, make comments or suggestions, or otherwise hits and tips. I'm going to narrow the list over time but right now I'm just trying to make sure I didn't miss any one.

- Christopher Marlowe
- Thomas Kyd
- Jane Austen
- Lewis Carroll
- George Eliot
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- William Congreve
- William Thackery
- Colley Cibber (mostly because I'm intersted in his association with Shakespeare)
- John Milton
- Thomas Dekker
- Anthony Trollope
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Charles Dickins
- Mary Shelley
- John Keats
- Thomas Gray
- Jonathan Swift
- Alexander Pope
- Daniel Dafoe
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Samuel Richardson

Thanks guys.

No TL;DR. This is my academic future which is very important to me. I don't want you trying to help me if you couldn't take the time to read. Sorry.

Trowizilla

Hm, a lot of authors on your list are fairly well documented. Austen, Dickens, Poe, Chaucer... they're all one step below Shakespeare as far as the sheer volume of academia devoted to them goes. Many of the others have the same problem. If you like and are comfortable with plays, pick a playwright and get your professor to vet your choice.

Quoth

I'd cut the list down to:

- Thomas Kyd
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- William Congreve
- William Thackery
- Colley Cibber (mostly because I'm intersted in his association with Shakespeare)
- Thomas Dekker
- Anthony Trollope
- Mary Shelley
- Thomas Gray
- Daniel Dafoe
- Samuel Richardson


Any of those would be fine, although Shelley borders on overdone in my opinion.

LoveIsUnity

I'm currently doing a graduate degree in English, so I can, hopefully, be of some assistance. Your primary interest (early modern) is completely outside my specialty. I concentrate primarily on literary theory and dabble a bit in 19th century English lit.

You may be interested in, in addition to George Eliot, some of the other prominent female authors of the Victorian period. The Bronte sisters, Anne in particular, aren't terribly over documented, although a lot has been done on Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre if you were to choose Emily or Charlotte. Most of their other works have been forgotten aside from, possibly, Villette by Charlotte. Aside from a short collection of poetry, the Brontes wrote novels almost exclusively.

Most of the Romantics that you mentioned have been done to death, and the Romantic period relies heavily on poetry anyway, which you said you didn't want to do. A 19th C. literary critic you may be interested in is William Hazlitt. He wrote a lot of essays and criticism, if you need fiction he won't work.

Finally, Thomas DeQuincey, author of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, is a prominent figure (particularly in terms of the medical atmosphere of Victorian England) and fits in to your time period. He has not been over researched.

liquidlogan

I've actually considered that if I were to choose somebody who primarily wrote novels, I would most likely choose somebody from the Victorian period (I was actually thinking of the Brontes, I'm not sure why I didn't list a single one) or a contemporary of Austen.

Of the latter group, which I'm not sure how much is written but I'm sure you could help me, I think Charlotte Lennox, or Ann Radcliffe are up for consideration.

Daphne du Maurier also seems to have a nice mix between plays and novels.

And boy that is a lot of female authors I chose subconsciously. Maybe my mind is trying to tell me something......

LoveIsUnity

Lennox is a little before my time period, but she probably wouldn't be a bad choice. If you have access to some of the larger databases, do a search on JSTOR, LION, or MLA Biblio to see what's been written and how she's currently being studied (if she is).

Radlicffe isn't taken very seriously by most academics, but she was a formative gothic novelist. As a result, she would probably be an excellent choice, particularly since you're supposed to write on the reception and reputation of the author.

Trowizilla

Radcliffe is enjoying a bit of a renaissance, so you might be able to find some good, current criticism on her.