Last Updated on September 2, 2023
PhD Topics in English Literature: Unveiling New HorizonsEnglish literature, spanning across centuries, holds an unparalleled charm and continues to captivate scholars and literary enthusiasts alike. As an evolving discipline, the study of English literature constantly presents new avenues of rich exploration. For aspiring scholars seeking to embark on a doctoral journey, the wide range of potential PhD topics in English literature offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to the field. This article aims to shed light on some of the fascinating areas of research within the realm of English literature, thereby inspiring potential PhD candidates.
1. Postcolonial Literature and Resistance:
Exploring postcolonial literature presents an opportunity to analyze texts that emerged from the era of colonialism and imperialism. PhD candidates can delve into the profound resistance portrayed by authors from formerly colonized nations,
PhD in English Literature is the ultimate opportunity for the students to train themselves and get equipped with research skills to become potential researchers. The criterion for obtaining the degree is that their thesis must represent a real contribution to the existing knowledge by conducting a significant research. The discipline supports students to develop research projects in their choice of period, author, or book of English Literature. The research can be conducted on Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romantic, or the 19th and 20th centuries along with its literary critical analysis. It may involve interdisciplinary projects across the School of literature, languages, and cultures.
The key to successful research lies in asking a valid and valuable research topic which can sufficiently explore the particular area. To come up with a viable topic, intellectual preoccupation, curiosity and exploration like reading, thinking, discussing makes up the preliminary research. We, at Thesis India, have formed a team of research consultants to help you do the same. Our research experts are specialized in English Literature and helped over 3400 students in generating well-defined PhD research topics. They have provided PhD topics in English Literature to exemplify the quality of our topic selection service.
Sample PhD topics in English Literature:
- The role of African literary responses to Racism: an examination of the works of Maya Angelou
- Exclusion and Silence: variables in the post 9/11 South Asian fiction
- Illustrations of masculinity: A comparative study between pre-independence and post-independence Indian novels
- Talking points: Surrealism in Arun Kolatkar’s poetry
- Between tradition and modernity: Through the lens of Tagore’s Gora
2020
Philip Derbesy (PhD)
Reading Cinematic Allusions in the Post-1945 American Novel
(Marling [dir.], Flint, Spadoni, Goldmark [Music])
Daniel Luttrull (PhD)
Solidarity through Vacancy: Didactic Strategies in Nineteenth-Century American Literature
(Clune [dir.], Stonum, Vrettos)
2019
Michael Chiappini (PhD)
Beyond Memorialization: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, and AIDS Literature
(Fountain [dir], Clune, Emmons
Thom Dawkins (PhD)Rejoice in Tribulations: The Afflictive Poetics of Early Modern Religious Poetry(Flint [dir], Vinter, Olbricht)
Melissa Pompili (PhD)Uncomfortable Subjects: Bioaffective Attachments, Aesthetic Remainders, and the Making of a Physician
(Emmons [dir], Fountain, Vinter)
Megan Weber (PhD)Patriarchal Tyrants and Female Bodies: Ekphrasis in Drama and the Novel in England, 1609-1798
(Flint [dir], Vinter, Fountain)
2018
Evan Chaloupka (PhD)
Cognitive Disability and Narrative
(Marling [dir.]; Emmons; Vrettos)
Megan Griffin (PhD)
Fictions of Sovereignty: Temporal Displacements of the Monarch in Shakespeare, Milton, and Behn
(Vinter [dir.]; Flint; Olbricht)
Michelle Lyons-McFarland (PhD)
Literary Objects in Eighteenth-Century British Literature
(Flint [dir.]; Siebenschuh; Vrettos)
Marcus Mitchell (PhD)
Forms Unconfined: Muscular Women, Physical Culture, and Victorian Literature
(Vrettos [dir.]; Flint; Koenigsberger)
2017Ray Horton (PhD)
American Literature’s Secular Faith
(Clune [dir.], Gridley, Marling)
Jessica Slentz (PhD)
Yes, You May Touch the Art: New Media Interfaces and Rhetorical Experience in the Digitally Interactive Museum
(Fountain [dir.], Emmons, Koenigsberger)
