1. Advanced Higher English
Introduction to Dissertation

2. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
What is it?
An independent study of literature
Often of two or three texts (if prose/drama)...
..but can be a single text, if substantial
...or a representative selection of texts (if poetry or short stories)
2500 to 3000 words in length
Submitted by 10th March

3. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
What should it contain?
An appropriate topic agreed between mentor and student
A clear line of argument stemming from the topic and focusing on key literary techniques
Detailed analysis of those techniques

4. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
What should it contain?
Clear comparisons between the techniques/styles employed across the different texts or detailed analysis of techniques used in a single text
Some reference to secondary sources (either to reinforce your point or to offer an opinion for you to explore and challenge)

5. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
Text Choice
Consider any texts you have read recently (you cannot use texts which you have been taught)
Consider the literary eras/movements to which you have been introduced
Spend time in the library browsing suggested texts or websites

6. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
Text Choice
Consider whether you are going to study a single text, more than one text by the same writer or texts which can be thematically linked in some way

7. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
Thematically Linked
‘A Clockwork Orange’ (Burgess) and ‘The Wasp Factory’ (Banks) – society’s response to a disturbed protagonist
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (Remarque) and ‘The Kite Runner’ (Hosseini) – the impact of war/conflict on the protagonist
‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ (Wilde) and ‘Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde’ (Stevenson) - portrayal of the divided self via characterisation and theme

8. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
Linked by the same author
‘The Remains of the Day’ and ‘Never Let Me Go’ (Ishiguro)
‘The Woman Who Walked Into Doors’ and ‘Paddy Clark, Ha Ha Ha’ (Doyle)
‘Metamorphosis and other stories’ (Kafka) – short stories
‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ and ‘The Glass Menagerie’ (Williams) - drama

9. Advanced Higher English Dissertation
Challenging single texts
‘The Waste Land’ (TS Eliot) – poetry
‘Shakespeare’s Sonnets’ – poetry
‘Orlando’ (Woolf) – prose
‘Ulysses’ (Joyce) – prose
‘Lanark’ (Gray) - prose
‘Angels in America’ (Kushner) – drama
‘The Oresteia’ (Aeschylus) – drama

10. Texts to consider avoiding(?)
Catcher in the Rye
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
1984
Brave New World
A Clockwork Orange
Trainspotting
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
Fahrenheit 451