A List Of Brilliant Research Paper Topic Ideas In Literature

If you’re given a research paper assignment in literature, you may feel confused because the topics are broad in subject matter. You can write about one of the central themes of a chosen literary work such as love, passion, death, friendship, war, peace, and etc. It’s also a good idea to analyze a particular character or the setting described by the writer. You need to pick something, in which the specificity of the subject becomes clear, so take your time.

How to Come Up with a Good Research Paper Topic

• Brainstorm for ideas with your friends.
• Pick an idea that will enable you to read and understand the literature.
• Make sure that you can research the topic within a given time.
• Check whether the supporting material is available in the school’s library.
• Stay flexible and be ready to change the focus if this makes sense.
• Formulate your topic in the form of a “Why?” or “How?” question.
• Build a meaningful thesis statement on a chosen idea.

What Literary Topics Are Worth Writing About

1. Aging in literature.

Compare stories about aging described in different novels or focus on literature that promotes positive attitudes toward aging.

2. Love and happy ending.

Analyze why many authors exhibit love in an unrealistic manner and how it can make a perfect world, according to their opinions.

3. The topic of apocalypses.

Contrast how authors portrayed the end of the world in different time periods and what happened after apocalypses took place.

4. Black humor.

Describe the elements of black humor in the works of Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, or Joseph Heller.

5. Last words and death.

Study the variations of last words and answer the question why such differences have occurred.

6. Politics and ideology.

Discuss how political movements have influenced American poetry in the middle of the 20th century.

7. Animals in literature.

Examine the semiotics of literary cats and pick interesting examples of a cat friend, devil, demon, or other supernatural creatures.

8. The use of imagination.

Write about the techniques Shakespeare used to express his imagination in the poems and pick evidence from the texts.

9. Traveling and discovering.

Identify the similarities and differences between travel guides and travel literature. Do you agree that the latter sometimes overlaps with essay writing?

10. Good and evil in children’s books.

Think of how classic stories can awaken a child’s moral imagination and help him or her make a right choice in different real-life situations.