The English Language from Shakespeare to Joyce - Term Paper suggestions

Here are some bibliographical references for a few possible topics for your paper, but you are enouraged to invent your own topics. Just let me know in advance what you want to write about. I will make suggestions and help you with bibliography. The language of Browne's Religio Medici is also a good topic. Last year, one student wrote a fine paper on Tristram Shandy, which isn't on our syllabus. Thoreau, Twain, Joyce? Feel free to find something of your own.

Samuel Johnson, his dictionary, and other writings. (Don't miss the Rambler essays...pick your own!)

Jack Lynch of Rutgers, Newark, has done the work for us. See his Johnson Page and Johnsonian Bibliography.

Reddick, Allen Hilliard, The Making of Johnson's Dictionary, 1746-1773, New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Daniel Defoe, Jane Austen, Patrick Hamilton, or Jean Rhys (or another novelist of your choice) and Colloquial Speech

Charles Dickens' dialogue and the imitation of common speech

A good approach would be to look through his essays for statements on the subject and to compare his work in an early and late novel, e.g. Pickwick Papers and Our Mutual Friend.

Harriet Beecher Stowe and the craze for Uncle Tom's Cabin

This novel was not only immensely popular in itself, but inspired countless stage treatments, and brought a kind of stylized Afro-American speech into American popular consciousness. Some of the stagings were recorded and can be heard on the Library of Congress Site. Here's the place to start.

Prose is for patriots. American essays

You could also look through anthologies of articles from Harper's Magazine, or the Atlantic for two or three American essays of verious epochs to discuss.

Spoken Word

Or check into other recorded material on the Library of Congress site. The British Library has one as well.

History in English Words Redux

Owen Barfield's History in English Words is about eighty years old. I think it would require at least two, probably three chapters to bring it up to date, including a reflection on Barfield's generation (Bloomsbury, the Inklings, Radicals, et. al.). Write one for him.

Remember, these are only suggestions. Good luck!