Finding a Research Topic

Here is a fun way to find creative, narrow research topics.

1) Brainstorm a list of things you enjoy or that are a regular part of your life.

examples: hobbies, things you did last weekend, a favorite tv show, a personal challenge

2) Use Google to search for ways your list intersects with the assigned topic.

A real example from one of my students: Let's say you've included an interest in ghosts and the supernatural. You have been assigned to do a research project on the Age of Exploration. You wonder if there might be some ghost stories associated with the Aztecs. You do a Google search and find there is a story of Aztec ghosts guarded treasure that the Aztec emperor hid away in the bottom of a lake in Utah in order to hide it from European conquistadors. Cool--right?

Beowulf Questions for Exploration

Whereas Beowulf’s culture was centered on violence, our culture seems to be at peace. Is violence less a part of our culture, or does the violence simply manifest itself in different ways?

Does Beowulf tell the truth about violence? Does it glorify violence?

The men of Beowulf coped with violence in various ways—women, drink, storytelling, belief in fate. How does our society cope with violence and fear? What is the emotional impact of violence?

What is the role of women in Beowulf’s society? Are the women as powerless as they appear? Why is one of the three monsters a woman?

What do the monsters of a culture reveal about what that culture fears? What does Grendel represent? His mother?

Hrothgar's warriors are identified as "Spear-Danes" and Beowulf is known as Beowulf, son of Ecgtheow. Their identities seem to be tied up with their way of life and their ancestry. What is so central to your life that you could hyphenate your name to identify yourself? Do we still identify ourselves by our families, or is there something more important to our society?

What is the difference between how Norsemen defined "good" and how modern Western culture defines it? What is the difference, if any, in how we identify a good leader?

Beowulf Background

Here are some places to go for further information about Beowulf:

Video on Norse mythology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIwvYuL2PMA

Help for reading Beowulf http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/beowulf/

Audio recordings of Beowulf read in Old English http://faculty.virginia.edu/OldEnglish/Beowulf.Readings/Grendel.html

One of the most important archaelogical sites for Anglo-Saxon culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo

Article about a facinating recent discovery of Anglo-Saxon treasure http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/sep/24/anglo-saxon-treasure-hoard-gold-staffordshire-metal-detector

On the influence of Beowulf on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/668917/the_influence_of_old_english_literature.html?cat=37

Why I Read Literature

“The man who is contented to be only himself, and therefore less a self, is in prison. My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others. Reality, even seen through the eyes of many, is not enough. I will see what others have invented. Even the eyes of all humanity are not enough. I regret that the brutes cannot write books. Very gladly would I learn what face things present to a mouse or a bee; more gladly still would I perceive the olfactory world charged with all the information and emotion it carries for a dog. Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality. There are mass emotions which heal the wound; but they destroy the privilege. In them our separate selves are pooled and we sink back into sub-individuality. But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do."

C.S. Lewis