ABSTRACT
When choosing your essay topic, there is only one rule. You should find an aspect of your subject in which you are keenly interested and write about that. Obviously you should not write about an Elizabethan author if you are taking a module on Victorian literature, or choose topics for a set of exam essays which will suggest to the examiners that you have read only one short novel and a handful of poems in the course of the term or semester; but, within the bounds of ordinary common sense, it should be your own interests which dictate what you write about. This does not mean choosing the easiest topic, or one you have already covered at A-level. On the contrary, it means developing a personal and imaginative response to the literature you read, being prepared to tackle large and difficult questions even if they sometimes defeat you, taking an original approach rather than a safe and conventional one. Anything which you write with real interest and enjoyment is likely to communicate that interest and enjoyment to the reader. The stock topic which bores you will bore your reader too.
