AP English 12 / Ms. Cecelia Research Topic List

Students must select two works and create a literary link between those works. The link may be thematic or stylistic. The USCHS Library contains critical research on all of the works of literature on this list. This list is certainly not exhaustive, and if students want to create a link between any other works of literature, they are encouraged to present their ideas to the teacher for approval. This is the updated version of this list for the 2009-2010 school year. Some general guidelines for selecting a research topic follow:

 Choose works of literary merit.  Choose works with a valid connection (thematic or stylistic) for comparison and contrast.

1. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe

2. Paradise Lost – John Milton and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe

3. Paradise Lost – John Milton and Macbeth – William Shakespeare

4. Macbeth – William Shakespeare and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe

5. Paradise Lost – John Milton and Samson Agonistes - John Milton

6. Hamlet – William Shakespeare and The Spanish Tragedy – Thomas Kyd

7. The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde and She Stoops to Conquer – Oliver Goldsmith

8. The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde and The Way of the World – William Congreve

9. She Stoops to Conquer – Oliver Goldsmith and The Way of the World – William Congreve

10. Six Characters in Search of an Author – Luigi Pirandello and Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett

11. Six Characters in Search of an Author – Luigi Pirandello and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – Tom Stoppard

12. Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – Tom Stoppard

13. The Playboy of the Western World – J.M. Synge and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee

14. A Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee

15. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe and Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

16. Siddhartha – Herman Hesse and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

17. Brave New World – Adolus Huxley and Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

18. Slaughterhouse House Five – Kurt Vonnegut and Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

19. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe and Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

20. Ceremony – Leslie Silko and Solar Storms – Linda Hogan

21. A Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen and The Awakening – Kate Chopin TURN THE PAGE OVER NOW. 22. Paradise Lost – John Milton and Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

23. The Awakening – Kate Chopin and Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

24. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert and A Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen

25. Ceremony – Leslie Silko and Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

26. Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys and Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

27. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert and Hedda Gabler – Henrik Ibsen

28. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee and Look Back in Anger – John Osborne

29. Look Back in Anger – John Osborne and Hamlet – William Shakespeare

30. The Color Purple – Alice Walker and Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neal Hurston

33. Wide Sargasso Sea –Jean Rhys and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – Tom Stoppard

34. Our Town – Thornton Wilder and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

35. Oedipus the King – Sophocles and The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy

36. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte and Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys

37. The Color Purple – Alice Walker and Beloved – Toni Morrison

38. Solar Storms – Linda Hogan and Beloved – Toni Morrison

39. Oedipus the King – Sophocles and Macbeth – William Shakespeare

40. The Death of Ivan Ilych – Leo Tolstoy and The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka

41. Dubliners – James Joyce and The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka

42. Dubliners – James Joyce and The Death of Ivan Ilych – Leo Tolstoy

43. Brave New World – Adolus Huxley and 1984 – George Orwell

44. Oedipus the King –Sophocles and Hamlet – William Shakespeare

45. Hedda Gabler – Henrik Ibsen and Miss Julie – August Strindberg

46. Oedipus at Colonus – Sophocles and Samson Agonistes – John Milton

47. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte and Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

48. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte and Persuasion – Jane Austen

49. Persuasion – Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

50. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte and Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

51. The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer and Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift

52. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

53. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte and Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy