TCTC Library
Non-American Authors Project
Choosing a Literary Work to Study
Some thoughts 
from Norman:
I’ve worked with hundreds of students on the Non-American Authors Project over the last several years, and so, on the basis of that experience, I’d like to offer some (very personal) suggestions and considerations as you go through the process of choosing a literary work to study. You will be spending LOTS of time with whatever book you choose. It’s critically important, therefore, that you select a book that you will find interesting and that you can relate to. The more involved you are able to become with your book, the more likely you will produce a high-quality paper.
Making a good choice may take a little time and effort. Better, however, to make an investment up front than to have a bad experience later on. You want to find a book that is right for you, one that you’ll enjoy reading and that you’ll be able to research and write about without too much difficulty.
What follows are my personal thoughts only, based on my past work with students. You will want to make your final choice in close consultation with your instructor. He/she may have additional--even contrary--thoughts on the matter.
What NOT to do
We’ve all been warned not to judge a book by its cover. Likewise, for this project, you don’t want to judge a book by the number of its pages. While you may be attracted to a book because it’s short, that in itself does not mean you’ll find the book interesting--or that it will be easy to write about. In fact, some of the shortest books on your list may be the most difficult to analyze and research; so what seems like a short-term advantage may end up costing you (in time and stress) over the long run.
Pick a country or region
Think of a region or a country that you’d like to know more about. Say you are interested in Africa. From your list of suggested authors/titles, select at random an author from an African country--Chinua Achebe, for example, who is from Nigeria. Now do an AUTHOR search on him in the Library Catalog and get the call number for one of his books. When you find the Achebe section in the stacks, you’ll notice that all of the Nigerian authors are shelved together, and that the Kenyan authors are shelved next to the Nigerian authors, and that the South African authors are shelved next to the Kenyan authors, and so on. That is, all of the African authors, from whatever country, will be shelved together in one section of the library.
This makes for easy browsing. As you move along the shelves, you should recognize some authors from your list. Now start picking candidate titles from the shelf. Read the descriptions of the book, which are likely to be found on the back cover or inside the front cover; many of the books will even have a descriptive introduction by a scholar or editor. If the book looks interesting, read some sample pages, which should give you an indication as to whether this is a book you can relate to. Somewhere among all of the African authors you should be able to find at least a few books that you’d enjoy spending some time with.
In the same way that the books of all of the African authors are shelved together, so too will the books by Asian authors be shelved together, as will the romance language authors (French, Spanish, Italian), and so on.
Do a quick background check on your candidate authors/titles
Let’s say that you now have a group of candidate titles, either from your browsing in the stacks or through your past familiarity with some of the authors or titles on your list--or even a group of short books that you’ve managed to turn up! At this point, before you make your final decision, you might want to get a better sense of these individual works and their authors. We have a nice group of online sources that provide overviews of authors’ lives and literary works. These should be helpful as you go through the decision-making process. To see these, click here.
Additionally, we have a larger group of Author Surveys in print form (shelved in the Reference section of the Library). For a list of these, click here.
Check to see if there are some literary analyses of your book
Generally speaking, there are two kinds of research materials that you will want to draw upon in your paper. First, you’ll want to look at literary sources that in some way analyze the historical/cultural background of the work you choose to study. Second, you’ll want to find sources that provide background information on the country (and time period) in which your book is set.
As for the literary works, be aware that some of the books on your list have been written about extensively by the literary scholars, while others have been written about hardly at all (life is not always fair!). While the absence of literary analyses need not necessarily be a deal breaker, most people find their research path much easier if they choose a work that is represented by a nice selection of analyses and interpretations from the literary community. These are likely to help you put your book in some kind of historical and cultural context.
So before you make your final decision, my suggestion is that you do a quick search of your candidate titles in two of our most important databases: Literature Notebooks Online and Literature Resource Center. If your book has some representation in these databases, that’s probably a good sign that you’ll have an adequate group of literary analyses and interpretations to work with. To search for more literary analyses, click here.
Countries and time periods
In general, I think the research process goes more easily if you select a book with a setting that is specific and concrete. The time and place should be recognizable: Germany during the Holocaust, France during the French Revolution, Nigeria during British colonialism, South Africa during apartheid. Fantasies and imaginary settings don't work so well for this project.
Again, be aware that there will be much more written on some countries and time periods than others. That is, you're likely to find more information on late eighteenth-century France than late seventeenth-century Turkey. Books with contemporary settings should be relatively easy to work with, as we have a good range of sources covering present-day society in almost every country. For a view of some of our country sources, go to our special Countries/Cultures page.
A Group of Recommended Titles
Now, having gone through all of that, you might be interested in viewing a listing of books that would seem to be especially suited to this project. If so, follow the link below. Note that for each author and each title on the list, a link is provided that will bring up an overview essay that should help you in making your choice.
Click here for a listing of Recommended Titles.
So those are my thoughts. I hope they've been helpful. Best of luck with the project!
Norman
P.S. Be sure to keep in touch with your instructor!
Norman Hoyle
(nhoyle@tctc.edu)
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