Learning Journal #20 (3/2)

Over the past few days, I've been trying to think of ways to make my topic even more narrow in scope so that it will be not only more manageable, but more specific. I want it to be more specific, because the narrower I make my topic, the deeper I can dig. Otherwise, I'll just be digging a really wide and shallow research pit, and nobody wants that. I haven't decided exactly how I want to do this yet, but I've had a couple of ideas come into my head:

• Focus only on the writings of a few specific authors—possibly the Sidneys, John Donne, Margaret Cavendish, or Alexander Pope
• Restrict myself to writings produced during a specific decade (or a few decades)
• Focus on the similarities and differences between literary and official Church responses—essentially a more theological approach
• Focus on one genre—prose, poetry, or drama (I'd probably choose poetry)
• Some combination of these, such as how Alexander Pope's literary response to the Copernican Revolution differed from the responses of the scientific and religious communities

The only trouble with these ideas is that, so far, I don't like them much at all, either because they just don't appeal to me, or because they feel too narrow (and make it difficult to incorporate actually being in London into it), or some other reason. If I'm going to dedicate three months of my life to studying one particular topic, it'd be nicer if I mostly like it and that it also takes advantage of being in London. This will be something I'll be trying to work out over the next few weeks.