Research MethodologyPlanning a Research Paper

Phases of Planning1) Choose the most appropriate expository pattern

2) Draw the rough outlineHypothesisFocal points of the chapters/sections (list of subtopics)

3) Draw the polished outline

4) Proceed to the draft

Building a Hypothesis – the AbstractJasper Fforde’s The Thursday Next Chronicles is a blatant example of the highly fascinating current literary-cultural phenomenon labelled retro-, neo- or post-Victorian fiction. As such, the series – started in 2001 and apparently never wanting to end – creates a fictional universe of its own, in which it is possible to enter the world of 19th century classics and change their events – notably their ending. What is more, the plot revolves mostly around literary crimes: literary detective Thursday Next fights against Goliath Corporation, which is involved not only in forging “lost” original works by great writers, but also in turning books into a disposable commodity. In the world of fiction, which has its own “police force” to detect such crimes, Next is apprenticed to Miss Havisham – a car-racing action heroine, a mentor and guide, who teaches and protects her throughout two volumes. Fforde’s rewrite of the leading character in the Gothic plot line of Great Expectations is, typically for post-Victorian fiction, double-edged. On the one hand, his series, feeding on Victorian fiction, introducing remarkably creative changes to the “original” text, and thereby posing as the creator of the actual original novel – the version included in the canon – participates in the deconstruction of the very concept of Victorian fiction and the concomitant washing away of boundaries between high and popular culture. On the other hand, Fforde seems to turn to Victorian fiction with a nostalgic gesture: it features both as a valuable heritage to be protected and as an embodiment of (high?) culture that provides the means of its own protection.

Building the Structure – the Rough OutlineI. post-Victorian fiction – definition, the Chronicles as post-Victorian fiction

1) intertextuality, deconstruction, nostalgia, cultural memory

2) concern with audiences, concern with literature as a self-regulating system, involving a healthy amount of entropy which should be controlled

II. Steampunk – defininition, Thursday Next Chronicles as steampunk or bordering on steampunk

1) manoeuvring with time – anachronisms, parallel worlds – alternative history and BookWorlds

2) fascination with technology and tinkering – the production of books as a process that is carried out by intricate mechanical processes and human intervention, a world that is creating and recreating itself moment by moment

3) nostalgia towards the Victorian past as a cultural and literary period – 1884 the last original idea – recycling and rewrites, heavy load of metafiction, popular postmodernism

4) detective story: the self-defence mechanism of literature itself against complete mechanisation, elimination of human intervention, turning literature into a commodity (thrice read rule, UltraWorldTM)

III. Miss Havisham – only one of the BookWorld characters, but the most significant and elaborate one

1) deconstruction – positioning Miss Havisham as the central character of Great Expectations, replacing the paternal, male-dominated narrative with a conspicuously militant, feminist one – she still cannot be the good mother, the figure of Granny Next

2) nostalgia – Miss Havisham associated with fixation, with the stopping of time – remembering and repetition as the same – she clearly is not the same – Granny is associated with remembering as a key to the preservation of identity

The Polished OutlineHypothesisChapter thesis statementsTopic sentencesRelevant data (statistics, examples, information from

secondary sourcesChecking for hierarchy and coherence – parallel structure

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