Having given the subject of my thesis topic a great degree of thought over the Christmas holidays (a Master’s degree of thought if you will) I believe I finally have the seed of an idea that I may plant in the soil of my brain and water it with research to make the thesis flower bloom…yes this is the mediocre wordplay and analogy blog post.

In all seriousness the question I asked myself when I genuinely found myself at a loss as to what exactly I wanted to write about was simply this: “What am I interested in?” It is a simple enough query but one I would urge any future students on this or any other MA in Literature program to ask themselves if like me they find themselves, more than anything else spoiled for choice. This is as I have previously mentioned, most likely due to the fact that I completed my undergraduate degree as a BA (Single honors) in English, thus have studied a wide range of literary periods, movements and genres.  However, inspiration came once again from one of the special studies seminars I completed as part of my degree (I have said before that I consider them to have been one of the highlights of the 3 year course for me) specifically the seminar on 20th Century American Science Fiction which I took barely a year ago in my final semester of final year. Science fiction has long been one of my favorite genres of literature and film but it was never something I had considered studying, having the mindset of not wanting to mix texts read for pleasure in my own time with what I was analyzing critically as a scholar (I find myself being reminded of Mr Wemmick from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, my personal favorite of his works) However, as it happened I was drawn to the seminar in question for the wide range of interesting texts being studied and soon realized how fulfilling combining my interests could be.

For so long I have always been fascinated with books, films, series etc featuring time travel. As part of my seminar I presented on a 1960s serial from the long running series Doctor Who, which I felt related to the themes we had been covering and it was great to speak about a personal passion in an intellectual setting. All this came to mind during the holidays when I was considering what my thesis topic should be, how can I recreate the same passion with which I wrote that 7 minute long presentation for the 15000 word piece I must write this summer?

I have found the answer by reflecting on my past experiences and now I look to the future when the seed of this idea will bloom. Write about time travel in literature and film?

Why not?