English EE RQ doubts

[Darta Jenn Bush]

Hello, survivors!

I've been thinking about my EE, which I am writing in my English : language and literature SL subject. I have now decided to base it on M.Mitchell's novel "Gone with the wind" for various reasons. I've talked it through with my mother, who is a well known philologist and knows the novel by heart, and we basically have verbally planned out my whole EE. I am about the send the proposal of the idea and argumentations to my supervisor, but I am struggling with wording my research question, so I thought that maybe you could see what I've come up with and help with the wording as English is not my first language.

Right now I have this : After general literary principles what category of quality and to what extent can M.Mitchell's novel "Gone with the wind" be added to?

The idea is proving that her novel is a high quality phenomena instead of just being a cheap best seller.

Also, is there a word in English to name the quality of e.g. Twilight saga? (words I can use in IB essay, I doubt that **** book will do)

p.s. yes, I've read the EE guide, the content is not the problem, just the research question is what I'm struggling with.

Thanks in advance:)

Edited July 23, 2013 by Darta Jenn Bush

[Darta Jenn Bush]

anyone please?

[Arrowhead]

Maybe: Based on general literary principles, to what extent is [book] of great literary merit as opposed to being pulp fiction of its time?

[Infested]

You're bordering on a TOK discussion with what defines the greatness of a literary piece, something like this is extremely subjective as people have differing responses to the same piece of text, and it'll be difficult to perform adequate research on the literary work and distinguish literary merit from commercial success. I strongly suggest you stick more to a more literature-based comparison/analysis for your EE.

[Darta Jenn Bush]

You're bordering on a TOK discussion with what defines the greatness of a literary piece, something like this is extremely subjective as people have differing responses to the same piece of text, and it'll be difficult to perform adequate research on the literary work and distinguish literary merit from commercial success. I strongly suggest you stick more to a more literature-based comparison/analysis for your EE.

nononono, you got my idea completely wrong. My work is going to be strictly based on literary analysis, but I want to put the emphasis on proving with argumentation and used literary devices that the work holds the qualities of a great literary merit. It is difficult for me to explain, but the essay will have almost nothing to do with TOK.

[Darta Jenn Bush]

Maybe: Based on general literary principles, to what extent is [book] of great literary merit as opposed to being pulp fiction of its time?

Thank you. I would have never put the words together so well. Just sent my supervisor the proposal, will see what she says.

[Infested]

A problem you're going to have to solve is the ambiguity as to how and what literary features contribute to literary merit, and it's likely that there may be trouble coming up with a convincing measure of literary excellence.