The Madness Begins...Lit X

And so it starts...the adventure of writing a Lit X paper. I must admit that I've heard some contridicting opinions about this assignment from students past, yet I think the concept of devleoping my own thesis based on books I've read is an intriguing one. With my first draft due on Friday, I've decided to do this in steps begining with my intorduction.

My Invented Steps (Part 1)
1.) What proof do I have that this hasn't been answered before? What question am I exploring? Oh and umm What exactly is my topic anyway?

I wanted to do my paper on female authors exploring how they are different and alike than their male counterparts. To begin with I'll just do a free write to get my ideas flowing (essentially just bullet points)

-women haven't had roles outside the home for very long
-men given more schooling in past centuries
-European/Western focus for my paper (I don't know enough about Eastern cultures or Native American cultures to generalize that way I am above)
-Why don't women have counterparts to the famous males of different time periods?
-Do men write differently than women? Why?
-Do wome nwrite differently than men? Why?


2.) What books have I read in the past that support my topic?
I have so many favorite female authors, I'm not sure where to begin! Alice Sebold, JK Rowling, Phillipa Gregory, Judy Blume, Ann Patchett, Iris Johansen, Sylvia Plathe, Virginia Wolfe...etc. I could use any of their books, but I think it would be best to use "iconis" authors, like household names. JK Rowlings is known by large masses of the world, Virginia Wolfe has written many famous novels and Jane Austen just had a movie made about her life.

3.) What book did I just read that supports this thesis?
I just read "The Virgin's Lover" by Phillipa Gregory, and although not a critically acclaimed book I found it be be very interseting. In terms of my topic, it looks heavily into the development of a male character by a female which I find to be something I could definatly explore further.
4.) What do I need to limit? How do I limit?
I think I'm going to focus on British female authors, because I can look to past and present and compare the two time periods and how the female author role has changed in that time.
5.) Rough draft of my indroduction.

If men and women are created equal, then shouldn’t there be a female counterpart for every famous man, one with equal talents and brilliance to offer the world? History should house a female Shakespeare and a lady Locke, shouldn’t it? Although history books mention a few women here and there, the sad fact of our world is that women were not given equal chance to develop intellectually and share their ideas until just a few centuries ago. For this reason, the list of infamous male authors and storytellers quadruples the short list of notable female writers. In the United States, the SAT’s were recently revised to allow females a chance to score higher based on the widely agreed upon theory that women are better at writing than men. We know why there are fewer women in the history of literature than men, but a more intriguing question for the world is how do men and women differ through writing? Are men more violent than women? Are women more apt to write about love, loss and family? Can men write realistic female characters, can women write realistic male characters?