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Is There a Method/Methodology for Literary Research?

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Is there a Method/Methodology for Literary Research?

DR J. JOHN SEKAR, MA, MPhil, PGDTE (CIEFL), PGDHE (IGNOU), PGDCE (UH), PhD
Coordinator & Associate Professor
Research Centre in English
Dean, Curriculum Development & Research
The American College
MADURAI – 625 002
INDIA
jjohnsekar@gmail.com
Abstract
While English Studies as an academic discipline is roughly a century old within the Western
academia, research method/methodology in literary research is of a recent phenomenon. On
the other hand, research methods in ELT as a branch of applied linguistics are objective and
scientific as they are borrowed from social sciences. Research methods and methodologies in
English studies seem to be irrelevant within Indian academia though they can produce
paradigm-shifting, stunning results. The failure to employ them causes textual interpretations
either repetitive or subjective. Interpretation does not mean repetition of the text. The present
article argues that there are well-defined research methods and they are guided by
methodologies. Also, there is a need to nurture research culture and skills that must be
explicitly and compulsorily incorporated into research programmes. Training in research
skills and techniques is a key element in the development of a research student.
Keywords: literary research methods or methodologies, literary theories, research skills, oral
history, archival, discourse analysis, textual analysis, interviewing, ICT
Background of the Study
How one investigates might influence the research findings. Therefore, training in research
skills, research methods, and research methodologies is a key element in the development of
a research scholar. Literary research is no exception. At present, the quality of literary
research in India falls short of excellence and standards. It presents a summary of the texts
though it may have an attractive title. Most dissertations do not frame research questions at
all. Instead, it is either a collage of information on chosen texts collected from secondary
sources at random, or text-wise summary of primary sources of investigation. Research is
supposed to develop knowledge and promote inquisitiveness. Most research scholars are
under the impression that there is neither research method nor methodology for literary
research. They have no access to them even if there is any, except documentation style sheets
like MLA. In short, they have no idea as to what to do with texts other than positively
endorsing what is found in them. Many research supervisors assume that “in the end it is
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about reading, and about text.” They are inarticulate or non-articulate about how one should
go about in the process of searching and researching. Such a view presupposes the notion of
text-based research and textual analysis as the proper domain of English studies research.
Literary research is not just textual analysis. There are a wide range of methods that facilitate
researchers to think divergently about literary research.
Research questions
The following research questions were constructed for investigation:
1. How is literary research carried out?
2. What are research skills?
3. What is the difference between research method and methodology?
Hypothesis
The hypotheses framed for the present study are
1. Textual analysis is the only available method to research scholars.
2. Research methodology is seldom followed in literary research
Review of the literature
G. Thomas Tanselle (2002) provides details of extensive resources on introductory
readings, literature of textual criticism, reviews of scholarly editions, writings on editing pre-
renaissance texts, post-medieval texts, the use of computers in editing, and analytical
bibliography. Richard D Altick (1950/1987) affirms that literary research is dull and
laborious; by no means all scholars are professional teachers; there is a pleasant camaraderie
among scholars; literary scholars are made and not born; devotion to books is the primary
requisite of a scholar; the literary scholar must have a lively imagination in literature and the
scientist’s deep concern for exactness, objectivity, and thoroughness. Richard D Altick
(1963/1992) provides information about doing in-depth research when taking on the
challenge of assessing any text. It outlines the principles underlying the critical examination
of evidence and it describes the chief branches of literary enquiry. Gabriele Griffin (2005)
has a collection of methods for English studies that are both familiar and less commonly
explored, but significantly contribute to research in English Studies. Some of them include
textual analysis, auto/biographical methods, discourse analysis, interviewing, visual methods,
archival methods, oral history, creative writing as a research method and research using ICT.
Research Design and Results
Two methods were employed to collect background information to the present study.
The first is a questionnaire on a three-point Likert scale that was administered among
research scholars and PhD holders. The second is the structural study of PhD dissertations
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available at the Student Centre for Indian Literatures in English and Translation (SCILET),
the American College, Madurai.
The total number of respondents was 50 but return rate was 50% (25). The response to
the open-ended questions is almost nil or misleading compared to their categorical response
to items 3, 7, 8, and 9 which is encouraging and redemptive. Though 72% of the respondents
deny that doing research in literature is all about reading texts, all most all theses kept in the
library are texts-based. 76% affirm that there are research methods for literary research and
88% think that types of literary research are determinants of research methods, practically
none of them are able to identify five methods in the open-ended question. Ironically, 44% of
them say that books on research skills are not readily available. 80% think that literature
review is an integral component, a vast majority of them have not included in their
dissertations. Again, only 56% vouch for the research skills being taught as part of the
methodology course. 92% agree that perspectives matter but they are unable to spell them out
in the second open-ended question. Very interestingly, 92% believe that research skills need
to be grasped and not taught and learnt explicitly.
While examining the structure of the MPhil and PhD dissertations available at the
library of PG & Research Department and SCILET, three facts were discerned: i) a vast
majority of them have neither research questions nor review of the literature section; ii) all of
them have followed the textual analysis as research method; and iii) many of them failed to
reflect methodological perspectives for interpretation of texts.
Discussion
To understand research, one must conduct it. To conduct research in English Studies,
one needs skills, methods and methodologies. Every college and university teacher who
engages in teaching at master’s level ought to be a researcher since they deal with
postgraduates and scholars who are primarily seen as producers of knowledge. Therefore, not
doing research is nowadays unacceptable for academics. If someone is described as ‘not
research active,’ they stand isolated within the academia and their only redemptive activity is
to teach undergraduates. Research is not always an entirely voluntary activity for the
academics because they have the responsibility of producing knowledge and not simply
consuming it. Education and knowledge is central to the citizens of modern India and it
cannot depend on the modern West for epistemological sophistication.
Many teachers who are carrying out research part-time in English Studies resort to
thematic explanation of the chosen texts/authors. It is a prosaic re-writing of the critical
writings. Sometimes, it is peppered with critical/technical jargons borrowed from other
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disciplines. A critical structural and methodological analysis of the available PhD and MPhil
dissertations shows that most of them do not have the review of the literature section, have
not constructed research questions, and have not discussed scope for further research in the
areas. In a way, the accomplished scholars seem to be lacking research skills, methods, and
methodologies. They do not make any significant contribution to quality research that is
requisite for investment of knowledge capital and it is the dream of India to become a reality
by 2020.
Research skills are different from research methods. Research skills are techniques for
handling the material. They include search skills in libraries, editorial skills, bibliographic
skills, dissertation skills, IT skills, period-specific skills, and professional skills. Good library
and research skills can save a great deal of time when searching for relevant material.
Researchers need to possess Bibliographic skills in order to attribute, annotate, link, cross-
reference the various contents of their research to their originators. MLA Handbook provides
documentation skills. Editorial skills consist of a set of sub-skills: substantive or structural
editing, copy editing, stylistic editing, rewriting, proofreading, fact & reference checking, and
indexing.
Researching and writing a dissertation is a specific challenge that requires a
significant amount of advanced planning. Dissertation skills include framing research
questions to structuring the content: choosing the topic, developing research questions,
effective planning of the research, undertaking a literature survey, collecting data, and
reporting the research. Computers have enabled literary research in a big way and they
promote quality research as well. ICT skills include basic knowledge of computers,
proficiency in using productive software, electronic communication skills, and the internet
skills. Professional skills include presentation skills at conferences so that researchers can
share their seminal findings with a wider audience with similar interests. They include
planning, preparation, practice, performance, questions and the various micro-skills.
Research methods are concerned with how researchers carry out their research. The
choice of method depends on the kind of research they want to conduct. In India, it is mostly
textual analysis. On the other hand, it is not the only method. There are other methods that
can be tried and therefore ought to be tried in English Studies and they are more useful in
advancement of relevant, contemporary knowledge. Griffin (2005) has included several
polemical discourses that recommend the following research methods:
Archival
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Understanding why an archive was established helps one to assess its contents. For example,
the desire to preserve a particular memory of a specific person may lead to the destruction of
all materials (letters & diaries) that detract from the particular memory the archive is intended
to preserve.
Auto/biography
Research provides methodological orientation for the purpose of writing auto-biographies.
Methodological considerations inform the idea of the subject (as individuals, as part of a
collective) in different kinds of auto/biographical writing. It analyses the way in which
auto/biographical methods are underpinned by specific perspectives on those depicted,
revealing the fantasies of their authors both about themselves and about others.
Oral History
It focuses on how oral history can be treated as ‘recovery history’: how oral history can
contribute to the recovery of histories that would otherwise remain hidden. It also deals with
the issues of memory and validity raised by critics of oral history. It also demonstrates how
the narratives of ‘ordinary’ people can modify public records of events!
Visual Images
Visual images have effects in depicting and reinforcing social differences and hierarchies.
They not only accompany texts, but texts accompany visual images (captions to photos,
explanations for exhibits in museums & galleries or in books).
Discourse Analysis
It is concerned with the investigation of language, both oral and written. It assumes that
language is invested, meaning that language is not a neutral tool for transmitting a message
but rather shapes human perceptions of the world. Such shaping takes place within
hierarchical structures of power which are both formulated and upheld by language. It can
also be changed through the changing use of language.
Ethnography
It informs a variety of writings like travel writing and audience research. In the former, it
focuses on the participant observation in producing travel accounts. In the latter, reading
groups offer a site for ethnographic research in English studies.
Textual Analysis
It is a staple of English studies research. It requires the close reading of texts. It needs to be
informed by background research into the context of the text under scrutiny, the context of its
production, its content, and its consumption. The original sources ought to be consulted.
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Understanding meaning-making, differently understood in different historical periods and by

different theoreticians, is key to understanding textual analysis.
Interviewing
It deals with how the representations of interviews with living authors exert influences on the
texts and interview materials. It requires a series of practical skills.
Creative Writing
To qualify as research, creative work is frequently required to be accompanied by a
theoretical piece of writing. Creative writing is seen as a mode of research into the nature of
literary form and language. Reading is an activity that informs wiring as discovery both of
content and form.
ICT
It discusses the issues involved in creating digital archives of manuscript sources and proves
information about some of the most interesting literature digitization projects and what these
involve. Computers as medium change human relations to texts and the implications it has
for literary criticism, for theories of texts, and for interactions with texts.
Research methodologies are concerned with the perspectives researchers bring to bear
on their work such as a feminist or postcolonial one. The many different critical readings of
diverse literary texts are possible because different readers bring different perspectives to
bear on their analyses of a given text. Literary theories are the different versions of post-
structuralism. They are also known as methodologies or theories of reading. Some of them
are deconstruction, modernism & post-modernism, psychoanalysis, feminism, Marxism, new
historicism & cultural materialism, and postcolonialism. Some salient features of each
methodology are essentialized below:
Deconstruction
• reading against the grain
• reading against the text itself
• uncovers the unconscious dimension of the text; aporia, contradictions,
inconsistencies
• textual harassment or oppositional reading
• texts is at war with itself/divided house
Modernism vs. Postmodernism
These two are not two successive stages, but two opposed moods or attitudes
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Modernism
• Rejection of traditional realism (chronological plots, continuous narratives relayed by
omniscient narrators, closed endings)
• A new emphasis on impressionism & subjectivity: how we see rather than what we
see
• A movement away from the apparent objectivity provided by omniscient external
narration, fixed narrative points of view, clear-cut moral positions
• A blurring of distinctions between genres
• A new liking for fragmented forms, discontinuous narrative reflecting pessimism &
despair, yearning for organic society, regretting about lost sense of purpose, a lost
coherence, a lost system of values
• A tendency toward ‘reflexivity’
• Fierce asceticism “decoration is a crime” “less is more”; minimalism (Samuel
Beckett’s dramas’ running time of 13 minutes)
Postmodernism
• rejection of the divine pretensions of authorship in favour of parody & pastiche
(blending)
• fragmentation is liberating & exhilarating, symptomatic of escape from fixed systems
of belief; celebrated
• Believes in excess, gaudiness; surface without the depths of significance
• Deconstructs the ideals of Enlightenment project: reason, clarity, truth, and progress
• Advocated the questioning of meta-narratives/grand-narratives in favour of mini-
narratives that are provisional, temporary, contingent, relative
• Believes in the ‘loss of the real’ and a culture of ‘hyperreality’
Psychoanalysis
• The unconscious, like lit cannot speak directly and explicitly but does so through
images, symbols, emblems and metaphors
• Lit is not involved with making direct explicit statements about life
• Reversal of “I think, therefore I am” to “I am where I think not”
• Self is deconstructed to be merely a linguistic effect, not an essential entity: liberal
humanist notion of unique, individual selfhood is deconstructed; no traditional
characterization (the subject as a stable amalgam of conscious)
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Feminism
• Rediscovering the texts written by women
• Revalue women’s experience
• Examine representations of women in lit by men and women
• Challenge representations of women as Other or Lack
• Examining power relations in terms of patriarchy
• Recognizing the role of language in making what is social and constructed
• Raising the questions if men and women are essentially different biologically or
socially constructed as different
• Exploring if there is a female language and if it is available to men
• Re-reading psychoanalysis to further explore the issue of female and male identity
Marxism
• Marxism is a material philosophy vs. idealist philosophy: explains things without
assuming the existing of a world/forces beyond the natural world
• Looks for concrete, scientific; logical explanations of the world of observable facts
• While other philosophies seek to understand the world, Marxism seeks to change it
• Society is constructed by a BASE (the material means of production, distribution, &
exchange) and a SUPERSTRUCTURE (cultural world of ideals, art, religion, law…)
& the latter are determined by the economic base
• A writer is not autonomous inspired individuals whose genius & imagination enables
him to create original, timeless works of art; he is formed by social contexts
New Historicism & Cultural Materialism
• Parallel study of literary and non-literary texts
• There is nothing outside the text: everything about the past is only available to us in
textualised forms: thrice-processed (through ideology/discursive practices of its own
time, through those of readers, & through the distorting web of language itself)
• Culture includes television, popular fiction, music
• Materialism signifies the opposite of idealism: idealist belief is that culture represents
the free & independent play of the talented individual mind; materialist belief is that
culture cannot transcend the material forces & relations of production
Postcolonialism
• Questions the humanists’ understanding of lit as constituting fundamental, universal
aspects of the human condition
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• Reclaiming the past

• Examine the representation of other cultures in lit
• Lit is often evasively and crucially silent on matters concerned with colonization and
imperialism
• Foreground questions of cultural difference and diversity
• Celebrate hybridity & polyvalency (simultaneously belonging to more cultures)
Suggestions
In the light of the study the following follow-up actions can be initiated at the
postgraduate and research levels in colleges and universities:
1. Research orientation must be an integral component of each semester of MA and
MPhil courses
2. Application of research skills must be cultivated course-wise at the postgraduate level
3. Research methods other than textual analysis shall be introduced as academic courses
4. Students should be trained to incorporate their understanding of theories of reading
with their interpretations of texts prescribed for the courses of study. They must be
provided with full training in a wide range of research and professional skills.
5. More seminars on research methods and methodologies can be funded by agencies
like the UGC
Conclusions
The state of research in English Studies is not very encouraging. Mostly, it is
subjectively interpretive of texts. Textual analysis seems to be predominant research method
since the real purpose of research is lacking. Theories of reading must be an integral
component of literary research. Scholars must be trained to frame research questions and
review the literature since they fix the direction of research and enhance quality of research.
Efforts should be taken by universities to achieve quality research of international excellence.
Postgraduate department of English should have a dynamic research environment with a
broad-based pedagogical approach to all types of research/critical methods.
Reference
Altick, Richard D. 1950/1987. The Scholar Adventurers. Ohio State University Press:
Columbus.
Altick, Richard D. 1963/1992. The Art of Literary Research. London: WW. Norton
Eliot, Simon and W.R. Owens (eds) (1998). A Handbook to Literary Research. London:
Routledge
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Griffin, Gabriele. (ed.). 2005. Research Methods for English Studies. Jaipur: Rawat
Publications.
Philips, Louise and Marianne Jorgensen (eds) (2002). Discourse Analysis as Theory and
Method. London: Sage.
Tanselle, Thomas G. 2002. Introduction to Scholarly Editing. Book Arts Press: Univ. of
Virginia
Williams, Sadie (2003). Postgraduate Training in Research Methods: Current Practice
and Future Needs in English. London: English Subjects Centre, Royal Holloway College.
Appendix
No. Statement A DA DK
1 Doing research in lit is all about reading the texts 6 18 (72) 1
2 There are research methods for literary research 19 (76) 2 4
3 Method and methodology are one and the same 1 17 (68) 7
4 Books on research skills are readily available 6 11 (44) 8
5 Literature Review is an integral component of thesis 20 (80) 3 2
6 Research skills are taught as part of methodology 14 (56) 7 6
7 Research method depends on the types of lit. research 22 (88) 1 2
8 How one conducts research may influence the outcome 23 (92) 1 1
9 Perspectives that readers bring to texts also matter 23 (92) - 2
10 Research skills need to be grasped 23 (92) - 2

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