Face-to-face , second term.

French, Dutch, English or German.

Students choose a topic that they develop in an ind-depth, personal and original manner as their Bachelor's dissertation. This topic concerns questions and issues in literature or linguistics in their respective language of specialisation. At the end of the 3rd year of the Bachelor's programme, they submit a written dissertation on the subject chosen. An oral defence of the dissertation will subsequently take place.

a) Scientific objective:
By means of this dissertation, students demonstrate their ability to research and draft a personal, scholarly document on a specific topic. To accomplish this, they will be required to define a working hypothesis (if necessary, based on the analysis of examples), to conduct library research while respecting the standards put forth for such scholarly endeavours and to attain a high degree of meta-reflection. They will develop a written report on their research, which presents adequate argumentation of the initial questions raised and the subsequent research conducted. This written report must also respect the presentation criteria set forth for scholarly texts.

b) Linguistic objective/mastery of the language of specialisation:
Students draft their dissertation in one of their languages of specialisation, i.e. Dutch, English or German. In doing so, they clearly demonstrate their strong written command of and drafting skills in that foreign language.

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Examples of topics:

Students are invited to propose topics themselves. The following are some suggested topics:

1) Dutch Linguistics (Jeroen van Craenenbroeck)

Opmerking vooraf: deze lijst is vooral bedoeld om je een algemene indruk te geven. Voor meer precieze informatie kan je steeds een vrijblijvende afspraak maken met de docent. Je mag ook steeds zelf een voorstel doen. TFE's kunnen zowel in het Nederlands als in het Engels geschreven worden.

1. De keuze van het voltooid hulpwerkwoord in het Nederlands en zijn dialectenKorte omschrijving: aan de hand van literatuuronderzoek en vragenlijsten een beeld schetsen van het gebruik van hebben vs. zijn als hulpwerkwoord van de voltooide tijd in het Nederlands en verschillende dialecten.

2. Het plaatsonderwerp in het Nederlands en zijn dialectenKorte omschrijving: aan de hand van literatuuronderzoek en vragenlijsten een beeld schetsen van de variatie die we aantreffen in de vorm van het plaatsonderwerp in het Nederlands en verschillende dialecten.

3. Partitiefconstructies in de Nederlandse dialectenKorte omschrijving: op basis van vragenlijsten een beeld schetsen van de iets van X-constructie die we in de Nederlandse dialecten aantreffen

4. PartikelsKorte omschrijving: aan de hand van literatuuronderzoek en vragenlijsten een classificatie opstellen van de partikels en tussenwerpsels die we aantreffen in het Nederlands en verschillende dialecten.

2) Dutch Linguistics (Tanja Temmerman)

- uitzonderingen op ‘verb second (V2)': een studie van de plaats van het werkwoord in de Nederlandse hoofdzin (eventueel inclusief Nederlandse dialecten)
- een studie van vormvariaties van gesloten-klasse woorden (voegwoorden, relatiefpronomina, voorzetsels, …) in Nederlandse dialecten
- een studie van de negatieve indefiniet geen in elliptische zinnen in het Nederlands
- een studie van topicalisatie/linksdislocatie in ingebedde zinnen in de dialecten van het Nederlands
- eigen voorstellen zijn ook welkom(de TFE mag zowel in het Nederlands als het Engels worden geschreven)


3) Dutch Literature (Matthieu Sergier)

1. Literatuur en filosofie (Harry Mulisch, Leon de Winter, W.F. Hermans, Connie Palmen, Patricia de Martelaere…)
2. De zogenaamde Revisorbeweging (brede opvatting) en wat er ondertussen van de auteurs uit die beweging geworden is: Doeschka Meijsing, Frans Kellendonk, Oek de Jong, Matsier, A.F.Th. Van der Heijden, Leon de Winter, …
3. Zelfrepresentatie en zelfvertelling: de omgang van de auteur met zijn zelfbeeld in autobiografische en autofictionele genres (brieven, dagboeken, notities, cahiers, memoires…)
4. Experimenteel proza (Ivo Michiels, J.F. Vogelaar, Gaston Burssens, Paul de Wispelaere, Daniël Robberechts,…)
5. Studenten mogen uiteraard zelf een onderwerp voorstellen.
6. Postmodernisme: Peter Verhelst, Paul Verhaeghen, Atte Jongstra, Willem Brakman, Stefan Hertmans…

4) English Linguistics (Sylvie De Cock)

-Investigating the colloquialisation of the English language (Leech and Smith 2009):e.g. contracted forms in a number of written genres (e.g. newspapers, journals, …)
-Investigating the treatment of recent language change / of language change in progress in pedagogical grammars (e.g. ‘there's a lot of people', ‘like I say', ‘less people', ‘a large amount of people').
-Investigating some aspects of monolingual learners' dictionaries (e.g. The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners; The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English): e.g. the use of illustrations or typical features of conversation

5) English Linguistics (Marie-Aude Lefer)

- A diachronic study of English neologisms (using the data available online in the Word Spy archives 1996-2012; see http://www.wordspy.com/archives/)
- A domain-based approach to English neologisms (e.g. business, medicine, psychology, internet, food and drink, travel, politics, etc.; see http://www.wordspy.com/categories/)
- Evaluative prefixes (hyper-, mini-, super-, etc.) across registers/genres: a corpus-based study (e.g. writing vs speech)
- Derivational affixes in online/electronic bilingual dictionaries (English-French, English-Dutch or English-German dictionaries)
- Word-formation in English textbooks such as Inside Out, Cutting Edge, etc.
- The French translation of English negative prefixes (non-/un-) in the Europarl corpus/in the TED talk subtitling corpus
- The English translation of the French negative dé- in the Europarl corpus
- High frequency adverbs (e.g. again, still) in English-French bilingual dictionaries: a corpus-based approach
- Lexical bundles (esp. discourse organizers) in English-French bilingual dictionaries: a corpus-based approach

- Any other topic put forward by students (word-formation, lexicology, bilingual lexicography, corpus linguistics, English-French contrastive linguistics, translation)

6) German Linguistics (Sabine De Knop)

1) Eine vergleichende Untersuchung von gleich und selb.
2) Eine vergleichende Untersuchung von tun und machen.
3) Eine vergleichende Untersuchung von Menschen und Leute.
4) Gebrauchsmöglichkeiten des Pronomens es.
5) Eine Korpusuntersuchung von setzen, legen und stellen.
6) Eine Korpusuntersuchung von sitzen, liegen und stehen.
7) Wortbildungen in Presse-Überschriften.
8) Okkasionalismen und ihre Beziehung zum Text.
9) Untersuchung von Konstruktionen mit helfen + Infinitivsatz.
10) Untersuchung von Konstruktionen mit Wahrnehmungsverben + Infinitivsatz.
11) Temporale Ausdrucksweisen im Deutschen.
12) Das morpho-syntaktische Verhalten von Denglish-Wörtern (Pluralbildung, Partizipbildung,…).
13) Die Genusbestimmung von Denglish-Substantiven.
14) Eine kontrastive Untersuchung von Genitiv-Konstruktionen und von-Konstruktionen Andere Vorschläge sind auch willkommen!

7) German Literature (Grazia Berger)

Zu Heinrich Heine:
- Die Religionsproblematik in Heinrich Heines Gedichtbuch Romanzero.
- Heinrich Heines Verhältnis zu den verschiedenen Französischen Revolutionen anhand einiger ausgewählter Texte aus Heines Werk (Französische Zustände).
- Zur Rezeption und Wirkung Heinrich Heines in der Lyrik des 20. Jahrhunderts (ein mehrere ausgewählte Autoren) 
- Zur Rezeption und Wirkung einiger ausgewählter Gedichte des Buch der Lieder in der Literatur und Musik des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts.
- Einige Gedichte Heines im Vergleich.
- Heinrich Heine und Ludwig Börne.

Andere Vorschläge:
- Bernhard Schlinks "Der Vorleser" im Kontext des Gesamtwerkes des Autors
- Stefan Georges Übersetzung von Charles Baudelaires "Les Fleurs du Mal", eine kritische Auseinandersetzung
- Dürrenmatt und Frisch: Politische Bekenntnisse im Vergleich
- Der Begriff der Trümmerliteratur im Werk Heinrich Bölls - Werke und ihre Wege 
- Ein Vergleich von Borcherts Drama "Draußen vor der Tür" mit der Verfilmung des Stückes von Wolfgang Liebeneiner unter dem Titel "Liebe 47".
- Der Umgang mit der historischen Vergangenheit in Bernhard Schlinks „Der Vorleser“ und / oder Arno Geigers „Uns geht es gut“.
- Die Romane „Das Blütenstaubzimmer“, „Der Ruf des Muschelhorns“ und „Das Porträt“ im Vergleich. Entwicklungstendenzen einer Schriftstellerin.

Themenvorschläge von Studenten sind jederzeit willkommen!

8) English Literature (Isabelle Peere)

(All works are to be read in editions of the Oxford World Classics collection when available.)

Sean O' Casey, The Plough and the Stars: A Literary Assessment beyond Irish Politics.
J. M. Synge, Drama and Society: The Playboy and the Western World and Riders to the Sea.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818-1831): Beyond the Gothic.
Oscar Wilde, The Complete Short Stories (1888-93): What Relevance to The Importance of Being Earnest etc.?
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea. What Does the Novel Add to Our Understanding of Jane Eyre?
Nathanael Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850) : The Novel's Lasting Qualities
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851): a Romantic Novel?
Mary Webb, Precious Bane (1924): Transcending Shropshire.
Janet Frame, The Lagoon (1951): A Generic Study of Short Stories.
William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954): Storytelling and Symbols.
David Lodge, Stream-Consciousness in The British Museum is Falling Down (1965):
A Doll's House, Lady Windermere's Fan, Mrs Warren's Profession : What Formal and Thematic Connections? (other suggestions welcome)

9) English Literature (Ingrid Bertrand)
- Silences in E.M. Forster's A Passage to India: the unsaid and the unspeakable
- Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale:
a story of submission or rebellion?
romantic patterns and their subversion
- The subversion of the concept of “godlike” omniscience in Jenny Diski's Only Human
- The motif of the lost mother in contemporary novels in English (Susan Fletcher's Eve Green, Toni Morrison's Beloved, etc)
- Novels reconfiguring a female biblical character (feminist/postmodern rewritings)
- Postmodern experimentation with narration in contemporary literatures in English (unidentified narrators; shifting narrative voices; etc)
- Trauma and its narrative representations in contemporary literatures in English (slave narratives, post 9/11 narratives, etc)
- Any other topic put forward by students

a) Choice of the topics:
Students may choose their dissertation topic from a list put at their disposal at the beginning of BAC III. This list includes topics dealing with literature or linguistics in the three languages; it is drawn up based on the proposals made by the lecturers. (see below, point 3).

Students may also propose a topic based on their specific interests and motivation.

b) Assessment and lecturers:
All final Bachelor's dissertations are overseen by a dissertation supervisor chosen by each student. Dissertation supervisors must be a member of either the Saint-Louis or Institut Libre Marie Haps academic staff. The dissertation will be read by a lecturer, other than the supervisor, who teaches at either Saint-Louis or Institut Libre Marie Haps, and this person will be designated by the dissertation supervisor.
At least one of the two assessors will be a member of Saint-Louis' academic staff.

c) Deadlines:
October 15th: Students will have met with their dissertation supervisor prior to this date and, together, will have discussed the topic and the structure of the dissertation. The choice of each dissertation topic must be agreed upon and communicated to the president of the group by e-mail. Furthermore, the president of the group is also to receive in his/her cubby-hole the stub at the bottom of the form, duly signed by the dissertation supervisor and the student.
15 December: An outline, including the research questions, the hypotheses, the methodology adopted, a table of contents and a provisional bibliography must be submitted to the dissertation supervisor.
1 April: Students are to submit a first draft of their dissertation to their supervisor.
Last day of the second term: if a student decides to submit and defend his/her dissertation during the June session, the dissertation must be submitted (electronically) no later than this date; the three hard copies may be submitted on the date of the first exam of the June session.
First day of the September exam session: if a student chooses to submit and defend his/her dissertation during the September session, the dissertation must be submitted (electronically) no later than this date; the three hard copies may be submitted on the date of the first exam of the September session.

d) Number of pages/copies:
The dissertation is to have between 6000 and 8000 words of body text (excluding bibliography, annexes, tables, etc).
Students are to send an electronic version of their dissertation to their promoter and to the the designated reader.
Moreover, they are to print 3 copies of their dissertation: a copy for the promoter, one for the reader, and one for Bureau B8 of the president of the department (38, Blvd du Jardin botanique). This last copy can be consulted and/or borrowed by any interested student. The promoter is responsible for submitting the third copy to the president of the department.

The promoter and the reader grade the dissertation, and their grades each count for 50% of the final grade. An oral defence of the dissertation is mandatory and is scheduled during the examination session. The date of the oral defence is scheduled by the Faculty Administrative Office, as is the case for all examinations. The oral defence gives students the opportunity to orally present their dissertation and to field questions put forth by the defence panel, which is composed of the promoter and the reader. A successful oral defence can result in an increase in the written grade previously given by the promoter and the reader. The oral defence lasts approximately 20 minutes, of which a maximum of 5 to 7 minutes is reserved for the student's oral presentation of his/her dissertation. The promoter will calculate the average of the two grades given for the written part of the dissertation and the oral defence grade (and will avoid decimals if possible). He/she will then submit the final grade on a scale of 20 to the Faculty Administrative Office.
In compiling the final grade, the assessors will take into account the following criteria: structure and presentation, relevance of the questions raised, originality, sound argumentation, bibliographical references, spelling, correct mastery of the language and style. Any form of plagiarism will be severely sanctioned (We refer here to article 55 of the General Rules and Regulations governing studies and examinations at Saint-Louis). Students are assessed according to the above criteria and in accordance with the jurisdiction in vigour in their host institution, Saint-Louis University, Brussels, regardless of whether the promoter or the reader is a lecturer at Institut Libre Marie Haps.

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