When selecting a writer make sure they have several works you can analyze and compare. You should focus on patterns and similarities you find regarding their style, tone, themes, and topics in your analysis. In addition, discuss their immediate and also overall impact on their genre and literary period. Include what critics have said both positive and negative about the author. A thesis should provide a balanced, complete view of your selected author.
First decide if you want to write about an American or British literary period. Although lists of literary period names and dates can vary slightly, in general for American literature, you could analyze Colonial, Revolutionary, Romantic, Realism, Transcendentalism, Modern, Postmodern, or the Contemporary period. For British, choose from Old English, Middle English, Renaissance, Neoclassical, Romantic, Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, Modern, or the Postmodern period. Make sure to discuss the defining characteristics, differences from the period that preceded it and major writers.
Selecting one genre can be a great option for your thesis because it gives you the opportunity to talk about authors well-known for their work in that genre. You can research and discuss when and how the genre started and analyze the evolution of the genre. The broad genres of course are fiction and nonfiction but within these two categories is a plethora of subcategories you can focus on. You can also discuss defining characteristics and structural elements.
Selecting a specific literary theory for your thesis will give you the opportunity to take several literary works and analyze each in a very specific, narrow way. Literary theory becomes the lens in which you see the text much like blinders on a horse. Literary theory choices include gender, new historicism, or post-colonialism among many others. This very specific way of looking at a text gives you less material to work with but encourages deep thinking that could result in a thorough analysis.
In writing about themes, you will be discussing what you believe is the core message the author wanted to convey. Track the theme's development in a particular work and analyze the author's intent and purpose. Come to a conclusion about what statement the author ultimately makes about the theme with specific quotes from the text to support your analysis and conclusion.