Tentative Topic for Final Research Project

It's been a difficult couple of weeks trying to figure out just what I'm most interested in writing about for this final research project.  But finally--I think--I have decided on a (tentative) topic.

As an English and Japanese double major, I am most unsurprisingly obsessed with literature in all its forms.  Although I have only taken two classes in Japanese literature, I have taken countless classes in British and American literature, which has provided me with a keen understanding of Western depictions of certain prevalent themes during specific literary periods.  It was during my first few encounters with Japanese literature, however, that I began to notice the startlingly high number of references to a single theme, a theme that seemed to span historical periods: Death.  But this wasn't natural death; it wasn't the typical conflict of murder or assassination or manslaughter usually depicted in our traditional tales of love, justice, or revenge--this was self-imposed, self-willed.  Voluntary self-destruction.  In other words, suicide.

My first thoughts were, Why is suicide such a popular theme?  Why do the Japanese seem to have such a fascination with self-destruction?

In Tanizaki's Quicksand, for example, a trio of lovers prepares for a communal suicide ritual by gulping poison.  In Mishima's Patriotism, a devoted soldier commits seppuku--a traditional samurai ritual that consists of disemboweling oneself with a sword.

As these works illustrate, suicide is a commitment to another human being, an expression of love.  It is also a pinnacle of honor and a mark of masculinity.

Overall, suicide appears to be a complicated concept, leaving me to wonder: What is the best way to approach this topic?  Perhaps, I thought, if I analyze it from both a historical/cultural lens and a psychological perspective, I will be better able to understand just why this theme of suicide has survived (pun intended) the ages and remains so prevalent in contemporary Japanese literature today.  And so I have tentatively decided that with this research project, I will attempt to use the resources of psychology and cultural history to grasp a better comprehension of the significance of suicide in Japanese literature.  

Wish me luck in my research! \(^o^)/ ありがとう！