ENGL 1025 Prof Leah Bolan
Academic Integrity Reminder:
This is an individual assessment. You should NOT work with any classmates or anyone else.
You should provide YOUR OWN SUMMARY & INTERPRETATION. Do NOT present the ideas from study help websites or any
other website. If you do use an idea from one of my lessons, you MUST cite it BOTH in text AND in your Works Cited.
Remember your work will be scanned by SafeAssign, a plagiarism-detection tool.
Theoretical Analysis (15%)
BACKGROUND: There are many different modes of literary criticism. These modes provide different ways of
analyzing literary texts. Oftentimes these modes are described as lenses because they give readers different
ways of perceiving and thinking about a literary text.
For example, this term I applied a historical/cultural lens in my video lessons about Darrel J. McLeod’s “Maci
Manitowi (Devils)” (week 07) and the poetry of F.R. Scott & Marilyn Dumont (week 11). I discussed Thomas
King’s “A Coyote Columbus Story” in terms of BOTH a post-colonial lens AND King’s own Aboriginal lens
(week 05), and I applied King’s Aboriginal lens to my lesson about E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)’s “A Cry
from An Indian Wife” (week 04). I also applied a feminist lens to my lesson about M.G. Vassanji’s “Her Two
Husbands” (week 12).
For this assignment, choose ONE of the following topics:
Assignment Requirements
(1) Provide a summary (approx. 150-200 words) of your chosen mode of criticism. Your summary should
begin by naming the author (Purdue’s Online Writing Lab OR Thomas King) as well as the article title.
See the “Sample Theoretical Analysis” for examples.
(2) Provide a literary analysis (approx. 500-600 words) that interprets your chosen literary text according
to the mode of criticism you summarized. Your analysis should follow our 03-step formula for
responding to literature. Start your analysis by (1) stating the interpretation you will prove, then (2)
provide and cite direct quotations from the literature to illustrate your interpretation, and make sure
you (3) provide explanations of HOW your quotations prove your interpretation.
(3) Follow MLA to format your assignment, to cite your literature, and to list your Works Cited.
Topic Choices:
(1) HISTORICAL / CULTURAL LENS: Read the following overview of New Historicism (Cultural Studies) from Purdue
University’s Online Writing lab (click this hyperlink). (1) Summarize what it means to consider a text through this
lens and then (2) use that lens to provide an interpretation of Rudy Wiebe’s “Where is the Voice Coming From?”
(2) POST-COLONIAL LENS: Read the following overview of Post-Colonial Criticism from Purdue University’s Online
Writing lab (click this hyperlink). (1) Summarize what it means to consider a text through this lens and then (2) use
that lens to provide an interpretation of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)’s “A Cry from An Indian Wife.”
(3) ABORIGINAL LENS: Re-read Thomas King’s essay “Godzilla vs post-colonial” (click this hyperlink). (1) Summarize
what it means to consider a text through King’s lens and then (2) use that lens to provide an interpretation of
EITHER Darrel J. McLeod’s “Maci Manitowi (Devils)” OR Marilyn Dumont’s “Letter to Sir John A. MacDonald.”
(4) FEMINIST LENS: Read the following overview of Feminist Criticism from Purdue University’s Online Writing lab (click
this hyperlink). (1) Summarize what it means to consider a text through this lens and then (2) use that lens to
provide an interpretation of EITHER one or more of the poems we read in week 04 by E. Pauline Johnson
(Tekahionwake) and/or D.C. Scott OR Beth Brant’s (Degonwadonti) “A Long Story.”
ENGL 1025 Prof Leah Bolan
Evaluation Criteria:
Submissions that earn an “Exceptional” grade (14-15) will fully accomplish each of the following criteria.
Submissions that partially meet the following criteria and/or meet some of the following criteria will earn
grades commensurate with their quality.
Uses owns words to provide an accurate summary of chosen mode of criticism
Provides an original literary analysis according to chosen mode of criticism
Follows our 03-step formula for responding to literature
Accurately documents all sources, literary and otherwise
Is grammatically correct
Is professionally formatted (see sample for formatting model and expectations)
Scale:
14-15 = Exceptional
12-13 = Above Average
10-11 = Well Done
9 = Acceptable
8 = Complete but barely acceptable
0-7 = Incomplete or otherwise unacceptable
Documentation Help:
In-text Citations, prose (i.e. anything that is NOT poetry)
Provide the last name of the author followed by the page number of the quotation or paraphrased text.
(Thien 17)
In-text Citations, poetry
Provide the last name of the author followed by a comma and the line number(s) of the poetry.
(Johnson, lines 11-15)
Works Cited for literature:
You can find the Works Cited entries for each of our literary texts in the Word.doc titled “Works Cited, Literature for
ENGL 1025,” which I posted to the “Assessment” section of our site.
Works Cited for Thomas King’s “Godzilla vs post-colonial”:
King, Thomas. “Godzilla vs. post-colonial.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing. 30:2, 10-16,
DOI: 10.1080/17449859008589128
Works Cited for the overviews from Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab:
Online Writing Lab. “Feminist Criticism (1960s-present)” Literary Theory and Schools of
Criticism. Purdue University, 2014. Web.
Online Writing Lab. “New Historicism, Cultural Studies (1980s-present)” Literary Theory
and Schools of Criticism. Purdue University, 2014. Web.
Online Writing Lab. “Post-Colonial Criticism (1990s-present)” Literary Theory and Schools
of Criticism. Purdue University, 2014. Web.
Works Cited for one of my video lessons:
Bolan, Leah. “Title of Video Lesson.” YouTube, uploaded by ProfB fromNC, date, URL
