High School English Department

IB Diploma English A: Literature

Summer Assignment
One new aspect to this Literature course is the consideration of the reception of texts by their readers (reader response, or literary theory). For the summer assignment 2012, you need to explore the following website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/10/ In particular, read the section called an introduction to literary theory and the sections on: Marxist Criticism Post-Colonial Criticism Feminist Criticism Reader-response Criticism Gender Studies and Queer Theory

Construct a 500 word written assignment. This could be in the format of a literary essay, an opinion column, or simply a series of detailed notes, on 2 of these 5 forms of criticism (or any others from the site for which you have a particular interest). It should be related to a text you read or studied in Grade 10 English and can include the choice novel that you presented on, if you think it is appropriate for this task. For example: How might a feminist critic perceive the role of Lady Macbeth? Dukes actions and reactions in My Last Duchess? How might they interpret the

Gender studies and queer theory: When Shakespeare wrote the unsex me scene for Lady M what was he implying about the way women were perceived and the way they perceived themselves? Readerresponse criticism: How might a patriotic German have responded differently to All Quiet on the Western Front when it was first published as to the way you responded to it when you read it last year? Post-colonial criticism: In Lord of the Flies in what ways might a modern reader interpret Goldings presentation of the civilized British? Misguided? Elitist? Why? Think about how you might use one of these lenses to critique Night or To Kill a Mockingbird or some of the poetry that you studied. You should have an electronic copy of your work ready to be submitted during the first week back to school.

Ms. Shobbrook; Mr. Allen