THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
 DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
 English 274E UW/002 and 004: Canadian Literature


length: 2,000 words                                                                                  value: 25% of final grade
due date: March 19th or March 26th                                                        style and grading guide: see course syllabus

General Instructions:
Using evidence from the literary texts to support your assertions, write a clearly conceived, well organized essay on one of the following topics.  You may also write on a topic of your own devising, as long as you get approval well in advance of the due date. Consider any of the topics I suggest in class fair game, but clarify them with me in advance. For this assignment, you must correctly cite at least two secondary sources, and integrate secondary materials into your argument in a convincing way. You may write on one or compare two literary works. See the course syllabus for a detailed description of essay format and policies. Do not write again on a work you considered in your first term assignments, or in the second term learning cell.

1) Consider the significance of a self-conscious emphasis on local and ordinary history, geography, culture–to the poetry of Al Purdy, Robert Kroetsch, Daphne Marlatt and/or Bronwen Wallace. How is the local conveyed? Why is it important?

2) Discuss the poetic politicization of "women's issues" in the work of Livesay, Page, Atwood, Wallace, Tobias, and/or Brand.

3) Margaret Atwood suggests that Al Purdy's work–and much of Canadian poetry--is predominantly elegiac. What, exactly, do Canadian writers mourn, and why? What kinds of consolation do they seek, and what forms do they seek to address their losses?

4) A number of works on the course consider the nature and function of inheritance. Consider its role in Klein's "Heirloom," Laurence's The Diviners, and/or Kogawa's Obasan, Bowering's "Grandfather," Philip's "Discourse on the Logic of Language." You may choose to discuss inheritance as literal, material property, genetic inheritance, cultural heritage, linguistic legacy etc.

5) Write an essay that considers the representation of music and its roles in Obasan, The Diviners, "The Wisdom of Old Jelly Roll," and/or "Seed Catalogue."

6) "How do you grow a poet?" Robert Kroetsch asks in "Seed Catalogue." Consider the ways in which poetry (its sources, practices, practitioners and audiences) is redefined in "Seed Catalogue," Klein's "Portrait of the Poet as Landscape," F.R. Scott's "Poetry," Livesay's "Without Benefit of Tape," Ondaatje's "The Gate in His Head" and/or "White Dwarfs."

7) "You can't go home again, said Thomas Wolfe. Morag wonders now if it may be the reverse which is true. You have to go home again, in some way or other." How is the notion of "home" defined and redefined in Purdy's "The Country North of Belleville," Brand's "No Language is Neutral," Obasan, and/or The Diviners? Why must we/can't we return home? You may consider "home" as a literal space, a domestic site, the space of memory, etc.

8) Write a brief "Reader's Introduction" to one of the poems on the course, offering your audience some background information helpful to their understanding of the poem. Add a series of footnote annotations that offer information and critical remarks necessary to a fully informed reading of the poem. Possible poems: Klein's "Montreal," Wallace's "A Simple Poem for Virginia Woolf," Atwood's "A Night in the ROM," Purdy's "The Cariboo Horses," Page's "Photos of a Saltmine."

9) It might be argued that in Page's "The Stenographers," Klein's "Portrait of the Poet as Landscape," and F.R. Scott's "The Canadian Poets Meet," the poets consider "negative models" for poetry, or create characters who are antithetical to the poetic impulse. Consider the forms of representation these poets reject and, possibly, what legitimate forms of poetry they suggest.

10) Compare the novel Barometer Rising to the television miniseries Shattered City in terms of the ways each work portrays the Halifax explosion. In each case, the Halifax explosion is presented as a historically and culturally meaningful event: what are its different meanings and consequences?

11) Consider the ways settler/colonial history is re-visited and reconsidered in one or two of Green Grass, Running Water, The Diviners, Atwood's "Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer," Armstrong's "History Lesson."

12) Snow is as much a symbolic entity as a material presence in Avison's "Snow" and Page's "Stories of Snow." How do Avison and/or Page explore the symbolic possiblities of the white stuff in their poems?

13) King's Green Grass Running Water derives its title from Barometer Rising. What is the nature and significance of the relationship between these two works?

14) In his poem, "Can. Lit." Earle Birney says that "it's only by our lack of ghosts we're haunted," but ghosts are significant presences in The Double Hook, Klein's "Heirloom," "Indian Reservation," Purdy's "Lament for the Dorsets" and "Eskimo Graveyard." What do you think are the effects of these hauntings?

15) Consider the treatment of technology in one or two of the following. What is its nature and significance in each case? Pratt's "The Titanic," Barometer Rising, Page's "The Stenographers."

16) Write an essay that analyses the nature, function and significance of rituals of politeness and hospitality in The Double Hook.

17) The Canadian national anthem appears in F.R. Scott, "The Canadian Authors Meet", Obasan, Green Grass, Running Water. What do you think is the significance of each of these writers' invocation of this song?

18) "The ties that bind" may be an expression of unity, a representation of excessive obligation or obeisance or a manifestation of a perverse sado-masochistic impulse. Consider the nature and importance of images of binding in The Double Hook and/or Barometer Rising.

19) Consider the ways in which one or two of the following works re-consider myths of founding, "discover" or contact: "Seed Catalogue," Green Grass Running Water, Armstrong's "History Lesson," Philip's "Discourse on the Logic of Language."