St. Edmund Campion .S.S. – English Department
ENG 3U1 – Culminating Performance Task
The Culminating Performance Task (CPT) for ENG 3U1 will require students to write an essay
using a studied school of literary theory to analyze his or her novel which has been
independently read for Accelerated Reading this semester.
The CPT is a sustained and in-depth study in which you will read, respond to, and reflect upon
the novel chosen. Ultimately, your objective is to discover, experience, and reveal the value of
literature to the individual and society. The following are a number of prominent schools of
literary theory that should be used to analyze the novel that you have chosen:
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Marxist Theory (Bertold Brecht, Augusto Boal, Pierre Macherey, etc.)
Feminist Theory (Naomi Wolf, Judith Butler, Annette Kolodny, etc.)
Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, Jacques Lacan, etc.)
Postcolonialism (Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, Chinua Acheba, etc.)
Expectations:
Part A: Close reading of your chosen novel
Choose a novel, and complete a close reading of the text with detailed reading notes.
(Hint: Buy your novel so you can use it throughout the semester)
Part B: Conference
You will choose one school of literary criticism through which you want to analyze your
novel, and you will be given a conference date and time where you must bring a
minimum of two pages of notes on your novel with regards to that school of literary
criticism.
For this you will have to do some research on your theory and/ or novel, using academic
sources. Also, come with a potential thesis and direction for your essay.
While you must demonstrate knowledge of the novel, you are not to summarize the
novel at the conference. You are to point out how you have read your novel through the
lens of the criticism chosen as evident through your working thesis statement.
Conferences: Week of December 15th, 2014 *sign up sheet*
Part C: Demand Essay
You will be given 3 days in class to work on your essay in class. You will have 1 day to
plan the essay, and 2 days to write a demand essay, analyzing your essay from the
critical perspective you have chosen.
On the first day you will come with your notes, research and your novel. All of your
notes as well as your research and the work completed in class will be submitted at the
end of the period once the CPT periods have begun. You may not bring any additional
work in after this time as you should have prepared well in advance.
Dates: Wednesday, January 14 – Friday, January 16, 2015