ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS/ESSAY QUESTIONS
Assessment in this unit takes the form of reading assignments, a research
essay to be submitted during the semester, and a formal examination in the
examination period.
READING ASSIGNMENTS (1000 words total)
The reading assignments relate to the Primary Texts and Secondary Reading
for the first half of semester (see Tutorial Guide). Students have two options.
Students who select Option 1 will complete two 500 word assignments.
Students who select Option 2 will complete one 1000 word short essay.
Late penalties apply for work submitted after the due date. See the Unit
Outline for further information.
Option 1
 Select one question from Section A and one question from Section B.
 Write a 500 word response to each question.
 Answers to Section A are due by 4pm, Friday 11 August.
 Answers to Section B are due by 4pm, Friday 2 September.
Option 2
 Select one question from Section C.
 Write a 1000 word short essay.
 Answers to Section C are due by 4pm, Friday 2 September.
The Reading Assignments are worth 20% of the overall grade.
Section A
1. Read Ken Gelder’s “Popular Fiction: The Opposite of Literature.” Write a
500 word summary of Gelder’s argument. What are his key points?
2. Select one character from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan. Write a 500 word
analysis of the depiction of this character in the Disney adaptation.
3. Read A.S. Byatt’s “Harry Potter and the Childish Adult.” Write a 500 word
response to Byatt.
Section B
1. Select one scene from the film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Write a 500 word analysis of this scene. Your answer must demonstrate
familiarity with at least three film analysis terms.
2. Read Stephen Knight’s “… done from within”—Agatha Christie’s World.”
Using Murder on the Orient Express as your example, write a 500 critique
of Knight’s argument.
3. “Genre” and “ideology” are two frequently used terms in popular fiction and
film studies. How do you understand the relationship between them?
Section C
1. Read Ken Gelder’s “Popular Fiction: The Opposite of Literature” and Scott
McCracken’s “World Reader and Text.” How do these critics see the aims
and objectives of popular fiction studies? Whose approach do you find
more persuasive?
2. Select one character from Peter Pan, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s
Stone or Murder on the Orient Express. Write a 1000 word essay about
the depiction of this character in the film adaptation.
3. Select one episode from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone or
Murder on the Orient Express which is also depicted in the film adaptation.
Discuss the relationship between the two versions of this episode. Think
carefully about how you read the differences between the novel and the
film.
RESEARCH ESSAY (2000 words)
 Select one of the following questions and write a 2000 word essay in
response.
 You may devise your own essay topic in consultation with your tutor
and/or the unit coordinator. If you wish to write on an aspect of popular
fiction/film studies or one of the set texts not covered by the questions
below, you must have a question approved by your tutor at least two
weeks prior to the due date.
 Your essay must demonstrate familiarity with at least three secondary
sources.
 The essay is due by 4pm on Friday September 22
 Late penalties apply for work submitted after the due date. See the
Unit Outline for further information.
 This assignment is worth 40% of the overall grade
1. One critic has written, “Children’s fiction is impossible, not in the sense
that it cannot be written (that would be nonsense), but in that it hangs on
an impossibility, one which it rarely ventures to speak. This is the
impossible relation between adult and child.” Examine the relationship
between children and adults in J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan or J.K. Rowling’s
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
2. Examine the representation of stories and/or storytelling in Peter Pan or
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Your answer can focus on the
novel or the film.
3. Recent critics lament Disney’s role in the “sanitization” of classic children’s
stories and fairytales. However, at the height of his career Disney was
celebrated as “the greatest contribution of the American people to art.”
Write an essay about the “Disneyfication” of Peter Pan.
4. “When characters become far better known that the popular writers who
produced them – that is, when characters become their own brand names
– then merchandizing can seem to know no limits.” Discuss with reference
to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
5. One critic has written, Crime fiction’s “object is to return to the beginning.
… It does not permit alternative readings – society posits its unity and,
again, declares itself innocent.” Discuss with reference to Agatha Christie’s
Murder and the Orient Express or James Ellroy’s L.A. Confidential.
6. How has the figure of Hercule Poirot changed in his translation from the
page to the screen? Think carefully about how you read the differences
between Agatha Christie’s depiction of the detective in Murder on the
Orient Express and his portrayal in Sidney Lumet’s film version.
7. Curtis Hanson describes the film L.A. Confidential as an exploration “of the
difference between the ways things are and the way they appear to be.”
How do Ellroy’s novel and Hanson’s film represent the relationship
between image and reality?
EXAM
The examination will be scheduled in the official examination period. The
timetable is posted to all eligible students and published on the School notice
boards.