Athabasca University

Home | Courses & Programs | Registration Services

If the content you are seeing is presented as unstyled HTML your browser is an older version that cannot support cascading style sheets. If you wish to upgrade your browser you may download Mozilla or Internet Explorer for Windows.

Essay 1

Analytical Essay (750 words)

Respond to ONE of the following questions in a coherent and logical essay, supporting your point of view with a close analysis of the pertinent images, stylistic characteristics and thematic implications of the work on the course.

  1. What is the significance of the “stone hammer” in Robert Kroetsch’s “Stone Hammer Poem”?
  2. How does Margaret Atwood characterize the landscape in “Progressive Insanities of a Pioneer”?
  3. Why is Kyoti considered “just a dream of the old People” in Jeannette Armstrong’s “This is a Story”?
  4. What are the cultural implications of Sarosh’s constipation in “Squatter” by Rohinton Mistry?

Essay 2

Critical Essay (1000 words)

Choose one of the following topics. Devise a thesis and support your argument with specific references to the appropriate novel from the course:

  1. The destruction and reconstruction of identity in The English Patient.
  2. The symbolic significance of “swimmers” in The English Patient.
  3. Hana as a “civilizing” presence in The English Patient.
  4. A “treacherous and complex journey”: the significance of the relationship of Kip and Hana.
  5. The reasons for and consequences of the English patient’s hatred of nations.
  6. The significance of the “Phantom” in Jack Maggs.
  7. The “colonization” and “decolonization” of Mercy Larkin.
  8. The meaning of “home” in Jack Maggs.
  9. Criminality as a consequence of colonialism in Jack Maggs.
  10. Authorship as appropriation in Jack Maggs.

Essays 3 and 4

Research Essays (2000 words each)

Compare a novel and one or two other works on the course in terms of one of the following topics, drawing on relevant post-colonial critical works and theories (print and/or Internet) in support of your argument. Do not write on works that you have used for the other assignments.

  1. The function of memory in the creation of individual and/or social history.
  2. The intersections of East and West in two works.
  3. The use of irony to contest or undermine colonial relationships.
  4. Images of isolation in the post-colonial experience.
  5. The fragmentation of families in the post-colonial experience.
  6. Paradise or Hell?—conflicting images of the post-colonial world.
  7. Interracial misunderstandings and miscommunication.
  8. The function and significance of storytelling.
  9. Failed love affairs as indicators of post-colonial trauma.
  10. Revolution: social, political, and personal.