Make-up assignment (summer 2005)

As I mentioned in class, I am offering those of you who want to improve on your midterm mark an opportunity to do an additional assignment that we will post online on this blog, as I think what you learn will also help out the rest of the students. Those of you who complete this assignment will have the weight of your midterm (currently 20% of the final grade) cut in half. The other 10% of your grade will be comprised of the grade you receive on this assignment.

Your goal in this assignment is to provide a 250-300 word description of one of the literary terms listed below. You will need to provide a full list of works that you consult and perhaps quote from in coming up with your definition and only one of these can be an online source. Some of these terms will be theoretical approaches we've either talked about in some detail or ones to which we've alluded at some point. Others will be literary terms that have come up briefly in Culler that I would like you to investigate further.

When you're done, send me what you have via e-mail and we'll post it on the blog, making this part of the blog a sort of mini-dictionary of literary terms for the class.

Here are the terms I'd like you to define. Choose one and then let me know right away which one you have chosen so I can make sure no one else starts working on the same one.

• Différance
• Feminist Theory (Jennifer)
• Focalization
• Intertextuality
• Marxist Theory (Betsy)
• Postcolonial Theory
• Postmodernism (Margaret)
• Poststructuralism (Rachael)
• Reader-Response Theory
• Russian Formalism
• Structuralism (Laura)

The absolute deadline for this assignment is Wednesday June, 29th. No extensions.