For Eng4U - compiled January 2008
4U1–Independent Study: A Culminating Thematic Comparison:
Topics & Related Readings
Mr. Robinson
(Semester 2/08)Below are the topics with related readings for all components of the Independent Study Assignment in this course (worth _____% of your final mark). Choose one topic and at least two of the related readings. Unless otherwise specified by your teacher, your key fiction sources must be the ones listed below with their respective topic.
No more than two students may choose the same topic. If two students have chosen the same topic, they must be reading different texts under the same category (there are four related readings to choose from).
Remember, you are also required to read additional critical material, author’s background etc. on the texts you choose and you must cite at least ______ critical sources in your final essay.
TOPICS AND RELATED READINGS FOR THE ISU
1. STRESS AND THE MODERN WOMAN
Margaret Laurence,The Diviners
Wally Lamb, She’s Come Undone
Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
2. FAMILIAL DYSFUNCTION
Wally Lamb, I Know This Much is True Annie Proulx, The Shipping News John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire Douglas Coupland, All Families are Psychotic3. OLD AGE AND THE ELDERLY
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the SeaHenry James, The Ambassadors
Carol Shields, The Stone Diaries
J.M. Coetzee, Slow Man
4. POVERTY AND OPPRESSION
Charles Dickens, Hard Times Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes Gabriel Roy, The Tin Flute John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
5. INDISCRETIONS
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary Tom Perrota, Little Children Margaret Laurence, The Fire-Dwellers Richard B. Wright, Adultery6. FUTILITY OF WAR
Joseph Heller, Catch-22 Joseph Boyden, Three Day Road Erich Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient7. THE ARTIST’S TEMPERAMENT
John Irving, The World According to Garp James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye8. INTERSECTING NARRATIVES AND TRAGEDIES
Douglas Coupland, Hey Nostradamus Dennis Bock, The Ash Garden Carol Shields, Swann Russell Banks, The Sweet Hereafter9. THE ABUSIVE PARTNER
Alice Walker, The Colour Purple Russell Banks, Affliction Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’UrbervillesPete Dexter, Paris Trout
10. ‘FUTURE’ SOCIETIES
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale George Orwell, 1984 Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 45111. COMING OF AGE–MALE
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity David Gilmour, Lost Between Houses J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye Russell Banks, Rule of the Bone12. COMING OF AGE-FEMALE
Alice Munro, Lives of Girls and Women
Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
John Irving, A Widow For One Year
13. RACIAL CONFLICT
Nella Larsen, Passing Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars14. THE GOTHIC NOVEL
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey Mary Shelley, Frankenstein Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights Bram Stoker, Dracula15. NARRATIVE AS POLITICAL ALLEGORY
Voltaire, Candide Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels George Orwell, Animal Farm Franz Kafka, The Trial16. IMPERIALISM
Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness Jamaica Kincaid, My Brother Rohinton Mistry, Such a Long Journey Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe17. YOUTH, ANGST AND THE GENERATIONAL DIVIDE
Douglas Coupland, The Gum Thief Rick Moody, The Ice Storm Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides18. MATERIALISM
Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt Tom Wolfe, Bonfire of the Vanities George Eliot, Silas Marner Honore de Balzac, Pere Goriot19. FATE/DESTINY
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany Carol Shields, The Republic of Love Margaret Laurence, A Jest of God20. THE UNDERCLASS HERO
John Steinbeck, Cannery Row Charles Dickens, David Copperfield John Irving, The Cider House Rules Henry Fielding, Tom Jones21. ATTEMPTING TO SURVIVE THE TRAGIC
Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance Anne Marie MacDonald, Fall on Your Knees Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure Andrew Pyper, The Lost Girls22. LOVE IN ALL OF ITS COMPLEXITIES
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Cholera Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice23. THE JOURNEY MOTIF
John Irving, Until I Find You Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Herman Melville, Moby Dick Alexander Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo24. THE PSYCHO
Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho Patrick Suskind, Perfume William Faulkner, Sanctuary Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club25. SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Andre Dupuis, House of Sand and Fog James Frey, A Million Little Pieces4U1–Independent Study: A Culminating Thematic Comparison:
Topics & Related Readings (continued–page 5)
Mr. Robinson
(Semester 2/08)TOPICS AND RELATED READINGS FOR THE ISU
26. THE DISTURBING CRIME
Truman Capote, In Cold BloodCormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
Ian McEwen, Atonement
Joyce Carol Oates, Black Girl, White Girl
27. SOUTH AFRICAN INTERRACIAL TENSION
J. M. Coetzee, DisgraceNadine Gordimer, Occasion for Loving
Doris Lessing, The Grass is Singing
Alan Paton, Cry the Beloved
Adult Novels (Books) By Themes