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Literary Criticism Project AP Literature and Composition Mr.

Steen
In this project you will be asked to select a mode of criticism to study, to apply it to a recognized literary work in a short essay, and to make an oral report of what you discovered to the class. The project will include a library research component, time for working with your peers, and time to make classroom presentations. It is to be hoped that, at the conclusion of this brief unit, you and your classmates will have a somewhat deeper understanding of the role that criticism has to play in the world of literature. Research and Oral Report: During your time in the library, you are to make a study of your selected mode of criticism by a thorough use of the internet and of whatever print sources we have available. From this research you should be able to clearly define what characterizes the particular critical approach you have selected, to give a brief history of it in the 20th century, and to cite several critics with whose names this particular approach is associated. You should read at least one essay (if available) written from this critical viewpoint on a work with which you are familiar, and you should be prepared to give a brief synopsis of this article to the class. Of course you are expected to know more than you share with the class, because you will be expected to answer questions on your presentation. 75 points total. Essay: In order to demonstrate that you have a working understanding of this mode of criticism, you will be asked to write a short paper of no more than 3 pages in which you apply this method to a work that you have recently read. Most of the works that we have read this year lend themselves well to this project, but you certainly may reach back to previous years and do Of Mice and Men, Hamlet, Oedipus the King, etc. You may also, certainly, critique a book that you have read on your own. 100 points total. The disparity in points of the two above components to this assignment may be explained by the fact that the research and preparation of the oral report should, by far, take up the lions share of your time. However, oral reports are subject to the vagaries of nervousness, hesitancy, etc. Written reports are totally under your control. The totality of the two contributions should indicate your firm grasp of everything that you have researched.

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Scoring Rubric for Literary Criticism Presentations
A

You give evidence of substantial research and you clearly understand your topic. Your presentation is clear and easy to understand. You dont stumble

for words, and it is evident you know more than youre telling us. You help to make the material clear by reference to several familiar works (either film or print), and it is obvious how this technique might be applied to them. If it is evident that we are not quite clear after your presentation, you are able to come at it from a few different angles to help us. You yourselfpersonallycontributed this much to the group. B
C

It is clear that you did some good research, but you may need notes and hints to get it. The material is mostly familiar to you, but youre still nervous with it. The presentation is mostly clear, though we have to ask a few questions to get it fully. You pretty much tell us everything youve got. You make reference to one or more works of film or print, yet were not entirely sure how they all relate to your topic. Questioning mostly resolves this. If we are still unclear at the end of your presentation, questions mostly elicit a repeat of the material already covered. You yourselfpersonallycontributed this much to the group. Your research consists of maybe one or two sources, and you basically just read the material that we could have read for ourselves if youd made printouts. We have to depend on the research to clarify points for us, because when you get away from the printed page, youre pretty much at a loss. If we ask a question, you look up the answer. You make references to film or print in passing, but dont go into any kind of depth to explain how they relate to your topic. We are left to make the connections on our own. When we ask questions, you act surprised and stunned. You hadnt expected that. But you muddle forward with something that is at least related to the topic. You yourselfpersonallycontributed this much to the group. Your research consists of stuff I told you on the sheet and in a last minute conversation we had before class. You are vague and rambling during your presentation, tossing lots of words at us in the hopes that something will stick. You dont really know of any films or books that this might apply to, but youre sure there must be some. You ask for a pass to the lav before anyone can ask a question. You yourselfpersonallycontributed this much to the group. You never told us we had a report due.

I was out all last week. What are we supposed to do? This is stupid. How am I supposed to make any sense out of all this junk? Literary criticism is when you criticize literature of a literary nature and explain to the audience of readers what it is about and whether or not one ought to spend any time reading it, quality-wise. You yourselfpersonallycontributed this much to the group.

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