Write a synthesis of critical responses to Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water. Your essay should be approximately 1200 words including quotations. This essay is worth 15% of your final grade.
Your basic task is to determine what issues have shaped critical responses to this novel. But you will need to focus your synthesis; choose one of the following questions to help you to focus and organize your paper. Remember, you will need to develop a thesis that makes conclusions about the critical response. This is a research paper, and so your synthesis must be based on at least four sources. Two of them must be academic articles, but you might also look at book reviews or other popular cultural responses to the text.
Guiding Questions:
Look at scholarly response to this novel over time. How has critical opinion of, or critical focus on issues in, this novel changed over time?
Compare popular vs. academic responses to this novel. Remember, in a comparison you will need not only to consider similarities and differences in the issues addressed, but also to develop a thesis about the comparison. What do we learn in such a comparison about the novel and/or about the differences in critical and popular critique?
Examine how the novel is addressed in Indigenous and non-Indigenous contexts. In this case, you might look at assumptions the critics make about readership or the underlying worldview and mythic influences of the novel, for example.
Consider the critical treatments of a specific feature of the novel, like its humour, its narrative structure or its underlying arguments. For example, what do different academic critics have to say about humour in the novel? What debates exist among critics about the literary and mythic influences in the novel? These are the kinds of questions that will drive your synthesis.
Compare how the novel is treated by American and Canadian sources. King is often seen as an American writer by Americans and Canadian by Canadians. The novel explores a trans border reality that arguably deemphasizes the significance of these national categories.
Hints:
Your essay must have a strong thesis. This means you must develop a particular argument as you synthesize information from the criticism. Your argument will be something about the trends, differences, preoccupations or gaps in the criticism. Be wary of simply summarizing the source information without any larger context.
Correct documentation is crucial here. Ensure you summarize, paraphrase and quote material accurately. Ensure your in-text citations and Works Cited page are formatted correctly. Remember, clear attribution is the key. Your reader must always know, when reading your essay, the author of all ideas and language. Use a reference to help you, such as: http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocMLACitation_Info.html