Assignment: Critical Summary

This assignment will give you practice in critical reading, summary writing in its objective and critical forms, and evaluation of an article focusing on Canadian literature and culture.

The following is a list of articles published in Canadian Literature related to Green Grass, Running Water. Select one journal article from the list and write a critical summary. See Writing a Critical Summary for help.

• Blanca Chester’s Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel
• Margery Fee and Jane Flick’s Coyote Pedagogy: Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water
• Marlene Goldman’s Mapping and Dreaming: Native Resistance in Green Grass, Running Water
• Florence Stratton’s Cartographic Lessons: Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush and Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water
• Herb Wyile’s Trust Tonto: Thomas King’s Subversive Fictions and the Politics of Cultural Literacy

Keys to Remember:

• Summarize the thesis of the article.
• Evaluate the article’s strengths and weaknesses.
• Take a position for or against the argument presented in the article.
• Keep your summary concise without distorting the meaning of the original paper.

Works Cited

• Chester, Blanca [Blanca Schorcht]. Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel. Canadian Literature 161/2 (1999): 44–61. Print. (PDF)
• Fee, Margery, and Jane Flick. Coyote Pedagogy: Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water. Canadian Literature 161–62 (1999): 131–39. Print. (PDF)
• Goldman, Marlene. Mapping and Dreaming: Native Resistance in Green Grass, Running Water. Canadian Literature 161–62 (1999): 18–41. Print. (PDF)
• King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1993. Print.
• Stratton, Florence. Cartographic Lessons: Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush and Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water. Canadian Literature 161–62 (1999): 82–102. Print. (PDF)
• Wyile, Herb. Trust Tonto: Thomas King’s Subversive Fictions and the Politics of Cultural Literacy. Canadian Literature 161–62 (1999): 105–24. Print. (PDF)