E316K -- Bremen

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The Final Examination

The Final Examination will be divided into two parts: The first part will consist of twenty, short quotations taken from the required (boldface) reading only (not including NYT editorials). You will be asked to identify the work from which the quotation is taken and its author. The quotations will be taken from highly significant moments in the texts and will be lines that I have read out loud in lecture. The purpose of this section is simply to make sure that you've been doing the reading and paying attention in lecture. If you have, you will do fine on this section. (2 points each; 40 points total)

The second section will consist of six, essay questions. You will be asked to choose three questions and write an essay (the rough equivalent of a two-page paper) on each one. These questions will contain broad, general topics on which you can focus your responses. These topics, however, need to be shaped into specific arguments in order for your response to be as successful as possible. The more interesting, and well-supported, the argument, the bettter the essay. The purpose of this section is to allow you to demonstrate the kind of reader, writer, and thinker you've become since the beginning of the semester. You can use any text that we've talked about during the semester (film clips, songs, and videos included). (20 points each; 60 points total)

The last week of classes, I will hand out a list of eight possible essay questions. Six of these will be on the exam. You will be asked to answer three of those six questions, and you must discuss a total of at least six different author's works in your answers.

Here are the questions for Fall 2007:

E 316K Exam Questions: 2007-08

1. Many of the works studied this term have focused on a clash of cultures and ideas (for example: the Real vs. the Romantic; High Art vs. Low Art; Oppressors vs. the Oppressed, etc.). Choose any one of these conflicts and discuss how it gets resolved in two or three of the works studied this semester.

2. Gregory Gibson believes that the problem of violence is “embedded in our culture, way beyond bad movies and cheap guns. It is as transparent as the air we breathe. It’s in our history. It’s in the myths we tell ourselves about ourselves.” Is violence an empty part of our lives and our culture or can it be something transformative? Discuss this problem of violence using two or three texts studied this semester.

3. In his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes writes of the importance of staying true to one’s culture in the midst of some more dominant culture. Using two or three texts we’ve discussed this semester, examine how these works (or authors or characters) have attempted to maintain their cultural integrity in a world that demands conformity to the values of their “American” society.

4. History, it is often said, is written by the victors. Yet many of the works we have read this semester confront this notion, as minority and marginalized authors attempt to define themselves rather than be defined. Using two or three of the texts studied this semester, discuss ways in which writers have attempted to assert their own identities and authority over the dominant culture and literary tradition.

5. David Foster Wallace writes that, "the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about." Using two or three of the works studied this term, pick one of these realities—for example: the idea of white privilege; the way gender roles are constructed (masculine and feminine); the demonization of others, etc.—and address times in your reading when you found yourself struggling to realize a “reality” that you hadn’t previously acknowledged. What specifically led you to your conclusions about this “reality”?

6. As Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar point out, authority is intimately connected with the idea of an author. The struggle to be an “author” means working within a tradition that can impose ways of writing both texts and self – ways that often initially deny these authors a voice. Discuss this idea of authority and authors using specific examples from the works of two or three writers studied this term.

7. Gilbert and Gubar write that, “a woman writer must examine, assimilate, and transcend the extreme images of ‘angel’ and ‘monster’ which male authors have generated for her.” Discuss two or three texts we've studied this semester and explain how you think they support, expose, or combat the representation of women as “angels” and “monsters.”

8. Much of what we’ve read and discussed in this class deals with the ways in which people’s experiences are determined or influenced by their race, gender, and/or class. Out of the works we’ve studied this semester, choose two or three in which you see more than one of these categories operating and discuss the ways in which they change, complicate, or interact with each other.

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	The Final Examination
		The Final Examination will be divided into two parts: The first part will consist of twenty, short quotations taken from the required (boldface) reading only (not including NYT editorials). You will be asked to identify the work from which the quotation is taken and its author. The quotations will be taken from highly significant moments in the texts and will be lines that I have read out loud in lecture. The purpose of this section is simply to make sure that you've been doing the reading and paying attention in lecture. If you have, you will do fine on this section. (2 points each; 40 points total) The second section will consist of six, essay questions. You will be asked to choose three questions and write an essay (the rough equivalent of a two-page paper) on each one. These questions will contain broad, general topics on which you can focus your responses. These topics, however, need to be shaped into specific arguments in order for your response to be as successful as possible. The more interesting, and well-supported, the argument, the bettter the essay. The purpose of this section is to allow you to demonstrate the kind of reader, writer, and thinker you've become since the beginning of the semester. You can use any text that we've talked about during the semester (film clips, songs, and videos included). (20 points each; 60 points total) The last week of classes, I will hand out a list of eight possible essay questions. Six of these will be on the exam. You will be asked to answer three of those six questions, and you must discuss a total of at least six different author's works in your answers. Here are the questions for Fall 2007: E 316K Exam Questions: 2007-08 1. Many of the works studied this term have focused on a clash of cultures and ideas (for example: the Real vs. the Romantic; High Art vs. Low Art; Oppressors vs. the Oppressed, etc.). Choose any one of these conflicts and discuss how it gets resolved in two or three of the works studied this semester. 2. Gregory Gibson believes that the problem of violence is “embedded in our culture, way beyond bad movies and cheap guns. It is as transparent as the air we breathe. It’s in our history. It’s in the myths we tell ourselves about ourselves.” Is violence an empty part of our lives and our culture or can it be something transformative? Discuss this problem of violence using two or three texts studied this semester. 3. In his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Langston Hughes writes of the importance of staying true to one’s culture in the midst of some more dominant culture. Using two or three texts we’ve discussed this semester, examine how these works (or authors or characters) have attempted to maintain their cultural integrity in a world that demands conformity to the values of their “American” society. 4. History, it is often said, is written by the victors. Yet many of the works we have read this semester confront this notion, as minority and marginalized authors attempt to define themselves rather than be defined. Using two or three of the texts studied this semester, discuss ways in which writers have attempted to assert their own identities and authority over the dominant culture and literary tradition. 5. David Foster Wallace writes that, "the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about." Using two or three of the works studied this term, pick one of these realities—for example: the idea of white privilege; the way gender roles are constructed (masculine and feminine); the demonization of others, etc.—and address times in your reading when you found yourself struggling to realize a “reality” that you hadn’t previously acknowledged. What specifically led you to your conclusions about this “reality”? 6. As Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar point out, authority is intimately connected with the idea of an author. The struggle to be an “author” means working within a tradition that can impose ways of writing both texts and self – ways that often initially deny these authors a voice. Discuss this idea of authority and authors using specific examples from the works of two or three writers studied this term. 7. Gilbert and Gubar write that, “a woman writer must examine, assimilate, and transcend the extreme images of ‘angel’ and ‘monster’ which male authors have generated for her.” Discuss two or three texts we've studied this semester and explain how you think they support, expose, or combat the representation of women as “angels” and “monsters.” 8. Much of what we’ve read and discussed in this class deals with the ways in which people’s experiences are determined or influenced by their race, gender, and/or class. Out of the works we’ve studied this semester, choose two or three in which you see more than one of these categories operating and discuss the ways in which they change, complicate, or interact with each other.

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