Study Guide for Exam 2
Exam 2 will be held in our usual room on Friday, December 14, 2012, from 10:10 a.m -12:10 p.m.
The second exam will cover work completed in the second half of the course; there will not be identification questions on earlier works. However, if you want to discuss characters from earlier novels in your essay, you should feel free to do so.
Your class notes will be the best guide to preparing for this exam.
I. Format. The second examination will resemble the first one in format. It will be designed to take no more than 75 minutes (although you can have the full 2 hours. Exam 2 will consist of three parts: one section of short answer or multiple-choice questions; one section of either identification questions or short passagea for close reading; and one essay question from a choice of two or three questions.
II. Works Covered (You should know title, author and the significance of scenes and events). Items marked with an asterisk * were not discussed extensively in class, so while you can use them in writing your essays, there will not be specific questions about them on the exam.
- Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" (GASS 49-57)
- Crane, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (GASS 58-67)
- Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Chesnutt, "The Goophered Grapevine" (GASS 93-103)
- Jewett, "A White Heron" (GASS 84-92)
- Shelley, "Ozymandias" (course pack)*
- Coleridge, "Kubla Khan" (course pack)
- Mary Seacole, from The Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands*
- Kipling, "The White Man's Burden" (course pack)
- Hubert Harrison, "The Black Man's Burden" (course pack)*
- Kipling, "The Man Who Would Be King"
- Arnold, "Hebraism and Hellenism" from Culture and Anarchy (course pack)
- Kate Chopin, The Awakening
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (including the preface)
- Orientalism (see Edward Said handout)
- Imperialism
- Aestheticism
- Decadence
- Naturalism
- Hebraism and Hellenism
- Regionalism and Plantation Fiction
- Gothic (from earlier part of the course)
- Material from reports (Sherlock Holmes, feminist views of Kate Chopin, the divided self, Kipling, etc.)
- Materials from lectures and class discussions
IV. Potential Essay Questions. Your class notes and the discussion questions will be your best guides to potential essay questions.
Essay questions may ask you the following:
1. To compare and contrast
- A specific aspect or character of the two works.
- Compare Dorian Gray and Edna Pontellier as characters. How do their attempts to live as free individuals affect their lives? Do their journeys of self-discovery end in self-destruction?
- Compare Louisa Gradgrind (Bounderby) with Edna Pontellier. In what ways are they similar? What do they seek? In what ways are their choices constrained by their gender and culture?
- Two characters in the same work:
- Compare and contrast Mlle. Reisz and Madame Ratignolle as foils for Edna Pontellier.
- Themes or ideas in the works.
- How does the idea of the double self (or the hidden self) inform nineteenth-century works we've read this semester, such as Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, or Poe's stories?
- Technique or style
2. To analyze a passage through close reading as it relates to the work as a whole
3. To address a larger theme or idea as it relates to the work.
- In what way do any two works read this semester, such as "The Man Who Would Be King,"The Adventures of Mary Seacole in Many Lands, or "A White Heron," address the issue of colonialism and imperialism? Do they defend or critique this idea?
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and "The Man Who Would Be King" can be read both as racist texts and as texts that denounce racism. Discuss.
- Characters such as Jim, Billy Fish, Julius McAdoo, and the silent, unnamed mixed-race servant in The Awakening serve an important function in the works in which they appear, but in what ways does racism constrain or shape the ways in which they speak in the work? What tactics do they use to empower themselves and make their wishes heard in a dominant white culture?
4. To analyze a particular pattern of imagery or symbolism in a work. Example:
- Examine the symbolism of water (the sea, the river, and so on) in The Awakening and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
- What is the role of nature in "The Goophered Grapevine"?
- Why is Freemasonry important in "The Man Who Would Be King"?
- Examine the symbolism of music, art, painting, and books in The Awakening and The Picture of Dorian Gray.
- What is the role of acting and disguise in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Picture of Dorian Gray?
- To respond to a critic’s statement about the work
- To apply a concept to a specific work. Examples:
- Compare "Ozymandias" and "Kubla Khan" in light of Said's theories of Orientalism.
- Would you call The Awakening (or The Picture of Dorian Gray) a naturalistic novel, a Decadent novel, or an Aesthetic novel? Define your terms and defend your answer.
- In what ways does knowledge of a region--a characteristic of regionalism--allow characters to outwit or outmaneuver an outsider? Or this: In what ways do some regionalist texts, such as "A White Heron" and "The Goophered Grapevine," allow protagonists marginalized by race or gender to outmaneuver representatives from the dominant culture? How does their superior knowledge of place and region outweigh their position as members of a subordinate group?
- Could The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn be considered a work of regionalism? Why or why not?
- In what way do the West and the conventions of the Western genre shape identity in "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky"?
