Final Take-Home Exam
I. PART ONE tests your knowledge of literary terms, critical and theoretical approaches, and historical concepts. Choose three of the following fifteen terms, and write a single, well-developed paragraph on each one.
NOTE: The list of terms will be chosen from the current edition of A Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams (Harcourt, Brace College Publishers).
Allegory
Poststructuralism
Queer Theory
Prosody
Transcendentalism
Restoration
Sonnet
Tragedy
Feminist Criticism
Neoclassic
Modernism
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Irony
New Historicism
Romantic
II. PART TWO asks you to write two well-developed essays. The first essay focuses on issues of theory and criticism discussed in our class. The second essay should reflect as much as possible what you have learned about various periods, topics, terms, and critical methods. Within your answers, DO NOT write two separate mini-essays on two separate periods or works. Each of your answers should be a unified essay.
Essay 1 (2-3 pages) – Answer one question below.
A. Discuss the role of deconstruction in at least two different schools of criticism.
B. Discuss the ways in which changing the canon is important to at least two different schools of criticism.
C. Discuss political commitment in relation to critical method in at least two different schools of literary criticism.
D. What is the importance of exposing the unconscious of the text in at least two different schools of literary criticism?
Essay 2 (5-6 pages) – Answer one question below, using quotations as evidence.
A. In a chapter on Conrad, F.R. Leavis says the following: “Borrowing a phrase from Mr. Eliot’s critical writings, one might say that Heart of Darkness achieves its overpowering evocation of atmosphere by means of ‘objective correlatives’. The details and circumstances of the voyage to and up the Congo are present to us as if we were making the journey ourselves and (chosen for the record as they are by a controlling imaginative purpose) they carry specificities of emotion and suggestion with them.”
Discuss the role of objective correlatives and controlling imaginative purpose in three literary works from different periods.
B. Chinua Achebe asks in his famous lecture on Heart of Darkness “whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art.” Edward Said, on the other hand, states that “Conrad’s self-consciously circular narrative forms draw attention to themselves as artificial constructions, encouraging us to sense the potential of a reality that seemed inaccessible to imperialism, just beyond its control, and that only well after Conrad’s death in 1924 acquired a substantial presence.”
Discuss the role of formal techniques that seem to belie “ugly” or controversial content in at least two literary works from different periods.
C. It has been suggested that there is such a thing as a feminine writing style endemic to women, characterized as a subversive interruption of the predominantly male tradition seen as “rational,” systematic, orderly, balanced. Where in literary history do you see this feminine style being practiced, and what are the ramifications of labeling it “feminine”? Discuss at least two works from different periods. They can be literary or critical, and from male or female authors.
D. An assumption may be made that the narrator of a work of fiction differs from the actual living author who wrote the work. The narrator may be an "implied author," interested in and knowledgeable about the characters and events he or she reports on but not directly involved with them; or, at the other extreme, the narrator may be a character in the story with a definite purpose in telling the story as he or she wants to tell it. The narrator may, in short, express a wide range of relationships to the narrative.
Discuss the effect of narrative point of view on overall style, characterization, and theme, using as examples three works of fiction that differ from one another in their narrative point of view, indicating the kind(s) of narrator(s) used in each work.
E. In his "deconstruction" of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, J. Hillis Miller discusses the "denial of the possibility of making the reader see by means of literature...Heart of Darkness," Miller asserts, "is posited on the impossibility of achieving its goal of revelation...."
Can this notion of a "revelation of the impossibility of revelation" be applied to any other major work you have read? Good examples to explore might be key scenes which, at least on the surface, appear to be "revelations" or "epiphanies" in, say, Hamlet, Wuthering Heights, or Joyce’s "The Dead."
I. PART ONE tests your knowledge of literary terms, critical and theoretical approaches, and historical concepts. Choose three of the following fifteen terms, and write a single, well-developed paragraph on each one.
NOTE: The list of terms will be chosen from the current edition of A Glossary of Literary Terms by M. H. Abrams (Harcourt, Brace College Publishers).
Allegory
Poststructuralism
Queer Theory
Prosody
Transcendentalism
Restoration
Sonnet
Tragedy
Feminist Criticism
Neoclassic
Modernism
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Irony
New Historicism
Romantic
II. PART TWO asks you to write two well-developed essays. The first essay focuses on issues of theory and criticism discussed in our class. The second essay should reflect as much as possible what you have learned about various periods, topics, terms, and critical methods. Within your answers, DO NOT write two separate mini-essays on two separate periods or works. Each of your answers should be a unified essay.
Essay 1 (2-3 pages) – Answer one question below.
A. Discuss the role of deconstruction in at least two different schools of criticism.
B. Discuss the ways in which changing the canon is important to at least two different schools of criticism.
C. Discuss political commitment in relation to critical method in at least two different schools of literary criticism.
D. What is the importance of exposing the unconscious of the text in at least two different schools of literary criticism?
Essay 2 (5-6 pages) – Answer one question below, using quotations as evidence.
A. In a chapter on Conrad, F.R. Leavis says the following: “Borrowing a phrase from Mr. Eliot’s critical writings, one might say that Heart of Darkness achieves its overpowering evocation of atmosphere by means of ‘objective correlatives’. The details and circumstances of the voyage to and up the Congo are present to us as if we were making the journey ourselves and (chosen for the record as they are by a controlling imaginative purpose) they carry specificities of emotion and suggestion with them.”
Discuss the role of objective correlatives and controlling imaginative purpose in three literary works from different periods.
B. Chinua Achebe asks in his famous lecture on Heart of Darkness “whether a novel which celebrates this dehumanization, which depersonalizes a portion of the human race, can be called a great work of art.” Edward Said, on the other hand, states that “Conrad’s self-consciously circular narrative forms draw attention to themselves as artificial constructions, encouraging us to sense the potential of a reality that seemed inaccessible to imperialism, just beyond its control, and that only well after Conrad’s death in 1924 acquired a substantial presence.”
Discuss the role of formal techniques that seem to belie “ugly” or controversial content in at least two literary works from different periods.
C. It has been suggested that there is such a thing as a feminine writing style endemic to women, characterized as a subversive interruption of the predominantly male tradition seen as “rational,” systematic, orderly, balanced. Where in literary history do you see this feminine style being practiced, and what are the ramifications of labeling it “feminine”? Discuss at least two works from different periods. They can be literary or critical, and from male or female authors.
D. An assumption may be made that the narrator of a work of fiction differs from the actual living author who wrote the work. The narrator may be an "implied author," interested in and knowledgeable about the characters and events he or she reports on but not directly involved with them; or, at the other extreme, the narrator may be a character in the story with a definite purpose in telling the story as he or she wants to tell it. The narrator may, in short, express a wide range of relationships to the narrative.
Discuss the effect of narrative point of view on overall style, characterization, and theme, using as examples three works of fiction that differ from one another in their narrative point of view, indicating the kind(s) of narrator(s) used in each work.
E. In his "deconstruction" of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, J. Hillis Miller discusses the "denial of the possibility of making the reader see by means of literature...Heart of Darkness," Miller asserts, "is posited on the impossibility of achieving its goal of revelation...."
Can this notion of a "revelation of the impossibility of revelation" be applied to any other major work you have read? Good examples to explore might be key scenes which, at least on the surface, appear to be "revelations" or "epiphanies" in, say, Hamlet, Wuthering Heights, or Joyce’s "The Dead."
posted by Jeff at
10:07 AM
6 Comments:
Like Kathleen, I too have a question. According to the instructions for the essays, we should not write two separate "mini-essays" within our response. What does this mean? Does it mean that in my essay, I cannot use the following format:
"Two examples of this type of criticism are bla bla bla and bloo bloo bloo.
Bla Bla Bla was founded in 1904 by so and so and yada yada yada....
Bloo bloo bloo was originally called yip yip yip by Mr. What's His Face, but it is really a yada yada yada...
These are two examples of...."
I assume that is what you mean, but I want to just make sure.
--Matt
By
Matt Fisher, at 8/13/2006 9:48 PM
In response to Kathleen, Helen Cixous is credited with the notion of ecriture feminine, but others posited a feminine writing style as well: Virginia Woolf and Julia Kristeva, for example. You can find out more about it in the section of the Barry chapter under the heading "Feminist criticism and language". The Further Reading sections of that chapter might point you in helpful directions, too.
By
Jeff, at 8/14/2006 6:21 AM
In response to Matt's question, I simply copy-pasted the sample comprehensive exam instructions into our final. What is being asked of you is that you not write two different essays with separate theses, and so on, but that you tie it all together. It's hard to say whether your hypothetical sample is acceptable or not. As for writing strategy, in order to stay "safe," you should probably tie everything together by a concept or theme that can be found in both theories or literary works that you're discussing.
I hope this helps.
By
Jeff, at 8/14/2006 6:26 AM
To Allison: please attach a copy if the work is only a few pages or less. Otherwise, don't worry about it.
To Mary Ann: that's a good question, but a crucial distinction needs to be made here. The period is Victorian (1838-1903). Naturalism is a style of fiction that tried to be scientific in a way, to show how the economic and sordid physical conditions of life affected poor and labor-class people. But it is also generally considered a type of realism, of showing us things "as they really are". As I think about it, I'm not sure I would consider "The Yellow Wallpaper" a naturalist story because I can see pros and cons, but it's a very good question. You might want to do a little research and see if anyone identifies it as such.
By
Jeff, at 8/15/2006 9:13 PM
Hey everybody,
I've really struggled with getting a handle on the second essay, which is mostly due to the fact that I am apparently quite under-read in regard to the "canon." Although that may or may not be a problem for me by the time I take the comps in December, it has definitely created a challenge for me here. Instead of throwing myself on your mercy earlier, I forged ahead and I think I may have something.
In researching part C. of essay 2 I looked into the work of Helene Cixous, of which I am largely ignorant, and found a book that she wrote titled Readings:The Poetics of Blanchot, Joyce, Kafka, Kleist, Lispector and Tsvetayeva. Just from seeing Kafka's name in the title it occurred to me that he might be read as "feminine" due to the "subversive interruptive" quality of his writing both stylistically and thematically. I know Joyce is widely discussed in regard to this idea but I am substantially more familiar with Kafka's work. Anyway, I was thinking of using "The Metamorphosis" as a work for this question emphasizing it's stylistic imbalance, and thematic anxiety, as well as the concept of the "other", and subjectification, with the possibility of some "lack" thrown in. I was thinking of combining it with "The Yellow Wallpaper", though I am concerned about a period conflict. As I noticed in the blog, Jeff attributed "The Yellow Wallpaper" to the Victorian era, so I assume that I can combine the two in an essay which I think would work well because of the tone of anxiety and alienation which exists in both works.
I'm going to proceed on this, but if you could let me know what you think, I'd appreciate it.
Thanks,
Robert
By
Robert Damon, at 8/16/2006 2:01 PM
Kemel: I think you're on the right track. Just remember that the Second Shepherds' Pageant has that forshadowing/fulfillment, divine perfection/human imperfection binary structure. That's where you'd probably want to look for objective correlatives.
By
Jeff, at 8/16/2006 5:19 PM
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