The Fall 2002 Mid-Term Exam

Here is a virtual replica of the mid-term exam (minus, of course, the passages to be IDed in Part I; if I were to tell you what they were, I'd be forced to kill you).

ENGL 206: Survey of American Literature.................Mid-Term Examination............... Fall 2002 (Simon)

NAME: __________________ ................................................... DATE: ______________

Part I: PASSAGE IDENTIFICATIONS (roughly 10% of your grade; recommended time: 5-10 minutes)

Choose seven (7) of the ten (10) passages that are listed at the end of this exam and identify both the author and title of each. Errors will be penalized for answers in this section (including spelling errors); partial credit will be awarded. Please fill out your answers to Part I below.

PASSAGE NUMBER..................................AUTHOR......................................TITLE
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.

For extra credit, you may try to identify the author and title for the other three passages. Errors will not be penalized for answers in this section; credit will be awarded only to exact identifications of author or title. Try for extra credit on Part I only AFTER completing Part II.

PASSAGE NUMBER....................................AUTHOR....................................TITLE
h.
i.
j.

PART II: INTERPRETIVE SKILLS (roughly 45% of your grade; recommended time: 45 minutes)

Demonstrate your competence in the following interpretive skills:

A. Do a brief close reading of a passage (different from the passage chosen for B. or C.): write one to four paragraphs on its meaning and the means by which that meaning is disclosed, with the goal of explaining what is happening in the passage, both on the level of plot/character (for fiction) or argument/evidence (for essays or autobiographies) and on the level of language use (figurative language, rhetorical strategies, tone, etc.).

B. Briefly relate a passage (different from the passage chosen for A. or C.) to the work from which it comes: write one to four paragraphs on its function, on the ways in which it contributes to the meaning and significance of the larger work.

C. Briefly compare/contrast a passage (different from the passage chosen for A. or B.) to a work by a different author: write one to four paragraphs on a single "issue" (for example, conflict/theme/problem/process/idea) that the passage addresses, focusing on similarities and differences between the treatment of it in the passage and the treatment of that "issue" in another work, and trying to identify what is distinctive and significant about each author's treatment of that "issue."

Read all your answers over again before handing in your exam. Give yourself time to plan your approach to the exam; time spent planning what you will write in Part II is time well spent. Relax, focus, and enjoy yourself.

PART III: SHORT ANSWER/INTERPRETIVE ESSAY (roughly 45% of your grade; 3 take-home essays) You may consult the course anthology and/or the web sites listed on the links page to help you develop your responses to Sections A and B of Part III, so long as you cite sources correctly using MLA format (points will be taken off for incorrect citation formatting). However, you may not consult any other person for help on any aspect of Part III.

A. SHORT ANSWER (each worth 10-15% of your grade)

Choose two (2) of the following five (5) options on which to write short answer essays (no more than one single-spaced typed/printed page) on key concepts and contexts for our readings.

• Explain the term "regional writing." Illustrate each key point of your explanation by reference to a different literary work from the "Literature of Reconstruction" unit.
• Explain the term "American literary realism." Illustrate each key point of your explanation by reference to a different literary work from the "Literature of Reconstruction" unit.
• Discuss the politics of sectional reconciliation in the Literature of Reconstruction. Be sure to make reference to at least 3 writers from the unit in the course of your discussion.
• Discuss the politics of voice--of using dialect and vernacular speech, of paying attention to accent and everyday language use--in the Literature of Reconstruction. Be sure to make reference to at least 3 writers from the unit in the course of your discussion.
• Discuss the politics of irony--of using satire, humor, sarcasm, allegory, and other non-direct, non-literal means of commenting on political conflicts and tensions between the Civil War and World War I--in the Literature of Reconstruction. Be sure to make reference to at least 3 writers from the unit in the course of your discussion.

B. INTERPRETIVE ESSAY (15-20% of your grade)

Choose one (1) of the following options on which to write a short interpretive essay (no more than two single-spaced typed/printed pages). Your task here is to let me understand your position. It is better to be reasonable (evidenced and persuasive and thoughtful) than "right" (to select an "answer"). You may even discover that your "answer" is your opening sentence and all the rest (the important stuff) is justification/explanation. You may assume I am familiar with the texts, so keep plot summary and other scene-setting devices to an absolute minimum.

• American society between the Civil War and World War I was undergoing an astonishing set of transformations, in terms of politics (sectional reconciliation, citizenship and property rights, feminist, "uplift," and other "progressive" movements and associations, international relations), economics (industrialization, growth of corporations, expansion of markets and trade, labor relations), culture (gender roles, ethnicity, religion, "ways of life"), technology (railroads, telephones, telegraphs), and demographics (shift from rural to urban life, new immigrant populations), to name a few dimensions of change. Indeed, one key aspect of the American experience during this period was a national emphasis on progress, development, the future. Why, then, were so many writers of this period interested in the American past? What were they trying to achieve by focusing on pre-Civil War periods of American history in their fiction? Consider a variety of answers to these questions, and explain which answer you find most persuasive, through an analysis of the uses of the American past in three works from the Literature of Reconstruction unit.
• As Elaine Hedges and Sandra Zagarell point out in "Nations, Regions, Borders," writers were often torn in several directions between the Civil War and World War I: on the one hand, "the perceived need for a national identity prompted calls for a national literature, one that would capture and express distinctively 'American' characteristics" (35); on the other hand, "[t]he interest in creating a national literature...was paralleled by an interest in producing writing that was notably local or regional in emphasis, and much post-Civil War fiction is characterized by its attention to distinguishing features of speech, behavior, and landscape--the cultural geography--of specific and seemingly out-of-the way places" (35-36). Do you think these dual--and often conflicting--demands were enabling or disabling for American writers during this period? What do you see as the most successful strategies writers used during this period for negotiating these demands from publishers, editors, critics, and audiences? Support your answer to these questions with specific reference to at least three works from the Literature of Reconstruction unit.
• In his 1896 poem, "We Wear the Mask," Paul Laurence Dunbar uses the metaphor of masking to emphasize the disjunction between the roles African Americans were expected to play in American public life ("We wear the mask that grins and lies" [l. 1]) and their true feelings and identities ("We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries/To thee from tortured souls arise" [l. 10-11]). As a quick glance at the literature of the period will show, a wide range of writers were attracted to the figure of the mask and the metaphorics of role-playing during this period--and for a variety of reasons, ends, and aesthetic effects. Looking over the literature of this period, do you think there is a relation between the social identity/position of the masker/role player and his or her attitude toward masking and role playing? For instance, do you agree or disagree with the claim that one's attitude toward masking and role playing depended on one's relative power in post-Civil War American society--that masking was freeing for those in power and confining for those without it? Support your answers to these questions with specific reference to at least three works from the Literature of Reconstruction unit.

ENGL 206: Survey of American Literature, Fall 2002
Created: 9/30/02 7:09 pm
Last modified: 9/30/02 7:09 pm