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English 2311

First Exam Study Questions

DUE:

Monday, September 26th, at the start of class
WEIGHT: 20%
FORM: Typed, submitted in both hard copy and as Word attachment to email (ljohnson@utep.edu)
 
QUESTIONS:

Answer ONE of the following TWO Questions.

  1. “Movies” are the work of modern poets, giving us a vision of a world beyond our first hand experience. Those engaged in the development and production of a movie often claim a serious intent for their work.  That “intent” is often stated in interviews with the developers or inferred by “critics” who provide an analysis of the director’s intent  as part of their evaluation of the film.  Identify a film you have seen and for which there are at least three substantive analyses of the “poet’s intent” published in contemporary periodicals, and after reading those analyses, compare and contrast the poet/film-maker’s intents against the functions of poets or the standards of poetry articulated by our ancient authorities.

  2. Nationally syndicated editorial columnists are, in many dimensions, the successors to the poets described by Chaucer, Pope, and Sidney and embodied in the operations of Deor, Widsith and Caedmon. Pick one nationally syndicated columnist and read at least ten of his or her most recent columns.  Identify the agendas, the self-concept, and the values of that writer, and then assess how those features align with the agendas, the defined role of the poet, and the values stressed by each of our ancient authorities.

 

English 2311

Second Exam Study Questions
DUE:

Monday, October 21st, at the start of class
WEIGHT: 35%
FORM: Typed, submitted in both hard copy and as Word attachment to email (ljohnson@utep.edu)
 
QUESTIONS:

To be answered by everyone:

  1. In Deor, Widsith, and Caedmon’s Hymn we find three distinct visions of the poet’s work: Describe specific aspects of Beowulf that reflect each of those three visions. Chaucer’s House of Fame discusses problems with information that makes the information we receive problematic: describe similar problems that you find in the Prologue and Tale told by the Wife of Bath. Sidney describes the potentials for pleasing and teaching inherent in the activities of the poet: how do you see Shakespeare doing both in Richard II. Finally, Pope describes what a reader should look for as good critic in a work of literature: using Johnson’s London and its Latin original (Juvenal’s Satire III), find at least one virtue in Johnson’s work as Pope’s followers would see it, and then one weakness which they would also see.
      

  2. (Answer one of the following two questions)

    1. Each of the works we have read has been “reworked” by others: the scribe of the tale of Beowulf reshapes the original tale; Chaucer reworks the story of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell when he writes the Wife of Bath’s Tale; Shakespeare reworks the histories written by Holinshed and Froissart; and Johnson reshapes the satire written by Juvenal on the city of Rome. Identify at least two significant “reworkings” in each of the four works, and give your assessment of what the poet may have been trying to do in each case. Finally, attempt to identify modern “retellings” or “reshapings” in today’s fiction (novels, movies, TV shows, etc) that are similar to at least four (of the eight) instances you have found and analyzed.

    OR

    1. Modern bookstores have entire shelves devoted to books on “leadership.” Some describe successes while other books and articles talk about destructive (“toxic”) leadership.  Find and read  four articles or one book (which can be skimmed—they are easy reading) on leadership, and then react to the “visions” of leaders you find there against the visions of the Beowulf poet,  Chaucer (in both the Wife’s Prologue and her Tale), Shakespeare as he sets one out in Richard II, and  Johnson’s as set out in “London.”  What would each of these old poets find to agree with in the modern works you read? Why?  What would each of them disagree with?  Why?


FINAL EXAM STUDY QUESTIONS

DUE: 12 Noon, Thursday, December 8th
WEIGHT: 45%
FORM: Typed, submitted in both hard copy and as Word attachment to email (ljohnson@utep.edu)

Respond to each of the following three essay prompts:

1.   The Dream of the Rood, Chaucer’s Pardoner and Pardoner’s Tale, Donne’s poetry, and Pope’s Essay on Man (Book I) all are framed by a vision of the world beyond the physical, a world we call the metaphysical or spiritual. That vision can be generically described as “Christian” although each poet’s context will define the particulars of the “Christian vision” in different ways. In each case, however, the poet’s “vision” is the context for promoting responses from the audience through their literary skills and, from those responses, behaviors that the poets would have affirmed in their society. For each of these four works,

  1. Identify and discuss the particular features of the Christian vision each employs;

  2. Identify and discuss at least two the critical literary techniques each uses to articulate and emphasize those features;

  3. Identify and discuss the particular emotional or intellectual responses each writer appears to be promoting through the use of those features and techniques; and

  4. Most importantly, identify and discuss the particular behaviors each writer is attempting to promote in his audience. Are those behaviors important today? Why or why not?

2.   The Wanderer and The Seafarer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, More’s Utopia and the last three books of Pope’s Essay on Man provide portraits of the individual through (a) descriptions of the challenges facing the individual from the environment, (b) the strengths and weaknesses of the individual, and (c) finally the poet’s assessment of what the individual can and must be/cannot be.  

  1. Describe with as much specificity as possible the unique vision of the individual to be found in each of these five works with particular attention to (a), (b) and (c).

  2. Identify where, in today’s culture, we would find similar portraits; if you believe that there are no such similar portraits to be found, identify why modern culture would reject the earlier portrait and what has replaced it. Provide specific references to modern works of fiction.

3.   You now have the opportunity to be a “poet” working within the traditions we have been studying. Pick four works from among the readings for this semester (one from each of the four “periods” we have used as our chronological frame) and provide a description of how you would “adapt” each one to make them more powerful and moving for an audience of your peers. Be sure to explain why each change you propose would be necessary.

 

Bonus question

As a professor, I measure your investment in your learning as my basis for determining your grade: that is evident to me in your participation on the conferences, your engagement in class, and the effort you have put into the essays constituting the exams in this course. I, however, may have missed something, and so you are offered the opportunity to describe to me with more precision what you have invested and, more importantly, what you have learned from that investment in this class. I will consider what you have to say as I calculate the final grades.