The final exam will take place in our normal classroom,
MH 104, on Thursday, 6 May, from 4:30–9:15 p.m.
This does not mean that I expect anyone to take anywhere near
5 hours to complete the exam—the effect is intended to be one of
a virtually untimed test, so that no one feels too rushed to say what
they know. Finals are supposed to be 135 minutes long, so the exam will
be almost exactly twice as long as the in-class tests. The test will be
cummulative, but with an emphasis on the last unit of the term: you can
thus expect about half of it to cover the postcolonial texts.
You may show up anytime during this block of time to take the exam (although
if it makes little difference to you, it would be awfully nice if you
came on the early side, so that there’d be a chance of my getting
home before I fall asleep...). I will have 10 Apple ibooks available,
on a first-come, first-served basis, for those who want to type their
exams. If you want to write longhand, I’ll provide the blue books.
Exam Review
For the final exam, I expect the following:
That you be reasonably familiar with the background essay on the 20th
century from the Longman’s, as well as the background author introductions
from both the Longman’s and the photocopied readings;
That you be able, for each author we’ve read, to name at least
one work he or she has written, and make a few observations about matters
of style, subject, and the writer’s place in literary history;
That you be conversant with characters, important themes and symbols,
and stylistic quirks of the fiction and drama we read;
That you be able to describe a few defining characteristics of literary
Modernism, Postmodernism, and Postcolonial literature, both stylistic
and thematic;
That you be able to identify and do close textual analyses of
representative chunks of text assigned thus far this semester;
That you be able to synthesize your knowledge of both texts and historical
contexts in the writing of an essay that makes relevant connections between
different things we’ve read over the course of the semester.
Some suggestions for studying:
Review your class notes—or, if you don’t take good notes, those
of a trustworthy study partner. Obviously, I’m going to tend to focus on the things I think are most important, or at least interest me most, in class
—and I’ll probably fixate on the same things in the exam, as
well. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use the exam to bring up
other ideas—I’d love to hear them—only that you should
at least be prepared for me to ask about mine.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the handout I prepared following
the second in-class exam—if you haven’t quite got the hang
yet of the kind of answers I’m looking for, that should help.
Flip through your books, and look at anything you underlined or otherwise
marked while reading—this will potentially jar your memory, without
requiring you to reread the whole text.
On the other hand, if there’s anything you haven’t read this
term, now’s the time to start. I will offer, at least as extra-credit
items, some trivia questions you won’t be able to answer if you haven’t
done the reading.
Take a few minutes to sit down and think about the semester’s reading
as a whole. What have you learned about the 20th century, as a time period?
What concerns and issues seem to drive writers? What sparks their imaginations?
What do they try to do as artists? What commonalities—and what differences—do
you see?
Sleep with the course books under your pillow for three nights before the test.
You can expect more or less the same mixture of question types as you’ve
had in prior exams. I may also ask you to simply define Modernism, Postmodernism,
and Postcolonial literature. I’ll throw in a few trivia/fact questions.
And there will be one big comprehensive essay in which I ask you to make
connections of the type I suggest above.
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