Comprehensive Final Exam

Revised 01/08/2012

For the comprehensive section of the final exam (50% of the final exam grade), I will give you two questions, and you will write an essay on one of them (the Modern Exam (click link) will account for the other 50%).  Each question is based on a particular topic or issue and requires you to discuss that issue with at least two works from each period (Romantic, Victorian, and Modern) for a total of at least six works.  In some cases I will prescribe one or two works that you must write about (you will be able to select the others).   

Make sure to plan your answer before writing it.  Begin your answer with a brief introduction and clear thesis statement that forecasts your answer, and then develop your thesis with organized paragraphs that include topic sentences, use specific evidence from the texts, and have clear analysis which explains your answer to the question or addresses the topic.  Arrange your discussion of the works chronologically unless you have a specific reason to do otherwise.  Take time to proofread your answer before you turn it in.  These questions test both your ability to write in depth about particular ideas and make connections across periods.  YOU MAY USE YOUR BOOKS/handouts of primary texts, AND I WILL PROVIDE A READING LIST. 

 There MUST be some comparing and contrasting in your answers, and you should comment on how the attitude towards or the use of the topic changes across periods.

I will include two of the following questions on the exam; you will choose one question to answer. 

  1. Discuss the ways that six different writers treat or respond to nature in their works.  Explain what you think each author is trying to say about nature (his/her theme) and how (with what strategies or devices) s/he comments on or responds to nature.  Your primary aim should be to explain what the different authors say about nature and how they express their ideas.  You must use Wordsworth and Darwin as a part of this answer. 

  2. Discuss the ways that six different writers treat or respond to religion or faith in their works. Your primary aim is to explain what you think each author is trying to say about religion, God, or faith (his/her theme) and how (with what strategies or devices) s/he comments on or represents religion/faith.  You must use at least one poet and one fiction writer as a part of this answer. 

  3. The position of women from the late eighteenth century to the twentieth century changed dramatically.  Some people felt that men and women should exist in "separate spheres" while others thought that women should have the same rights as men.  With references to Hemans, Woolf, and four other writers, demonstrate how attitudes about women's rights evolved over time. 

  4. Pick six works that wrestle with love and explain their different views.  Your primary aim should be to explain what each work says about love and how the idea is expressed differently (what devices or points of emphasis are used). You must use Keats and Woolf as part of your answer.

  5. Some historians argue that the most significant event of the nineteenth century was the French Revolution (which actually occurred in the eighteenth century).  In fact, over the course of the term we have seen how political events often influence literature in every era.  Pick six different works and explain how they are influenced by particular political events either directly or indirectly.  You must use Gaskell and Yeats as part of your answer.

  6. Throughout the semester we have seen different writers depict the reality of death and the awareness of human mortality.  Using six writers, explain how attitudes towards death have changed over time and how different writers have used their writing to come to terms with death and make meaning out of their existence.  You must use Keats and at least one woman writer for this answer.

  7. Art, as a general subject including visual arts, theater, music, and literature, has been a subject of several pieces we read this semester.  Pick six works and discuss how they treat the subject of art differently or how the subject is used for different purposes.  You must discuss Tennyson as one of your writers.

  8. Social class is an important issue in British literature that is sometimes connected to race.  Pick six different works and explain what attitude they display about class through their depictions of class.  You must use Wilde  and West as two of your examples.

  9. Throughout the course we have examined several paintings that parallel some the literary changes we've observed this semester--these paintings treat some of the central issues of British literature in visual form. Select one painting and one literary work from each period and explain how each pair deals with the same central idea in different ways.  Ultimately, you should compare and contrast each period's treatment of the subject.  Here's a link to some of the pictures (ACCESSIBLE ONLY ON CAMPUS COMPUTERS ) that are particularly relevent to the literary changes: http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?q=hTRFeT0v&userId=gjNGejQ%3D&igName=9x5HezhhRAkqIA%3D%3D .You may also use pictures from our textbook or other pictures you recall. You may bring a printout of paintings you would use if you like.