Study Questions

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Below are study questions for the works we'll be reading--many of them are taken from teamwork activities or my own notes.  I'll update this page weekly.  I strongly encourage you to use them to guide your reading and to write down answers--it will be especially helpful to you if you illustrate your answers with quotations from the works.  I will use these questions to construct exams and frame quizzes.

RESTORATION & 18TH-CENTURY

Pope

  1. Here's a link to questions on the first epistle of An Essay on Man that Professor Mitrevski at Auburn University has put together. Answering these questions should help you understand the poem better.

ROMANTICS

French Revolution

Answer the following questions for each of the essays on today's list.  Use specific quotations to support your answers

  1. What is the writer's position on the French Revolution and to what values does s/he appeal to make his/her case?
  2. How does the writer characterize the royals and aristocrats?  Why does s/he characterize them that way?
  3. Characterize the writer's language (i.e. type of rhetoric, level of vocabulary, etc) and explain why s/he uses the language s/he does to appeal to a particular audience.
  4. List and explain a couple of strengths and weaknesses with the writer's case.

Blake

  1. In "Introduction" describe the progression of events--what is the speaker doing at first in the poem and what does the child ask him to do as the poem progresses?
  2. What poetic values does Blake seem to have? What would Pope think of them?
  3. How does the speaker of "The Chimney Sweeper" feel about his job?  What is the difference between the speaker's feelings and the poet's feelings?
  4. What lines of "The School-Boy" best summarize the speaker's attitude about school? Characterize Blake seems to suggest makes "good" education?
  5. Blake moved this poem from Songs of Innocence to Songs of Experience--why do you think he made the change?
  6. Several words in "London" have to do with rules, restriction, or constraint.  List them and explain how each one relates to an attitude about London.
  7. How would Pope react to Blake's "London"?

Wordsworth Part I

  1. Review Wordsworth's commentary on his aims for poetry in the "Preface"  and explain whether each of today's poems fits the criteria in terms of subject and style.
  2. In lines 65-80 of "Simon Lee" the speaker self-consciously discusses the words he has used and questions whether a "tale has been related."  Who carries the burden for transforming these words into a "tale."  How does that fit with Wordsworth's discussion in "The Preface."
  3. What is the "theme" of "Simon Lee" ?  How does Wordsworth emphasize it?
  4. Some readers interpret "We Are Seven" as an allegory of the conflict between neoclassical/enlightenment values and romantic values.  Explain how the poem could support such an interpretation.
  5. Whose counting does the poet seem to support?  Why? What point is he making by supporting one side over the other?
  6. Describe the speaker's emotional transformation in  "Lines Written in Early Spring."  What enables the speaker to transform?
  7. What do lines 19-20 of "Lines" mean?  What is Wordsworth suggesting about the fact that the speaker  must "think, do all [he] can" to see pleasure?
  8. Make an outline of the main principles of "The Preface."
  9. Look at the diction of Francis Jeffrey's essay and explain what patterns of word choice you notice.  What institutions do many of the words allude to.  What does Jeffrey want to use this type of diction in his criticism?
  10. Make an outline of Jeffrey's essay highlighting his primary points of criticism.
  11. Pick one of Wordsworth's poems and use Jeffrey's principles to evaluate the poem.

Wordsworth--"Tintern Abbey"

  1. Characterize the relationship between Wordsworth (speaker) and the natural environment in "Tintern Abbey."  How does Nature act on him? How does he act on it?
  2. What does Wordsworth mean at the end of stanza two of "Tintern Abbey" [while with an eye. . .]?
  3. What happens at the beginning of stanza 4? How does his attitude change and what aspect of time does he consider?
  4. How has his relationship with nature changed over time?
  5. What presence is he talking about in line 96?
  6. What does he mean by "both what they half-create, / And what perceive? (107)
  7. Who enters the picture in stanza 5? Why does Wordsworth bring her in? What's her function in the poem?

Coleridge Part I

  1. "The Eolian Harp": In this poem we see a conflict between pantheism (nature worship) and more conventional Christianity.  Explain how Coleridge uses different patterns of diction and/or imagery to establish the value of nature, then to give it a supernatural quality, then to elevate its power to be almost finally pantheistic, but ultimately to depict his retreat to a more conventionally Christian attitude.    As part of your answer make sure to explain what diction/images are crucial for developing this pattern.
  2. "This Lime Tree Bower My Prison":  As in several other poems, Coleridge depicts a struggle with depression and feelings of isolation.  He represents this struggle in light of the actual present sensations of nature and the power of the imagination to take past sensations and re-configure them (see his comments on the primary and secondary imagination [1666]) in this poem.  Track Coleridge's use of different facets of his imagination and different images to overcome his depression and ultimately to achieve a strong feeling of sympathy with his friend Charles Lamb.
  3. Explain the difference between the primary and secondary imagination as described in Biographia Literaria. 
  4. According to Biographia Literaria what different roles did Coleridge and Wordsworth have in writing Lyrical Ballads?  Use quotes to illustrate your answer.

Coleridge--Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Here's a link to some good study questions on Rime of the Ancient Mariner put together by A.J. Drake.

Byron

  1. What makes Don Juan (the poem) so appealing/interesting?
  2. Why do you think the poem might have been so controversial?
  3. What are the poem's morals?
  4. How does this poem fit with the other work we've read (i.e. Coleridge and Wordsworth)?
  5. How would you characterize the overall style?
  6. What do you make of the dedication?  Why begin this way?
  7. What social issues does Byron address?
  8. What devices/rhetorical strategies are notable?

Shelley

  1. Shelley's "Mount Blanc" is a very difficult poem mostly because he's trying to make the ideas difficult to apprehend. He does this so that the ideas he's discussing won't be oversimplified and to actively engage the reader in understanding the poem. First have a brief discussion on what you think the poem is about. After that, pay special attention to the way he complicates meaning (pay special attention to syntax and the way he uses words like ever,river,raves, ravine, Arve, cavern {why might stacking these words promote confusion}). Ultimately explain how the way he uses language reinforces the ideas about nature and the human mind.
  2. Shelley is probably the most politically radical poet that we've read this semester—he stayed consistently radical throughout his short life (he died at age thirty). How does Shelley use vivid imagery in "Ozymandias" to make a political comment in this poem? Make sure to explain SPECIFICALLY why particular images are appropriate to develop a particular political viewpoint.
  3. "Ode to the West Wind" and Coleridge's "Aeolian Harp" both use a wind metaphor. Compare and contrast how each poet uses wind to make a point in his poem. In other words, what does wind represent for each poet, and how does he make the idea clear?

"Mask of Anarchy"

  1. What is the Peterloo Massacre and how does it relate to this poem?

  2. What else is going on politically in 1819 in England?

  3. What happens in the plot of the poem?

  4. What are the notable poetic devices/strategies that Shelley uses?

  5. To what audience will this piece appeal?  Why do you think so?

  6. Describe Shelley's particular brand of radicalism as best you can.

  7. How is this poem different than and similar to other poems we've read?

Keats

  1. Here are some questions on "The Eve of St. Agnes" that Al Drake put together.

Keats Odes

NEED TO UPDATE HERE AND AFTER

Wollstonecraft check page numbers

  1. From the beginning of the essay, Wollstonecraft says that women appear to be inferior to men.  What are the causes of this appearance of inferiority?
  2. At one point Wollstonecraft talks about the "style" of her essay.  How does she characterize her style and does she, in practice, write the way she declares?  Compare her style to the style Wordsworth proposes for his poems in the discussion in "The Preface."
  3. In Chapter 1, Wollstonecraft appeals to a particular Enlightenment value to make her case.  Why is this value so important in making her argument?
  4. Why is Wollstonecraft so much against "professions" in chapter one?
  5. What qualities are women told to foster "from their infancy" (1478)?  How does she use Milton and Moses to argue against these ideas?
  6.  On 1481 Wollstonecraft says that "the whole tendency of female education" has been focused "on one point:--to render them pleasing."  Why, according to Wollstonecraft, is this a bad thing for both men and women?
  7. At several points in the essay, Wollstonecraft compares all women to women in a harem or seraglio.  What are her rhetorical purposes for making this comparison?
  8. In chapter 3, Wollstonecraft argues against that idea that women's "weaker" state is natural.  How does she argue against this essentialist position (the notion that women are essentially/inherently weaker than men in every way)?
  9. In chapter 13, Wollstonecraft summarizes how a "revolution in female manners" will help society.  What are her main points?

Macaulay

  1. What does Macaulay mean by "innate ideas" and "innate affections"?  How can this essentialist idea be argued against according to Macaulay?
  2. Summarize how Macaulay outlines Rousseau's position on "sexual difference" and then refutes it.
  3. How does the eighteenth-century system of female education "corrupt and debilitate" women according to Macaulay?
  4. What is Macaulay's rhetorical purpose in concluding with the quote from Chesterfield?  How does she use it to support her position?

Polwhele

  1. According to Polwhele, what causes sexual difference?
  2. Why does Polwhele associate "unsex'd females" with the French? What is his rhetorical purpose?
  3. What if women possess "masculine" qualities?  What are they like and why is this bad?
  4. What qualities should women possess according to Polwhele (lines 39+)?
  5. What is the god of women who want to be like men? What is Polwhele's rhetorical purpose for making this claim?
  6. How does Polwhele characterize Wollstonecraft? (be specific)

More

  1. What kind of books does More attack in chapter 8? Why are these books so bad and what is one good that can result from them?
  2. Does her critique remind you a 21st century cultural critique? How could her critique apply to a 21st century mode of communication?
  3. What is so good about "dry tough reading" (like you had for today)?
  4. According to More, what is the purpose of female education?
  5. According to More, what will happen to society if women struggle for power?
  6. How/why does More defend the separate spheres?

Thompson & Wheeler

  1. How do Thompson and Wheeler want the world to be radically changed? (1505)
  2. According to the introduction, what are Thompson and Wheeler's attitudes towards "individual competition"?
  3. How does society raise daughters?
  4. Describe the injustice that Thompson and Wheeler see being done to wives.
  5. According to Thompson & Wheeler, what do women want?
  6. According to the last section of the essay, what do women need to do to become free?
  7. Characterize the rhetoric of this essay.

VICTORIAN PERIOD

Carlyle

  1. What does he seem to be saying about the times?
  2. What is the general condition of England?
  3. What does he mean by the word "enchantment"?
  4. Why does he use the Midas Myth in the first section?
  5. What point is he trying to make with the poisoning of children story? (1084)
  6. Is there a strain of racism in this story?
  7. How can England be rich and poor at the same time?
  8. What point is he trying to make with the Irish widow story?
  9. How can he be for "work" but against" "wealth"?
  10. Why is work inherently "good"?
  11. Why is a paternalistic, authoritarian medieval system better than a democratic one?
  12. Why are "captains of industry" so important to the future of England? What must they do that they aren't doing now?

Industrial Revolution Readings

 

Gaskell

  1. What does this story have to do with the Industrial Revolution?  How can we read it as a reaction to the IR?
  2. How is this story more generally about a conflict between different generations?
    • A conflict between regions?
    • A conflict between sexes?
    • A conflict between literary tastes?
    • A conflict between classes?
  3. Are the women at Cranford sterile or do they change?
  4. How does this story present a different solution to Carlyle's Captains of industry solution?

Tennyson

"The Lady of Shalott" is one of Tennyson's most beautiful and famous poems.  The imagery is characteristically lush and vivid.  One way people often read this poem is in terms of the contrast between art and life, or more precisely the incompatibility of living the life of an artist and the life of a "real" person.  Basically the poem suggests that when an artist embraces life in the real world, the artist's art will suffer (the person will die as an artist).  First take a quick look at the poem to make sure have a sense of the plot, then answer the following questions:

  1. What details in Part 1 suggest the way the artist should live (in relation to society)?

  2. What details in Part 2 suggest that the Lady represents the artist?  What qualities do these details suggest the artist must have or imply the way an artist must work?

  3. What aspect of life does Lancelot represent that makes "real life" so attractive for the lady?  What imagery and diction does Tennyson use to make Lancelot so attractive? What pattern is there to these choices?

  4. In Part 4, what does the fact that the people of Camelot fail to recognize the sacrifice she has made suggest about the artist? 

  5. Some people focus on the fact that the Lady is a woman and shows the qualities that women and artists have in common.  Based on your reading of the poem, what qualities do you think Victorian women and artists share?

  6. How might you read this poem as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution?

"Ulysses" is one of the most famous poems of the Victorian period. Ulysses is often taken to embody the Victorian striving for "better things" or a better life.  First take a brief look at the poem to make sure that you understand the basic plot, and then answer the following questions:

  1. How does Ulysses assess his current situation and also his people in the opening stanza?  Why is it important for him to establish this assessment early in the poem (given what happens later)?

  2. What personality traits does Ulysses illustrate about himself in the second stanza? Make sure to use examples to illustrate these traits.

  3. In the third stanza, Ulysses introduces his son Telemachus.  How is Telemachus a different kind of leader than Ulysses? In what ways does Ulysses value or denigrate this kind of leadership?

  4. In the final, almost benedictory stanza, Ulysses is getting ready to make one last journey of adventure, but at the same time he seems about to embrace his forthcoming death.  What details emphasize his final "seizing of the day" and which details suggest he's accepting death?

  5. Some readers emphasize Ulysses's journey as an "intellectual" journey, or they see the poem as being about person's striving to question the status quo.  What details of the poem emphasize this kind of reading?

What is the tone of "Break, Break, Break" and how does Tennyson use sound and imagery to create that tone?

Tennyson requested that "Crossing the Bar" be the final poem in every collection of his work that would be published.  Why do you think he made this request? What is the speaker's attitude towards death and how does he use poetic devices to create that attitude?

 

Robert Browning

"Porphyria's Lover"

  1. What is the significance of the setting?

  2. Is there any symbolic value to her clothing?

  3. Who seems to be in control of this relationship? Does that change? What’s the evidence?

  4. Why aren’t they married? why are they just lovers?

  5. Why does he kill her?

  6. Why does he say she felt no pain twice?

  7. Analyze the simile in lines 43-44. Why does he compare her eyes to a shut bud that hold a bee?

  8. Why does she blush (literally what has happened)? 

  9. Explain the irony of lines 56-7.

  10. What points might Browning be making with the closing, that God has not said a word?

  11. What points might this poem be making about women in Victorian society?

  12. If this is a love poem, what points might it be making about love?

 

 

Elizabeth Barret Browning

Sonnet 13

  1. What has the beloved/the audience apparently asked the speaker to do?  why does she struggle to do this?

  2. What point is the speaker trying to make with the metaphor comparing the expression of her love to holding up this particular torch?  What is the significance of this metaphor?

  3. Why does she drop the torch? what does that mean?

  4. What does it mean that she can’t “hold my spirit so far off / from myself”?

  5. What does the hand represent?  (it’s a metonymy)

  6. How does EBB use syntax and grammar to express the speaker’s difficulty expressing herself?

  7. Why does she “feminize” her “silence”?  Does she make feminine silence a positive or a negative?

  8. How has the “garment of [her] life” been “rend[ed]”? what does that mean?  Why can’t she just say how she feels? what’s the danger?  How effectively has she expressed her feelings (despite her claims that she cannot)?

  9. Why is she “grieving” at the end?

  10. What overall points is EBB making about love, particularly about the expression of love?

 

 

 

Dickens's Great Expectations   

Here's a link to chapter-by chapter questions created by Philip v. Anangham and posted on The Victorian Web: http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/ge/pva107.html

 

Religion & Science

  1. Why would Darwin's "Origin of the Species" be so offensive to many Victorian Readers?

  2. In what ways were Darwin's theories used to justify/explain certain social practices during the period?

  3. How does Darwin's depiction of nature contrast those of Wordsworth and perhaps Shelley?

  4. How is Clough's "Epistrausium" a comfort, but "The latest Decalogue" an attack?

  5. Both Newman and Gosse react to the scientific discoveries of the age different?  What coping strategies does each person use to deal with the threat of science? 

  6. Why would all of these scientific discoveries and religious controversies lead to a crisis of faith? An age of doubt?

  7. How is Hopkins's "God's Grandeur" a pleasant comfort and "Carrion Comfort" an unpleasant one?

Doyle "A Scandal in Bohemia"

  1. Characterize Holmes and Watson

  2. How does Holmes embody the scientific method?

  3. What is the relevance of religion in the story?

  4. How plausible are Holmes's actions?  What gives his actions credibility? What makes them seem possible?

  5. Why would the middle class find this story SO appealing? Why have the Holmes stories remained so popular, even today?

  6. How would a feminist critic respond to this story?


Kipling "Without Benefit of Clergy"

  1. What's the significance of the story's first line? 723

  2. What is the significance of the story's setting?

  3. What is the significance of how John and Ameera met? 723

  4. Characterize John's "double life" 724

  5. How does the story violate expectations in terms of what you expect to happen? 728

  6. Why do John and Ameera refer to themselves as king and queen?

  7. Describe the power dynamic in this relationship?  Does the birth of Tota change this dynamic 724  729

  8. What is the significance of the rituals/prayers in the story? Dagger 725, goats 726

  9. Do you see any symbolism in the bracelets? 727

  10. What is the significance of Tota's name? 728

  11. What is the significance of Tota's death? How does it affect their relationship vs. how you expect it to affect it? 730 731

  12. How might a Darwinian read the famine and plagues that occur? 732

  13. What is the significance of the title? 734

  14. What is the significance of the last paragraph 736

  15. How does the story present the conflict between a scientific/naturalistic understanding of the universe and a spiritual/religious understanding?


Pre-Raphaelites

D.G. Rossetti "Blessed Damozel"

  1. What is the situation of the poem?  Where does the action take place? pay special attention to the parentheses.

  2. What is the theme of this poem? What is it saying about love?  Is love sensual or spiritual?

  3. What details in the poem point to this conflict between love as spiritual or physical?

  4. what are some of the significant symbols in the poem?

  5. what do you make of the ending?  Why does the woman weep?  Should she weep if she's in heaven?

  6. How is this poem a reaction to the Industrial Revoltion? How is it a reaction to the science/faith conflict?

C. Rossetti "Goblin Market"

Consider the poem in terms of the following allegorical frames.  What passages from the poem are central to each frame?:

What do you make of the sexual feel/tone of the poem?


Aestheticism & Decadence

1. Women on Women: Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper (AKA Michael Field) depict females in "La Gioconda" and "'A Girl.'"  Compare and contrast their depictions of women.  Do the poems depict females in stereotypical ways or are the depictions more complex?  Explain and support your answer with details from the poems.

2. Love: Using topical organization, compare and contrast Field's "A Girl" and Custance's "The White Witch" in terms of their implied attitudes about love (in other words, compare and contrast the features of love these poems emphasize).  In a final paragraph, explain whether you think each poem is clearly a lesbian poem or is biographical context necessary to draw this conclusion about each poem.

3. Douglas/Wilde: Based on Gilbert's "If You're Anxious," the lecture, and the book's introduction define aestheticism and decadence.  Then explain to which category (or categories) Douglas's "Two Loves" and Wilde's "Symphony in Yellow" belong.  Explain how situating the poems into a category helps you understand them better. 

4. Douglas/Custance: Based on Whistler's "Ten O'Clock," the lecture, and the book's introduction, define aestheticism and decadence. Then explain to which category (or categories) Johnson's "A Decadent's Lyric" and Custance's "Masquerade" belong. Explain how situating the poems into a category helps you understand them better. 



Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest

Here's a link to fantastic questions on The Imporrance of Being Earnest from the Victorian Web. 


MODERN PERIOD



Hardy Poems
For each poem, answer the following questions:

  1. What happens in the poem?

  2. Who is the speaker of the poem?

  3. What strikes you about the poem in terms of form and content?  What seems unusual or unique about the poem? 

  4. How is the poem particularly modern?

  5. Does it remind you of other works?  Why/How?

Conrad Heart of Darkness

Here's a good set of broad based discussion questions: http://www.d.umn.edu/~csigler/conradquestions.html

Here's another set that is more specific, and keyed to the text (though the page numbers don't match up with our edition): http://english.sxu.edu/boyer/207_materials/hd_bed_qst.htm


Yeats Part I

1. How is "The Like Isle of Innisfree" a romantic poem?

2. Explain how Yeats uses imagery to create a particular attitude about nature in "The Like Isle of Innisfree"?

3. Who is Fergus and why should you go with him?

4. Many critics read "Who Goes with Fergus" as a carpe diem poem?  How is this a carpe diem poem and what makes it different than a normal carpe diem poem?

5. Yeats compares Maude Gonne to Helen of Troy in "No Second Troy"?  Who is Maude Gonne (look at the biographical sketch)? Who is Helen (look at the footnote)? And why does he compare the two?  What point is he trying to make?

6. Compare and contrast  "The Wilde Swans at Coole" to Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"?

7.  Thinking about the historical moments as well as Yeats's own life/timeline, what has "changed" (line 15) in "The Wilde Swans at Coole"?

8. What historical event does "Easter 1916" reference?  What is the significant of that event on the actual poem?

9. Yeats makes an abrupt shift in stanza 3 of "Easter 1916."  Analyze the symbolism in that stanza and explain how it relates to the entire poem.

Joyce "The Dead"

  1. What happens in the story?

  2. What kind of person is Gabriel? Characterize him.

  3. how does Gabriel interact w/ Lily (1139), Gretta (1141), and Ivors (1144) in the opening section?

  4. In general, how does Gabriel interact with his wife? What kind of relationship do they have? 1161-mastering her

  5. What is the significance of Freddy Malins in the story? 1143 1148 1161

  6. Compare and contrast Gabriel and Freddy?  Which one is more admirable?

  7. How significant are Irish historical/political concerns to the story? (1144-5 West Briton and statue references, 1155-6 Horse, O'Connell 1159)

  8. How does the story treat nostalgia? (1150-2)

    • Pope 1148

    • Music  1150ff

    • Gabriel's speech 1153

    • Horse 1155        

    • Michael Furey 1162

  9. Is the closing of the story optimistic or pessimistic?



Lawrence "Odor of Chrysanthemums"

  1. How does this story match up stylistically with others we've read?

  2. What is the significance of the opening image? 1318

  3. How does Lawrence manipulate our attitudes about Walt as the story progresses?

  4. Characterize Walt and Elizabeth?

  5. What is the significance of Elizabeth's discussion with her father? 1320

  6. What is the significance of the chrysanthemums? 1322

  7. How is the description of Elizabeth's emotional state at the end of part 1 (1323) emblematic of her feelings throughout?

  8. Compare and contrast the relationship between Walt and his mother and Walt and his wife?1325-7

  9. Why is Elizabeth so concerned about "working herself up"?

  10. What do you think of her speculations at the top of 1326 when she considers his possible death?

  11. Why doesn't she tell the kids what has happened?

  12. Characterize the emotional state of both women as they clean the body? 1329ff

  13. How is this a "modern" story?  What qualities does it emphasize? What is L's special take on modernism?

  14. What point does the story make about Industrialization?



West "Indissoluble Matrimony"

  1. What happens?

  2. How is the story conveyed?  What narrative perspective?

  3. What features stick out or seem odd? 

  4. How is this work similar to Conrad?

  5. How is this a feminist work?

  6. How is this a vorticist work?

  7. How is this a modernist work?


World War I Poets

For each of the poems for today, answer the following questions:

1. What is the general attitude about war expressed in the poem? (be as specific as you can). 
2. In what specific ways does the poet use poetic form and language to express the point? 
3. What is the most memorable passage from the poem? What makes it so memorable?
Yeats II

1. What is the tone of the first stanza of "The Second Coming" and how does Yeats use language to create the tone?
2. Who is the figure that is walking in the desert in "The Second Coming" and what does he symbolize?
3. What does "that country" represent in "Sailing to Byzantium" and explain how Yeats uses imagery and symbolism to convey this idea?
4. What power does an old man have according to "Sailing to Byzantium"?
5. What does Byzantium symbolize?
6. What does the speaker wanto become once he goes to Byzantium?  Why?
7. What points about the body and spirit is Yeats making in "Crazy Jane Talks to the Bishop"?


Woolf A Room of One's Own

  1. How does Woolf begin the essay?

  2. What figure represents what is most terrible about masculinity? 1230

  3. What is the point of bringing up Charles Lamb? 1231

  4. What is the point of the lunch scene? 1233

  5. What's the significance of the Manx Cat? 1233

  6. what social event "changed everything"? why? (1233)

  7. what's the difference between the living and the dead poets? (1234-5)

  8. How does money become important to what she's talking about? (1239)

  9. What technique does she use to close chapter 1? (1240)

  10. Why would Shakespeare's sister not have been successful? (1240-1)

  11. what problems did 19th century Women writers have? (1242)

  12. What does Woolf say about tradition in Women's writing? (1244-5)

  13. how does Woolf characterize human consciousness? (1248-9)

  14. What does Woolf mean by "androgynous" writing? 1250

  15. What counterarguments does Woolf anticipate at the end? 1251-2

  16. Describe Woolf’s style and overall rhetorical method

  17. How is the essay structured? Why?

  18. How is this a feminist text? Is W a whiney feminist?

  19. What conditions are necessary to produce art? (1253)

  20. Why do you think Woolf considered THE 20th-century woman writer?


Woolf's "Kew Gardens"

  1. What happens?

  2. How is the story conveyed?  What narrative perspective?

  3. What features stick out or seem odd?  (symbolism of flowers, snail, limited characters, limited action, subjectivity)

  4. How is this a modernist work?

  5. How significant is the writer's gender? Is this a feminist text?

  6. What is this work ultimately about?



Mansfield "The Daughters of the Late Colonel"

  1. What happens?

  2. How is the story conveyed?  What narrative perspective?

  3. What features stick out or seem odd? 

  4. How is this work similar to Conrad?
  5. How is this a feminist work?
  6. How is this a modernist work?
  7. How is it a Victorian work?


Yeats "Lapis Lazuli"




 

 

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