English 2204 / Summer 2007

Review for the Final Exam

To Study:

1.) Know these authors' names and a few "major" biographical and "writerly" facts about each one:

• William Faulkner

• Katherine Anne Porter

• Ernest Hemingway

• Jon Hassler

• James Baldwin

• Alice Walker

• Bobbie Ann Mason

• Raymond Carver (2)

• John Cheever

• Ursula K. Le Guin

• Leslie Marmon Silko

2.) For each of the authors listed above, review the stories we read and know the following:

• Titles

• Major characters

• Settings -- times and places

• Narrators -- points of view

• Conflicts

• Themes

3.)  Know these things above, know the story, well enough so that you can answer "2-point" questions about the story -- question that go beyond the objective facts, questions which ask about significance of some of the elements of the story.  For example:

• Explain how Porter's title relates to the events in the story -- or -- Explain how Porter's title is significant and/or symbolic in terms of the events described in the story.

• Why do you think Laura is aiding the revolutionaries?

• Why does Porter present such a negative picture of Braggioni?

• In Hemingway's story, how or why is it significant that the old man is deaf?

• In Hassler's novel, how does Agatha's fern relate to the events in the story?

• In Walker's story, what do the quilts represent (literally and/or symbolically)?

• In Carver's story, why do you think it is most significant that the narrator tries to draw a cathedral, as opposed to, say, a filling station or a museum?

• In Cheever's story, how might Neddy Merrill's idea about "swimming home" relate to this eventual "downfall"?

4.) Know these literary time periods and a few "major" facts about each one:

• Modernism

• Post-Modernism

5.) Know the "basics" about these critical approaches to literature:

• Biographical criticism

• Mythological criticism

• Sociological criticism

• Formalist criticism

• Cultural Studies criticism

The Exam:

1.) Expect some "identification" kinds of questions. For example:

• Matching authors' names to biographical facts and story titles
• Matching story titles to characters, settings, points of view, etc.
• Literary terms to definitions and/or examples
• Literary time periods to definitions and/or characteristics
• Characters to quotations
• etc.

2.) Expect some "short answer" questions -- see #3 above.

3.) Expect more of the "short essay" (one full paragraph) questions. For example:

• I might ask you to explain the modern / post-modern elements in a story.
• I might give you one quotation from each story we read. I would then ask you to identify each quotation by author and title and then explain how each quotation relates to a major theme and the main character in each story.
• I might give you a quotation you haven't seen before -- perhaps a quotation by another writer or critic -- and ask you to respond to it using a story we've read.