in-class: 10-11:20;
write in ink on exam sheet for ID’s; write in ink on paper or bluebook for
essayLITR 4232: American Renaissance, UHCL,
spring 2002
Midterm
Exam
Date: 28 Feb 2002
Format:
Open-book, open-notebook (but not a cure-all)
2
options for taking exam
in-class: 10-11:20;
write in ink on exam sheet for ID’s; write in ink on paper or bluebook for
essay
Special
instructions for email students:
You will receive the exam by email (and it will be posted to the
webpage) around 9:45am. It must be returned by 1pm. Within that three-hour span
you may spend a total of 80 minutes writing the exam. Keep
a log as you start and stop. Breaks or pauses are OK.
Where to write your answers? Overall my attitude is for you to
work things out as best you can under the circumstances. For the "Identify
and Signify" section, if you can't write in the spaces provided, just
provide identification for which question you're answering and write your
answers in the same file as your essay.
Send your answers to me at whitec@uhcl.edu.
Attach your file to the message and
paste the contents into the email.
I will acknowledge receipt of your emailed exam within a few
hours. If you do not receive an acknowledgement from me within 24 hours, you
should be concerned. Call me at 281 283 3380.
If you have mechanical trouble returning your exam to me, or if I
don't acknowledge receipt in a few hours, try the following
Check the email address to me. Make sure it's for whitec and not just white.
Ask for help from a tech or a techie friend.
Call me at 281 283 3380. If I don't answer, leave a voice message
explaining your situation. Something will work out.
Part
1. “Identify and signify.”
Answer 2 of the following 3 passages.
In-class
students: Write your answers in the spaces provided on the question sheet;
if more space is needed (as it probably should be), continue on backs of test
sheets with numbers and arrows to identify.
Email
students: Indicate which quotation you’re answering by heading your answer
with its number.
Instructions
from syllabus: In the case of quoted passages, first you will “identify”
the passage by author, title, and context in the work from which the passage is
taken. Second, you will “signify”—that is, highlight and discuss themes,
ideas, and style features of the passage in relation to course lectures and
discussions. [Comparisons and contrasts to other texts are welcome.]
Passages from readings (2002)
(In-class
students may write in spaces and on backs of pages)
Passage
#1.
Our house stood within a few rods of the
Chesapeake Bay, whose broad bosom was ever white with sails from every quarter
of the habitable globe. . . I have
often, in the deep stillness of a summer's Sabbath, stood all alone upon the
lofty banks of that noble bay, and traced, with saddened heart and tearful eye,
the countless number of sails moving off to the mighty ocean. The sight of these
always affected me powerfully. My thoughts would compel utterance; and there,
with no audience but the Almighty, I would pour out my soul's complaint . . .
"You are loosed from your moorings, and
are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the
gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom's swiftwinged
angels, that fly round the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were
free! Oh, that I were on one of your gallant decks, and under your protecting
wing! Alas! Betwixt you and me the turbid waters roll. Go on, go on. O that I
could also go! Could I but swim! If I could fly! O, why was I born a man, of
whom to make a brute! The glad ship is gone . . . . I am left in the hottest
hell of unending slavery. . . . There is a better day coming."
Passage
#2.
"Name chapter and verse; in which of
the holy books do you find language to support you?"
"Book! . . . What have such as I, who
am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to do with books!
I never read but in one, and the words that are written there are too simple and
too plain to need much schooling . . . ."
"What call you the volume?" . . .
"'Tis open before your eyes . . . and
he who owns it is not a [miser] of its use. I have heard it said, that there are
men who read in books, to convince themselves there is a God! I know not but man
may so deform his works in the settlements, as to leave that which is so clear
in the wilderness, a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If any such
there be, and he will follow me from sun to sun, through the windings of the
forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a fool, and that the
greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the level of one he can never
equal, be it in goodness, or be it power."
The instant [the other man] discovered that
he battled with a disputant who imbibed his faith from the lights of nature, . .
. he willingly abandoned [the] controversy.
Passage
#3.
Under a government which imprisons any
unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison . . . .
When I came out of prison,--for some one
interfered, and paid the tax,-- . . . a change had to my eyes come over the
scene,--the town, and State, and country,--greater than any that mere time could
effect. I saw yet more distinctly the State in which I lived. . . .
My neighbors first looked at me, and then at
one another, as if I had returned from a long journey. I was put into jail as I
was going to the shoemaker's to get a shoe which was mended. When I was let out
the next morning, I proceeded to finish my errand, and, having put on my mended
shoe, joined a huckleberry party who were impatient to put themselves under my
conduct; and in half an hour,--for the horse was soon tackled [harnessed], I was
in the midst of a huckleberry field, on one of our highest hills, two miles off,
and then the State was nowhere to be seen.
Essay section
Write a 1-hour essay on one of the following topics.
Indicate which essay option (Option X: Formal / Literary or Option Z:
Cultural / Historical) you’re choosing.
If one option overlaps with another, this may not be a problem. The
two questions are designed to give different approaches to somewhat similar
materials.
Proposition:
The American Renaissance inherited Romanticism, the romance narrative, and ideas
of the gothic and sublime primarily from European literature and culture but
adapts these forms to reflect the realities of the American landscape, the
problems of American history, and the identities of American people.
Assignment:
Focusing on one or more of the elements of Romanticism listed above, discuss how
three or four American writers adapt Romanticism to American realities.
Compare and contrast authors and texts with each other. (That is,
don't treat these texts in isolation from each other.)
Concentrate on one or two aspects of Romanticism, as you may not
have time to cover every aspect.
In the Declaration of Independence during the
American Revolution, Thomas Jefferson wrote, "We hold these truths to be
self-evident: that all men are created equal . . . ." In 1863, during the
American Civil War, Lincoln said (in "The Gettysburg Address"),
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil
war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure."
Between the American Revolution and the American Civil War came the literary and cultural movement now known as the American Renaissance. Citing at least 3 sources from the literature of this period, describe how authors, texts, or characters challenged the USA to live up to the Declaration’s promise of equality.
Develop your commentary on this cultural-historical situation by using literary concepts like voice, literacy, and the strategies authors used to help readers identify with those they might consider unequal or consider ideas they might not have respected otherwise.