LITR 4232 American Renaissance

2008 Midterm

Date: 23 October 2008  

Open-book, open-notebook.  Use any relevant course materials, plus outside sources except direct coaching or contributions from another person, or copying or borrowing from outside sources without attribution.

Options for taking exam:

  • come to classroom around exam period (10-11:20) and write answers in a bluebook or notebook paper in blue or black ink (you may start earlier and stay later), or

  • spend two hours or so at a terminal writing an electronic document and sending it to the instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu via email. The deadline is Sunday evening, 26 October (or pre-arrange another submission time)

  • In-class exams are read separately from online exams to minimize different conditions.

Overview of midterm content (details after format):

Part 1. Self-Selected Passage Analysis (30-50 minutes): Choose, relate, and analyze a passage from our course readings.

Part 2. Essay section (1 hour or more): Formal / literary option, Cultural / historical option, or combination

Special information for in-class students:

In-class protocol: Since you already have your copy of the midterm, you may simply come to the classroom around 9-10am and begin writing whether instructor is there or not. You may consult with the instructor--if not in classroom, phone office at 281 283 3380 or come to Bayou 2529-8. No need to ask permission for short breaks. Write in blue or black ink in a bluebook or notebook paper on fronts and backs of pages.  No need to erase—just draw a line through anything you don’t want read. When finished, turn in exam at instructor’s table or bring it to instructor's office .

Special instructions for online students:

No attendance requirement for 23 October 2008

Keep a log of when you start & stop. Dividing up the exam process with pauses and breaks is OK. You may use the course webpage, but otherwise try not to take any advantage unavailable to in-class students. Consult with instructor by phone or email.

 

Send answers to 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 acknowledgement within 24 hours, be concerned.

  • Make sure that the email address is for whitec and not just white.

  • Ask for help from a tech or a techie friend.

  • Call me at 281 283 3380. Leave a voice message.

By email you may write and submit the exam anytime between the afternoon of Tuesday, 21 October, and Sunday evening, 26 October. Later submissions may be arranged beforehand.

Provide a log of when you stop and start, either in the exam or via email message. Pauses are okay; you may even use two different days to write the two answers. You may consult with the instructor by phone or email.

Response to email: Instructor will acknowledge receipt of email exam within 24 hours--if no response, check address. Grades with notes are returned by email in about a week.

How to prepare for essay questions / answers:

  • Do as much note-taking, outlining, prewriting, and practicing as you find helpful.
     

  • Discuss questions and answers with classmates. It's not cheating to help each other prepare.
     

  • Review questions, preparation, and "practice drafts" with UHCL Writing Center in advance
     

Required references:

You must discuss Last of the Mohicans either in your ID selection or as one of your 3+ texts in your essay answer.

Somewhere in your midterm, refer to previous midterm samples at least once (any year)

Model Assignments

2006 midterm samples

2004 midterm samples

Part 1. Self-Selected Passage Analysis (30 minutes)

Choose, relate, and analyze a passage from our course readings before the midterm.

  • To choose a passage from our required readings, first consult your memory: Which page or moment in our texts reminds itself to you? Ask and answer why.
     

  • Two passages are possible as long as you connect them in your analysis.
     

  • The passage may or may not be one we went over in class, but it must be from texts and authors assigned before the midterm.

Explore and explain why the passage speaks to you or why you chose it. Personal reasons are OK for starters, but expand the passage’s appeal or significance.

  • Connect your analysis to one or more course objectives or related themes.

  • Analyze. Midterm samples can provide examples of this process. Focus on the passage. Describe how the language works to create meaning, appeals to readers, and develops themes or ideas. Analyze the textual passage on its own terms, in its larger context, or by comparing it to other texts.

  • Make it matter. Why or how does the passage speak to literary and/or cultural issues in and beyond this course?

Warning: This description offers more options than most people can fulfill in the time allotted. Be careful not to spend too long here. Part 2 counts more.

Problems or issues: Do you need to copy out the passage? No, but selectively quote or highlight important words or phrases. If you don't have a handy electronic copy of the passage, just mention the title and location in the anthology.

Sample IDs from 2006

Sample IDs from 2004

 

Part 2. Essay section (1 hour or more)

Our course posting on the American Renaissance highlights the complementary literary and cultural-historical dimensions of this period.

Your essay topic and choice of objectives may reflect either a literary or cultural-historical emphasis or both.

  • Indicate which essay option you’re choosing (Formal / Literary, Cultural / Historical, or combination).
     

  • If one option overlaps with another, that may not be a problem. The options are only different approaches to similar materials.
     

  • If your essay overlaps with your Self-Selected Passage Analysis, just be quick about it. Feel free to refer to points developed earlier in the exam.
     

  • Give your essay a title.

 

Formal / literary option

Assignment: Discuss how American Renaissance authors use one or more elements of Romanticism to represent aspects of the American experience, landscape, and / or people.

  • Refer to three or more texts from our course readings. (You may refer briefly to authors beyond the course, but not required.)
     

  • Focus on one or two literary terms or forms from objective 2: the romance narrative, the gothic, the sublime, Transcendentalism, or combinations.
     

  • Compare and contrast authors and texts.
     

  • Conclude strongly on outcome: What have you learned about Romanticism or its elements? Or about American literature, or literature generally?

Objective 2. To study the movement of "Romanticism," the narrative genre of "romance," and the related styles of the "gothic" and "the sublime." (The American Renaissance is the major period of American Romantic Literature.)

 

Samples of formal / literary option from 2006

 

Samples of formal / literary option from 2004

 

Cultural / historical option

How has literature of the American Renaissance challenged or developed your ideas of American culture or history and the role of literature in shaping and understanding it?

  • Connect your answer to the course objectives, probably objectives 1 & 3.
     

  • Refer to at least 3 texts from our readings. Connect these authors and texts with each other. (You may refer briefly to authors beyond the course, but not required.)
     

  • You might choose 3 or more texts that chart the range of cultural history represented by American Renaissance literature. (Your three texts might handle different issues that come together to make a wide picture of American culture then—or even now.)
     

  • Or align three or more texts that deal with a single issue or identity, e. g., American Indians, abolition of slavery, women’s rights, literacy / education, gaining a voice, American identity, etc. (Don’t feel limited to this list. Try out an idea that matters to you.)

  • Remember this is a Literature course. Emphasize the language being used, issues of literacy or voice, or other elements that link literature and language with culture and history
     

  • Conclude strongly: What have you proved or learned about our past and present by reading literature and cultural history together?

 

samples of cultural / historical option from 2006

 

samples of cultural / historical option from 2004

 

Objective 1. To use "close reading" and "Historicism" as ways of studying classic, popular, and representative literature and cultural history of the "American Renaissance" (the generation before the Civil War).

Objective 3. To use literature as a basis for discussing representative problems and subjects of American culture (Historicism), such as equality (race, gender, class); modernization and tradition; the individual, family; and community; nature; the role of writers in an anti-intellectual society.

 

 

Combination of literary-historical / formal-cultural approaches

If you’re feeling inspired to combine our two essay options, welcome to announce your adventure under this heading. The Model Assignments offer a few samples of such essays.

x/z sample from 2006

2 x/z samples from 2004

 

Grading standards:

Quality of writing: strength and interest of theme; thematic organization and development; transitions and connections between parts of essay; general unity of essay; surface quality (absence of chronic errors); inclusion of titles.

Evidence of learning: All midterms are expected to use central terms and themes from objectives with text-examples highlighted in lecture-discussion with competence

Extension of learning: Better midterms refresh, extend, or vary terms, themes, and examples with the student's own language or voice, plus examples from wider reading, viewing, and experience beyond this class.

A dependable distinction between competent and outstanding essays:

Competent essays treat texts or authors in isolation from each other; that is, they pick one up but put it down when they move on to the next text or author.

Better essays connect what one text or author is doing with what another text or author is doing; they look back and forth from one part to the next, building on earlier points, being self-conscious about what they've said before, and extending what they've started to larger points.

Course Objectives:

1. To use "close reading" and "Historicism" as ways of studying classic, popular, and representative literature and cultural history of the "American Renaissance" (the generation before the Civil War).

2. To study the movement of "Romanticism," the narrative genre of "romance," and the related styles of the "gothic" and "the sublime." (The American Renaissance is the major period of American Romantic Literature.)

3. To use literature as a basis for discussing representative problems and subjects of American culture (Historicism), such as equality (race, gender, class); modernization and tradition; the individual, family; and community; nature; the role of writers in an anti-intellectual society.

 

Web addresses:

LITR 4232 homepage: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4232

LITR 4232 syllabus: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4232/L4232syl2008x2.htm

LITR 4232 Model Assignments: http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4232/models4