LITR 4332 American Minority Literature
Midterm exam 2008

Date: 14 October                                                   Relative weight: 40% of final grade

Format: In-class or email; open-book and open-notebook.

Midterm overview: 3 essays + optional research report proposal

  • Topic 1 (minority culture): Explain this course's "minority concept" in relation to Objectives 1-4 & 2-3 texts
     

  • Topic 2 (literary style): self-selected text analysis related to Literary Style Objectives 5 & 6
     

  • Topic 3 (African American literature): Essay on  "The American Dream and the Dream" and / or "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic"
     

  • Research Report Proposal (optional): Paragraph indicating your likely topic for research report on final exam. Following Hurricane Ike, the research report is optional. See final exam.

(Details on all parts follow below)

Special requirements:

Provide titles for your essays. (Titles help set up Model Assignments.)

Make at least one reference to previous midterms in at least one of your answers. You are welcome to make more than one, but don't let references take over your exam.

Not required but impressive: refer to student presentations or discussions--insights and/or quotations.

Format: Take your midterm in-class or online

Open-book, open-notebook. 

  • Use any relevant course materials plus brief references to outside sources as helpful

  • Discuss assignment and receive suggestions or feedback from classmates, UHCL Writing Center, or mentors, but no direct writing contributions or hands-on editing from another person.

  • Don't copy or borrow from outside sources without attribution--honor code violation! (Just tell where you got the idea or words--your research will impress!)

Options for taking exam:

  • come to classroom during exam period and write answers in dark ink in bluebook or on notebook paper, or use a laptop

  • spend a roughly equivalent time at a terminal writing an electronic document and sending it to the instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu via email.

  • No attendance expectations on 14 October.

Timing: The maximum time limit is 3 hours for in-class exams and 4 hours for online exams.

  • You should write for at least two hours.

  • In-class exams and online exams are read separately, minimizing the time difference.

Email students may write and submit the exam anytime between the end of class on Tuesday, 7 October, and 11pm Tuesday, 14 October. (Or pre-arrange another submission time)

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

Sending your midterm by email: Try both of the following

  • Attach your word processing file to an email message. (My computer uses Microsoft Word 2007. The only program it appears unable to translate is Microsoft Works.  If in doubt, save your word processing file in "Rich Text Format" or a “text only” format.)
  • Paste the contents of your word processing file directly into an email to whitec@uhcl.edu.

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

In-class protocol: Since you already have a copy of the midterm, come to the classroom at 7pm 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.

  • If preferred, you may write on a laptop.

Length: Given different personal writing styles, lengths vary. Generally the best exams have more writing, while less impressive exams stop sooner and look like it.

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
     

Textual references: Somewhere in your exam, you must refer to the following texts / reading assignments:

Course objectives

Topics

  • Write essay answers for all three topics.

  • Overlap between parts of your midterm may be inevitable. Cross-referencing is preferable to repetition.

Topic 1 (minority culture): Explain this course's "minority concept" in relation to Objectives 1-4 & 2-3 texts

Referring to 2-3 course texts and various aspects of objectives 1-4, explain how this course identifies American minority cultures in comparison and contrast to the American dominant culture.

Cultural Objectives 1-4 provide many terms and themes for your answers. Demonstrate your understanding by selectively quoting from the objectives. Use your own language to explain meanings and develop examples from course texts, but keep connecting to course themes and objectives.

Establish the minority definition in comparison and contrast to America's dominant culture as the Immigrant Narrative and the American Dream.

What are some attractions, problems, and other issues with this definition or approach? What other options are available for defining American minorities?

Length: At least three paragraphs.

Textual references: 2-3 course texts

Topic 2 (literary style): self-selected text analysis related to Literary Style Objectives 5 & 6

Choose a passage from one of our course texts that impressed you not only for its content but above all for its style or flair in delivering its message.

Length: Three paragraphs? Or maybe two longish paragraphs.

The following stages of development may be re-arranged so that your own writing achieves its own best style.

  • Explain why you chose the passage, why you remembered it, and/or your first impression upon reading it.
     

  • Review one or more aspects of Literary Style Objectives 5 & 6 and relate to the passage, highlighting the points of contact. Other Course Objectives are also welcome.
     

  • Analyze language, imagery, figures of speech, sound, and larger structural patterns or movements. Refer to Objectives 6b, 6c, & 6e, but welcome also to use stylistic knowledge from other courses or research.
     

  • You may analyze the passage in and of itself, but you may also relate it to its larger context.
     

  • How does your overall analysis fulfill literary standards, in contrast to studying minority literature as sociology or cultural studies? What are the advantages (or disadvantages) of studying minority issues as literature? How do we resolve the counter-tensions in our course between analyzing literary texts and sharing stories and insights about our racial culture?

Possible variations: You might try two brief passages if they're obviously related, or contrast.

Choosing a passage: Look over the syllabus (or the textual references list on this exam) to remind you of the possibilities. When you think about our course readings for the course, what do you remember and why? What appeals are made to your consciousness? What do you learn from such questions about yourself and literature?

Textual references:

Topic 3 (African American literature): Essay on  "The American Dream and the Dream" and / or "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic"

Length: 4-6 paragraphs.

Textual references: At least 3 course texts, including The Bluest Eye

Topic (with options): Focusing on "The American Dream and the Dream" and / or "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic," discuss how African American literature describes both minority status in America and a positive alternative identity within those terms.

Objectives: Objective 1 for sure, with possibilities for Objectives 4, 5 and maybe others.

Options: Your examples and analysis can emphasize either

  • "The American Dream and the Dream", or

  • "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic,"

Either option requires a two-step analysis.

1. The American Dream or the Color Code as defining the minority situation for African Americans. (This first step is negative in terms of historical or racial injustice.)

2. The Dream or the Black Aesthetic as creating a positive alternative. (This second step offers a partly positive vision or response to the minority situation.)

Purpose or challenge of the question:

  • The standard defense for minority literature is that it involves groups who are historically marginalized, exploited, and voiceless in many literature courses.

  • A traditional reaction against minority studies is that they encourage "victimization" and discourage American Dream or Immigrant values such as independence, self-reliance, and color-blindness (however questionable).

  • The two steps of this analysis honor both sides of the critique.

Possible procedure:

1. Choose which option you prefer: "The American Dream and the Dream" and / or "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic" (plus maybe explain or defend your selection)

2. Select and review examples from at least 3 course texts

3. Analyze textual examples in terms of the "The American Dream and the Dream" or "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic."

4. Show how the minority culture's problems with the American Dream or the Color Code lead to the solutions developed by The Dream or The Black Aesthetic.

5. Review the learning or creative process the authors go through, and also review your own learning experience from the exercise. Connect your own language and insight to the Course Objectives.

Possible texts for "The American Dream and the Dream"

Possible Objectives (excerpts . . . ) for "The American Dream and the Dream":

Cultural or Minority-Concept Objectives (1-4) . . . Historical foundation:

  • The dominant culture of the USA is formed by immigrants and their descendents
    who live or imagine the American Dream.
     
  • Minorities are ethnic groups that do not fit the immigrant narrative or profile,
    for whom  the American Dream has typically been an American Nightmare.
     
  • Our course traces how minority groups both express and transcend this negative definition. . . .

1a. Involuntary participation and continuing oppression—the American Nightmare

Unlike the dominant immigrant culture, ethnic minorities did not choose to come to America or join its dominant culture. (African Americans were kidnapped, American Indians were invaded.)

Exploitation and oppression instead of opportunity . . . .

Thus the "social contract" of Native Americans and African Americans differs from that of European Americans, Asian Americans, and most Latin Americans. . . .

1b. “Voiceless and choiceless”; “Voice = Choice” . . .  

 1e. Dominant Culture Attitudes

  • Immigrants leave the past behind and think minorities should do the same. . . .

  • Despite powerful evidence to the contrary, the dominant culture claims to be colorblind : “My parents raised me not to judge people by the color of their skin” (frequently articulated in resentment of minority expression).

Objective 3: minority dilemma--assimilate or resist?

  • Does the minority fight or join the dominant culture that exploited it?
  • What balance do minorities strike between the economic benefits of assimilation and its personal or cultural sacrifices?
  • In general, immigrants assimilate, while minorities remain separate . . . .

Objective 5: Minority Narratives . . . .

  • A cultural narrative is a collective story that unifies or directs a community--for example, The American Dream for the USA, or particular minority narratives that reflect an ethnic group's experience or range of expression.

  • Following Minority-Culture Objective 1, Minority Narratives differ from the dominant “American Dream” narrative—which involves voluntary participation, forgetting the past, and individuals or nuclear families.

  • Instead, minority narratives generally involve involuntary participation, reconnecting to a broken past, and traditional, extended, or alternative families. . . .

 5a. African American alternative narrative: “The Dream”

  • "The Dream" resembles but is not identical to "The American Dream."

  • Whereas the American Dream emphasizes immediate individual success, "the Dream" factors in setbacks, the need to rise again, and group dignity.

Possible texts for "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic"

Possible Objectives (excerpts . . . ) for "The Color Code and the Black Aesthetic"

1d. “The Color Code”

  • Literature represents the extremely sensitive subject of skin color infrequently or indirectly.

  • Western civilization transfers values associated with “light and dark”—e. g., good & evil, rational / irrational—to people of light or dark complexions, with huge implications for power, validity, sexuality, etc.

  • This course mostly treats minorities as a historical phenomenon, but the biological or visual aspect of human identity may be more immediate and direct than history. People most comfortably interact with others who look like themselves or their family.

  • Skin color matters, but how much varies by circumstances.

  • See also Objective 3 on racial hybridity.

1e. Dominant Culture Attitudes

  • Immigrants leave the past behind and think minorities should do the same.

  • Thus the dominant American immigrant culture dismisses minority grievances with shrugs, platitudes, and exasperation: “That was a long time ago. . . . Get over it”

  • Despite powerful evidence to the contrary, the dominant culture claims to be colorblind : “My parents raised me not to judge people by the color of their skin” (frequently articulated by those resentful of minority expression).

3a. To contrast the dominant-culture ideology of racial separation from American practice, which frequently involves hybridity (mixing) and change.

  • The dominant American white culture typically sees races and genders as pure and permanent categories, perhaps allotted by God or Nature as a result of Creation, climate, natural selection, etc.,

  • But races always mix. What we call "pure" is only the latest change we're used to.

  • Racial divisions & definitions constantly change or adapt; e. g., the Old South's quadroons, octaroons, "a single drop"; recent revisions of racial origins of Native America; Hispanic as "non-racial" classification; "bi-racial"

  • Contrast “four races” (Aboriginal, Caucasian, Mongolian, & Negroid) with “only one race: the human race”

  • Instead of “black & white” dynamics, America is increasingly  “brown” or "other"

  • “post-racial” identity of urban American youth following school integration, in contrast to "pure" races surviving in suburbs, private religious schools, and interior states

 3b. To identify the "new American" who crosses, combines, or confuses ethnic or gender identities
(e. g., Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, David Bowie, Boy George, Tila Tequila, Nicole Scherzinger of Pussycat Dolls, Vin Diesel)

Grading standards:

Quality of writing: power and appeal of themes consistent throughout essay; unity, organization, and development; transitions and connections; surface quality (absence of chronic errors); inclusion of titles.

Evidence of learning: All exams are expected to use central terms and themes from objectives and to introduce text-examples from lecture-discussion and, better, their own reading. Knowledge from beyond the course and on-the-spot inventiveness are impressive, but first and foremost demonstrate learning by comprehending and developing course’s essential materials.

Extension of learning: The best exams not only comprehend the course’s terms, objectives, and texts but also use the student's voice to refresh, extend, or vary terms and themes with examples from the class, from your own reading for the course, and from experience beyond our class. Make our course meet your world.

Optional Research Report Proposal: Paragraph indicating your likely topic for research report on final exam. Following Hurricane Ike, this research report is optional. See final exam.

If, however, you wish to write the research report, here is the assignment:

As part of your midterm exam, write and submit a proposal for the Research Report that will be part of your final exam.

You may write this proposal ahead of time and simply turn it in with the midterm, or you may write it during the midterm period.

Assignment: Write 3-5 sentences identifying your probable topic for a research report, explaining why you chose it, and speculating on what you hope to learn and how. Explain the sources of your interest. Give some indication of what you already know and what you wish to find out.

Range of subjects: You have considerable freedom to choose, but a reader of your proposal should immediately recognize its relevance to a course on minority literature and identity. You may extend research you have done previously for other courses or personal interests, but be up-front about what you learned before and what you wish to learn for this assignment.

Requirements and possibilities for topics:

  • Except under special circumstances approved by the instructor, your topic must have something to do with minority literature as this course defines it—therefore, some connection to either African American, Native American, or Mexican American, or some combination of these groups. You may also incorporate aspects of gender or class as minority categories.
     

  • Your topic should involve some aspect of literature or culture associated with one or more of these groups—for instance, a movement in literature, an important author or group of authors, a genre or style of writing associated with the minority group.
     

  • Welcome to focus on a course objective and apply or develop it in an extended or different direction from the class.
     

  • Ask yourself what you want to know and why you want to know about it--anything to do with our subject. Or think of what you already know (or think you know) and what kinds of questions you’d like to answer.
     

  • As far as texts, your readings will not be primary texts (like novels, plays, autobiographies, etc.) but rather secondary texts like encyclopedia articles, research guides, overviews of subjects, so that you can gather information, not form opinions (though some themes or generalizations are necessary).
     

  • Other topics or areas may be developed as the semester progresses. The main thing is for you to choose a topic you care about and want to learn about and share.
     

  • Review previous semesters’ research reports for LITR 4332 and 4333.

Response to Research Proposal

  • Student does not receive an announced letter grade for the proposal, only a “yes” or instructions for receiving a yes. Students will not lose credit for problems in reaching a topic as long as they are working to resolve these problems.

  • The only way you can start getting into trouble over the proposal is if you simply don’t offer much to work with, especially after prompts from instructor. An example of a bad proposal is a single sentence that starts, “I’m thinking about . . . ” and ends with “ . . . doing something about race and gender.” Then for the question, “What do you think?” In these cases, a bad grade isn’t recorded, but notes regarding the paper proposal may appear on the Final Grade Report.