LITR 4533 Tragedy 2006 Final Exam

Open-book, open-notebook exam.  You may use any relevant sources aside from direct coaching or contributions from another person.

Options for taking exam:

·        come to class and write your answers in a blue book or on notebook paper in blue or black ink, or

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

Scheduling

Monday, 3 July during the regular class period (9-11:59am) is definite for anyone taking the exam in-class, but email final exam times may be more flexible.

The maximum time limit is 3 hours. You should spend at least two hours on the entire exam. By email you may submit the exam anytime between the afternoon of Thursday, 29 June, and 1pm, Monday, 3 July, but keep a log of when you stop and start. Pauses are okay, but otherwise try not to take advantages unavailable to in-class students. You may consult with the instructor by phone or email.

In-class protocol: You will already have a copy of  the midterm. You may begin at or around 9am. You may consult with the instructor. You need not ask permission for short breaks. Write in blue or black ink.  Write in a bluebook or on notebook paper on fronts and backs of pages.  No need to erase—just draw a line through anything you don’t read. Turn in your exam at the instructor’s table when you finish.

Sending your midterm by email: Try both of the following

*Paste the contents of the appropriate word processing file directly into the email message to whitec@uhcl.edu.

*“Attach” your word processing file to an email message. (My computer uses Microsoft Word 2000. The only program my computer appears unable to translate is Microsoft Works.  If in doubt, save your word processing file in "Rich Text Format" or a “text only” format.)

Final Exam Contents:

Two sections of one hour+ apiece. You may write these sections in any order you choose.

Essay on self-selected topic relevant to course and involving course readings, especially since midterm.

Research report on topic of your choice with list of works cited. (Details above.)

Essay on self-selected topic relevant to course and involving course readings, especially since midterm.

Please give a title to your essay

Length: At least four paragraphs, but this measurement varies with lengths of sentences and paragraphs.

Texts: Refer to 3-4 texts from our class readings. Most of these should be readings after the midterm. You may expand your range to additional course readings and briefly to texts beyond our course.

Readings since midterm: Antigone, Medea, Raisin in the Sun, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Ah, Wilderness!, A Moon for the Misbegotten.

Readings before midterm: Oedipus Tyrannus, Hamlet, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Desire Under the Elms

Outside references: As many as you like, but you may not have much time.

No reference to a previous final exam is required, though welcome.

You are required to make at least one reference to a class handout: Aristotle’s Poetics, the genre handout, comic theory handout, greatness of tragedy handout, anything else handed out or available on course webpage.

Selecting a topic:

Above all, think about what you want to write about, what you’ve been thinking about on your own or what keeps recurring to you as important during discussions or lectures.

Your topic may simply be an extension of what you developed in your midterm. You may refer to your midterm as a base for further development.

Those considering teaching careers may develop a topic related to learning or instruction, but discuss the texts themselves in relation to your theme.

Refer to relevant course objectives. Welcome to challenge, extend, or re-orient them.

Possible topics (not in priority order)

1. Your personal insight about tragedy and its related genres; or about women in tragedy; or about O'Neill. This "personal insight" could be quite specific, but relate it to broader course lessons, themes, backgrounds.

2. Your general "learning curve" about tragedy and related genres across the semester. Where did you start and where have you arrived? What do you carry out of the course?

3. As an added dimension, you are welcome to reflect on some of the teaching / learning aspects of a "student-centered" classroom. You're not expected to sing its praises but evaluate how well it worked, what was gained and what sacrificed by running a course this way. How transferable are these methods to other levels or types of education? If you develop an education-centered topic, be sure to stay in touch with examples from our texts and objectives for the course.

4. If you want a more specific, definable question, you can answer one of the questions asked on the 2002 final exam, or some combination of these questions. But develop the question so that it fills half the exam period rather than a third, as it was originally designed to do.

Some slightly more specific potential topics:

5. Interplay of tragedy, comedy, romance as imitations of reality and appeals to audience

6. Tragedy as a search for truth, development of reason and exercise of learning.

7. Tragedy as catharsis, for playwright and / or audience.

8. Any combination of above +- added elements.

Research Report

Brief description: As part of your final exam, you will write a report and submit a bibliography summarizing research on a topic of your choice.

Please give a title to your research report.

Format: As with the midterm, you may write your research report (and the rest of the exam) either in the classroom or via email. If you write it in class, you must email me your bibliography.

Time: This part of the exam should take at least one hour. You may perform this part of the exam at any time in the two hours and 50 minutes allowed.

Length: Given different handwriting and styles, length requirements are impossible to estimate. Four paragraphs would be a minimum, depending on paragraph lengths, but 5-7 might be more aspiring and impressive.

Report style: 

• Describe your topic
• Explain its significance (or why you were interested in it)
• What you knew (or thought you knew) about it, 
• And above all, what you found out or learned. 
• As summary, what next would you like to learn about your subject?

The exercise is called “a report,” but it should exemplify the same values as any essay: interest, organization, and insight. Comparing what you found from different sources is one obvious way to organize a report like this.

Research requirements:

Summarize research from at least four sources.  The breakdown of these four sources may change with your topic, but the following will be the “default” procedure.

·        At least one source should be a “background” source like an encyclopedia or handbook in the Neumann Library Reference Area. (Required)

·        At least one should be a “secondary” source such as a scholarly book or article that discusses some aspect of your subject. (Required)

·        One of your sources may be from the World Wide Web, and one of them may involve an interview with an “expert” on the subject, but both these paths are optional.  (By an “expert,” I mean someone with special or advanced knowledge of your subject.  You might consult other professors here or elsewhere, but there are many other possibilities.)

·        You may use more than four sources, but don’t use more than you can report on in an hour’s work. If you research many more sources, just choose the best for discussion.

Bibliography or “Works Cited” for Research Report: Email (or otherwise electronically transmit) to me a copy of your bibliography or “Works Cited.” If you write the exam in-class, you should also hand in a print-out of your bibliography. MLA Style is preferred, but as long as I could find the source through your listing, okay. In your research report you may refer to these sources by last name of author or by brief title.