LITR 4533:
TRAGEDY

Copy of Midterm 2008

LITR 4533 Tragedy: summer 2008 midterm exam, 23 June 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 class during exam period and write your answers in a blue book or on notebook paper in blue or black ink, or

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

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.

By email you may write and submit the exam anytime between the afternoon of Thursday, 8 June, and 1pm, Monday, 23 June, but keep a log of when you stop and start. Pauses are okay, but otherwise try not to take any advantage unavailable to in-class students. You may consult with the instructor by phone or email.

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 within about a week.

In-class protocol: Since you already have your copy of the midterm, you may simply come to the classroom at 9am 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 .

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 2007. 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.)

Midterm contents: 2 essays of 4-6+ paragraphs each

  • Essay 1: genre in general
     
  • Essay 2: tragedy in particular

See below for details.

Your essay answers may overlap somewhat. If so, no need to repeat yourself--just refer to what you wrote elsewhere, or review and extend.

Requirements of all essays

  • Both your essays must have titles.
     
  • See Model Assignments for examples
     
  • Length: Each essay must be 4-6+ paragraphs, but numbers may vary with sentence and paragraph lengths. In

Text & handout requirements

  • Somewhere in your whole exam you must refer substantively to each of the plays we read in class: Oedipus the King; Act 3, Scene 4 from Hamlet; Agamemnon; The Homecoming (or Mourning Becomes Electra).
     

  • After first references, you may abbreviate titles and names: Oedipus the King > Oed; Agamemnon > Ag; Clytaemnestra > Cly, etc.
     

  • Welcome to refer to outside examples familiar to your reading and viewing. ("outside" = other classes, plays, movies, TV)
     

  • multiple references to Genre handout, course objectives, Aristotle's Poetics, Freud on Oedipus & Hamlet

Midterm contents detailed: 2 essays of 4-6+ paragraphs each

Essay 1: genre in general

Write a complete, unified essay on what you are learning about genre and how it contributes to your understanding of literature.

  • Refer repeatedly to Objective 1 (copied below) and to the "Genres Handout," but don't just march through or copy. Explain subject, representational, and narrative genres efficiently as you review your learning process.
     
  • Potential writing strategy: Describe your knowledge of genre before the class and how that knowledge has been reinforced, evolved, changed, or extended.
     
  • Demonstrate understanding of difference between genre as "rules" and genre as "conventions," norms, or expectations.
     
  • Since genre can be a slippery or confusing concept, don't hesitate to acknowledge problems and how one copes.
     
  • Mix examples from class readings and presentations with examples from outside reading or experience.
     
  • For a conclusion, summarize your learning, possibly extend to potential beyond this course.

Essential terms--every term may not fit, but keep these terms in sight

  • conventions (a.k.a. expectations, norms, standard features, "contract with reader")

  • Narrative / plot, esp. in tragedy, comedy, romance

  • genre, esp. subject, representational, & narrative

Course Objective 1. To study "genres" of literature not as rules but as adaptable conventions of subject, narrative, and representation. (genres handout)

1a. Subject genre: in contrast to the affirmative escapism of comedy and romance, tragedy develops complex, non-escapist morality.

1b. Representational genre: compare the dramatic "dialogue" of tragedy with "simple narration" of song or speech, or the "narration + dialogue" of novels.

1c. Narrative genre: compare and contrast the narrative of tragedy with those of comedy, romance, and satire, especially in terms of learning.

Essay 2: tragedy in particular

Write a complete, unified essay describing your learning curve relative to the genre of Tragedy.

  • Potential writing strategy: Describe your knowledge of Tragedy before the class and how that knowledge has been reinforced, evolved, changed, or extended.

In developing your answer, consider or answer at least a few of the following issues, according to their importance or your themes about learning.

  • Refer to objective 2 (box below), but welcome to go beyond its limits.
     
  • Since Tragedy's subject matter sounds dismal and depressing, how or why does it attract people's attention and respect? Which people? What difficulties do you have in comprehending its appeal? What challenges to your teaching or your own interests? How overcome?
     
  • Why or how might Tragedy be considered the greatest genre? How may this greatness be questioned?
     
  • Issues like the Oedipal / Electra conflict--What may one learn about Tragedy or families?
     
  • Plot, character, and spectacle in Aristotle's Poetics.
     
  • How does Tragedy compare with Comedy and Romance?
     

  • Classical Tragedy & its Updates: What do we learn from studying the evolution of tragedy from classical Greece to later periods? Why does Tragedy retell similar stories in Oedipus the King and Hamlet, and again in Agamemnon and The Homecoming? How does the story change or evolve from Classical Greece to Shakespeare's or O'Neill's times or our own?

To conclude:

  • Broadly summarize what you have learned about tragedy.
     

  • What was the most surprising or interesting aspect of tragedy that you have learned, and why? (or you could start this earlier)

Essential terms--every term may not fit, but keep these terms in sight

Plot, character, spectacle

Irony

Oedipal conflict

Comedy, romance, romantic comedy

Course Objective 2.  To evaluate "the greatness of tragedy" (handout) as the supreme genre in western culture and art.

2a. To describe the heroic cultural values associated with dramatic tragedies in various periods of western history.

2b. To assert the purpose of tragic art for a “feel-good” society.

2c. To balance art's competing or complementary values of "liking" and "learning."

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.