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LITR 5439 Literary & Historical Utopias
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Midterm Assignment 2011
Date & time: In-class students may write the exam during our Thursday, 23 June class meeting (3-6pm). Email exams are due to whitec@uhcl.edu by noon Saturday, 25 June.
Midterm Content / Assignment: Write one long essay or 2-3 briefer ones developing the following topics. Don't treat this description as a checklist. All students vary emphases--I read what you write.
These elements can appear in any order or throughout your exam.
1. Advantages & disadvantages of utopias for literary study
2. summary-analysis of utopian genre & conventions (new element to exam, so under-represented in samples)
3. discuss & review course objective(s)
(Detailed prompts developing at bottom of page)
Length: 10-12 paragraphs, depending on paragraph lengths. Of course you may write more. If you write much less, try more examples and analysis.
Required textual references: Refer to all four of our major texts: Utopia, Looking Backward, Herland, and Anthem.
Special requirements:
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Refer to at least one passage or insight from the 2009 midterm submissions, 2007 midterms, or 2005 midterms
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Refer to at least one class presentation--web reviews, student-led discussions, even instructor's presentations if something works.
Possible references--not required but encouraged:
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outside readings and other courses, texts, or discussions anywhere.
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student-discussion comments relevant to your themes
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your first research posting (or plans for second).
Format: In-class or email; open-book and open-notebook
Relative weight: app. 30-40% of final grade
Prep time and writing time: Spend about 3-4 hours writing the exam you will submit, but spend as much time preparing as you like (or can find). Preparations include review of notes and texts, but also outlining and practice drafting. Outlines and previous drafts count as notes, which you may consult as you write your midterm for submission. (If you want to spend more time writing and revising, OK as schedule permits, but more effort or length doesn't automatically equate higher grades, so manage time relative to whole session's work.)
In-class materials: Write in blue or black ink in a bluebook or on handy paper. Fronts and backs, single-spacing acceptable.
Email: email a copy of your answers to instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu.
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The mistake students are most likely to make is to send it to “white” rather than “whitec”; if you send it to “white,” it goes to another teacher.
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Attach appropriate word processing file(s) to an email for whitec@uhcl.edu.
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Copy the contents of your word processing file, then paste them into an email message to me at whitec@uhcl.edu
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All submissions will be posted to the Model Assignments.
Spacing: No need to double-space, but OK if you do. I convert all electronic copies to single-space for reading onscreen.
"Unified": Thematic continuity and transitions are essential. Connect parts to form larger ideas. Pause between paragraphs to review what you've written or to preview what comes next. Summarize. Explain. Review and preview.
"Compelling": see Objective 5d. Exams require comprehension and expression of instructional contents, but excellence appears when students extend or refresh what they learn with new examples, insights, and expression.
Style: At the graduate level, competence with surface issues like spelling, punctuation, and grammar is taken for granted. An occasional careless error won't kill your grade, given time pressures, but repeated or chronic errors will be remarked and factored.
Audience: Write so someone in our seminar could recognize your terms, process your explanations, and enjoy your personal contributions and style. Future students may read your essays in our "Model Assignments." Keep instructor and assignment in sight--connect with shared terms and texts, and "write up" in terms of organization and ambition of thought.
Returning your midterms
Receipt of your email midterm will be acknowledged by reply email, usually within a few hours.
Check email for your midterm note and grade from instructor in first days of July.
Detailed prompts (use in pursuit of 3 content items above):
1. Advantages & drawbacks of utopias for literary study
- What did you enter the seminar knowing of
our subject, what have you learned, and how do you reconcile our attitudes
toward utopian literature, thought, and experimentation, which are reflexively
dismissed ("They don't work") despite playing a persistent role in Western
Civilization and education? Welcome to use previously-read texts for examples.
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Introduce and describe a working or provisional definition of utopia (literary and historical)
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explore utopia's literary and historical meanings, backgrounds, challenges, and purposes
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acknowledge and account for the difficulties of definition
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identity some attractions and detractions for this field of study
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2. summary-analysis of utopian genre & conventions
What genres are involved in discussing utopian literature, particularly utopian fiction?
Which conventions seem most important for identifying utopian fiction or for other purposes?
By conventions, you may distinguish formal conventions (e.g., dialogue, analogy) from content conventions (e.g., millennium, family issues)
3. discuss & review course objective(s)
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Highlight and develop or question a course objective (or part of one, or some combination of 2 or more).
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Analyze your interest in the objective(s) and review the seminar's discussion. (If this objective hasn't yet received much coverage, welcome to play it off what we have discussed)
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An option here (and on the final): revise an objective or offer a new one. Relate your new objective to the existing objectives or their organization.
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Explain and defend your emphasis and relate it back to the seminar's attractions, distractions, etc.
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The final exam offers an option of continuing the objective-discussion.
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