LITR 5535 American Romanticism
UHCL, summer 2002
Copy of Final Exam

LITR 5535: American Romanticism, summer 2002—Final Exam

Due: by email, by either Wednesday, 3 July, or Friday, 5 July, depending on which of these days you turn in the final exam.

• Use a maximum of 3 hours writing time. Please keep a log of when you stop and start. Pauses are permitted.

Write 2 essays, spending at least an hour on each, based on 2 of the following questions. This exam is open-book and open-notebook.

1.  Throughout the semester’s readings, “desire and loss” have recurred as driving forces in the “romance” narrative or as indexes of Romantic values.  Theorize the significance of desire and loss for Romanticism and describe their representation and narrative power in works by three or four writers.

*Consider Rowlandson, Edwards, Poe, Hawthorne, Douglass, Jacobs, Stowe, Whitman, Wolfe, Hurston, Fitzgerald, Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur), but feel free to suggest others.

2. Referring to at least three writers from our last four class meetings on American literature after the American Renaissance and to a contemporary poem from the presentations, survey and evaluate how elements of American Romanticism are continued, questioned, revived, or revised by post-Romantic writers. 

Writers from our last two classes: Whitman, Wolfe, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Jewett, Twain, Chesnutt, Zitkala-Sa, McKay, Hurston, Toomer, Hughes, Cullen, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner.

Contemporary poems from presentations: James Wright, "A Blessing," N 2718; Denise Levertov, "The Jacob's Ladder," N 2671; Elizabeth Bishop, “The Fish,” N 2612; Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays," N 2631; Sylvia Plath, "Blackberrying," N 2753.

Warning: If you presented one of these poems, resist the temptation to reprise your presentation in full, but highlights are welcome.

3. Historically, Romanticism is associated primarily with European literary traditions and cultural values, and the American writers most typically associated with this literary movement (e. g., Poe, Emerson, Whitman, Fitzgerald) are of European descent. In the history of America and especially the United States, however, Romanticism must adapt its literary and cultural traditions to the facts of a multi-racial nation. Correspondingly, writers from non-European races must consider Romantic themes and genres as options for their own compositions.

            Write an essay involving three writers from two or more of the major American races (European, African, American Indian) that demonstrates how race either complicates the formulas of Romanticism or is adapted to them unselfconsciously.

• For a European-American writer, you should probably choose a writer who represents race more or less directly, like Stowe or Faulkner, but if it suits your purposes, you might choose a writer who treats the issue less directly or even apparently ignores it (e.g., Irving, Whitman, or Fitzgerald).

• For African American writers, choose among Douglass, Jacobs, McKay, Hurston, Toomer, Cullen, or Hughes.

• For Native American writers, consider Zitkala-Sa. (This ethnic group's contributions were limited in the summer offering.)

• If these lists leave out someone from our reading, use your judgment to add appropriate names as necessary.

• You may discuss more than three writers, but many more might dilute any productive cross-racial tension you might achieve by comparing fewer writers from different racial contexts.

• Above all, try to show how each writer either adapts racial figures to Romantic formulas, uses the facts of race to complicate Romanticism, or a little of both. Compare and contrast the selected writers as much as possible.

• On a wider front, you may consider the challenges of teaching diverse authors. Does one read them as "representative" of minority positions or as participating in mainstream movements?

4. Citing at least three authors, review, describe, and evaluate the varieties of the Gothic we have encountered this semester. Why does the Gothic recur so frequently in American Romanticism or literature in general? Why or how is it so adaptable to different sensory environments, and what different purposes may it serve? What are its possible intellectual limitations and cultural biases?

            To organize this essay, you might begin by identifying or defining the Gothic as a literary genre or mode, then review in some detail the different categories of the Gothic we encountered across the semester with examples from selected authors and texts. Conclude by evaluating the appeal and limits of the Gothic in terms of the questions above. (Other organizations are possible.)

Possible authors: Rowlandson, Edwards, Irving, Poe, Hawthorne, Douglass, Jacobs, Harding Davis, Wolfe, McKay, Cullen, Faulkner, Out of the Past, others.

• If "the Gothic" was your midterm topic and you choose this question, be sure to involve some writers after the midterm.

5. Write an essay concerning some persistent or occasional issue, problem, or theme significant to the course but overlooked by the previous four questions. You are welcome to use aspects of the course objectives. If your topic appears to range beyond the course's evident subject matter, defend or rationalize your topic. Relate your topic to the larger subject of American Romanticism--what relevant insights does your discussion reveal or suggest? Refer to at least three writers and their texts.