Format of the Final

Format of the Final Examination

For the examination, please bring bluebooks, pencils and/or pens.

The final examination is a closed-book exam and will consist of three parts.

The exam will focus on texts, authors and terms that have been discussed in class or assigned on the syllabus after the midterm.

Note: The exam counts as 50 points out of a possible 250 points in the course, or one-fifth of your course grade.

Part I

20 Questions— ½ point each (10 points possible) (approx. 10 minutes)

The first section of the exam will assess your knowledge of the literary texts, authors, and terms important to an understanding of literary history.

· Some questions will focus on the facts of literary history, such as who wrote “My Last Duchess” or whose novel tells the story of a lonely miser whose hoard of gold is stolen.

· Some questions will focus on literary forms and terms. Be prepared to match the following terms to their definitions (some but not all of these terms will appear on the exam):

Term	Definition
blank verse	unrhymed iambic pentameter
cautionary tale	a narrative with a moral message warning of the consequences of certain actions or character flaws
classical allusion	reference to classical literature or mythology
dramatic monologue	a form in which the speaker unintentionally reveals to the reader his/her character and temperament by what he/she says, usually to another person whose presence we infer from the utterance of the speaker
emphasis	stress placed on words, phrases, ideas to show their importance; in literature this is often shown through increased use of figurative language or poetic devices
epigram	a short, witty statement such as Wilde’s “I can resist everything, except temptation”
realism	prose fiction that aims at a faithful representation of actual existence, specifically ordinary life as it commonly occurs
romance	formerly verse narratives of adventure that involved both natural trials and supernatural marvels, but now considered the opposite of realism
satire	literary forms which diminish or derogate a subject by making it ridiculous nad by evoking toward it amusement, scorn, or indignation

· Some questions will focus on literary periods, so be prepared to put in chronological order the following literary historical periods: Restoration, 18^th Century (or Neoclassical), Romantic, Victorian, Modernist.

Part II

5 Passages—5 points each (25 points possible) (approx. 30 minutes)

The second section of the exam will assess your knowledge of the literary texts, authors and techniques representative of British literature since 1820. You will be asked to identify five out of seven passages. For each identified passage, you will need to write the name of the author (1 point), the title of the text from which the passage was taken (1 point) and a brief paragraph (3 points) explaining what the passage tells us about the text. These passages will be selected from the following texts:

Author	Title
Alfred Tennyson	“Ulysses”
Robert Browning	“My Last Duchess”
Christina Rosetti	Goblin Market
George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)	Silas Marner
Oscar Wilde	The Importance of Being Ernest
James Joyce	“The Dead”
T. S. Eliot	“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Harold Pinter	The Servant

Part III

Essay—15 points possible (approx. 60 minutes)

The third section of the exam will assess your ability to write a relatively short (4+ single-spaced handwritten pages) but detailed and coherent essay that responds to a topic that focuses on the readings since the midterm. You will be encouraged to use one or more of the passages listed in Part II of the exam as evidence for your argument. For this part of the exam you should consider be thinking about the following keywords: alienation, isolation, communication, community.