Study Guide for ENG 561
Final Examination
Like the midterm, the final exam will
consist of three parts: (A) definitions (to be answered in a
sentence or two, giving examples where appropriate); (B) identification
questions (to be answered in a paragraph); and (C) an essay
question. Once again, the essay portion of the exam will be
open-book and open-note; thus, you’ll need to turn in parts (A) and (B)
before I give you the page that contains the essay question.
The exam will be weighted such that
about 2/3 of the material covered will derive from the narrative works
and theoretical sources that we read and discussed after the midterm.
The other 1/3 of the material will derive from the works and
theoretical sources that we read and discussed prior to the midterm.
A.
Definitions. 3 points each (33 points total).
You will be asked to define 11 out of
a
possible 13 names, terms or phrases, or references to small plot
details; you should devote only a couple of sentences (maximum) to each
definition. Where appropriate, be sure to mention an example of
what you are defining, drawing the example from one of the works that
we’ve read.
Here is a list of terms that you
should review as you prepare for the exam:
- diegetic (and all the terms
that derive from this root, including extradiegetic, intradiegetic,
hypodiegetic, homodiegetic, heterodiegetic, and autodiegetic)
- repetition compulsion
- Gothic novel
- paratext
- polyphony
- John Frow's broad concept of
"frame," versus the narrower definitions that we've discussed
- framed narratives and the
concept of the "talking cure"
- metafiction
- consonant vs. dissonant
narration (also: impressionistic narration)
- the sublime
- implied author vs. narrator
- thematic, explicative, and
actional relations between framing and framed narratives
- garden-path narrative
- ekphrasis
- Ryan's distinction between
"frame" and "stack" models, and her account of the two types of
boundaries between framing and framed narratives
- dramatic monologue
- postmodern narrative
- mise en abyme (mention an
example)
- metalepsis
Further, here is a list of some of
the names, plot details, and other issues with which you should
refamiliarize yourself:
- Use a text that we've read this
quarter to exemplify Nelles's point
that all stories are made up of smaller stories, linked together
through alternation, concatenation, or embedding
- Pastor Prosper Vedel
- Rivets
- Mrs Grose
- Paradise
Lost
- What is the "arc" of the
classical retrospective narrative, and how is it exemplified in Frankenstein and Heart of
Darkness?
- Safie
- What's the secret of Kurtz's
success?
- A corrupt confessor
- Irnerio
- In two sentences, compare and
contrast Calvino's and Gide's use of the concept of counterfeiting
- What does Miles die of?
- In two sentences, describe the
make-up of the two main generational "triangles" in Wuthering
Heights
- What are two works in which the
question of nature vs. nuture arises, and how does it come up?
- What is the nature of the
relationship between Douglass and the governess?
- Strouvilhou
- What are some of the functions
of the framing tale (i.e., the primary or diegetic level) in Heart of
Darkness?
B. Identification
questions. 9 points each (36 points total).
I'll ask you to identify the author
and title of 4 out of a possible 5 passages. Identify who is thinking
or speaking the words contained in the passage. (In some cases, more
than one character or character-narrator may be involved.) Next,
describe what is happening in the passage, and explain how it relates
to the use of narrative frames in the next from which it is taken. As
much as time allows, discuss how the passage reflects both the larger
structures and themes of the text—in other words, how it connects to
the techniques of framing and thematic concerns being explored in the
text as a whole. What other noteworthy techniques (imagery, metaphors,
methods of characterization, etc.) are evident in the passage? Are any
of the issues discussed in our secondary readings relevant for
understanding the passage?
Sample passage:
In a deck chair, on the terrace of a chalet in the valley, there is a
young woman reading. Every day, before starting work, I pause a moment
to look at her with the spy-glass. In this thin, transparent air I feel
able to perceive in her unmoving form the signs of that invisible
movement that reading is, the flow of gaze and breath, but, even more,
the journey of the words through the person, their course or their
arrest, their spurts, delays, pauses, the attention concentrating or
straying, the returns, that journey that seems uniform and on the
contrary is always shifting and uneven.
C. Essay question. 31 points
total.
The following paragraph contains the
instructions that I will give you for the essay portion of the exam.
Like the essay question on the midterm, the essay question on the final
will be a broad question that asks you to connect together several of
the works that we've read this quarter in order to explore questions of
framing. You will be required to write about a total of four works;
three of the works will be pre-specified, and the fourth will be one
that you choose.
In studying for the essay portion of
your exam, consider broad issues like the following--and also how these
issues play themselves out in the texts and theoretical sources that
we've read this term:
--In what ways do techniques of narrative framing reflect the cultural
and historical contexts in which particular writers are working?
--When it comes to authors who experiment with framing (such as
Diderot, Cortázar, Gide, and Calvino), what are some of the
commonalities and contrasts among the experimental techniques that they
use?
--How does narrative framing relate to questions of epistemology, or
what we can know?
--How does narrative framing relate to questions of ontology, or what
is real?
--What are some of the ways in which the use of narrative framing
intersects with techniques of characterization? In other words, in what
ways do you have to approach the question of character in a framed
narrative, and how would your approach differ from that you adopt
toward characters in narratives that don't involve (much) framing?
--What are the advantages of arguing for a broad conception of frames
(like Frow's) versus a narrower conception that equates frames with
"narrative levels"? Conversely, what are the advantages of a narrower
approach?
--How do the authors that we've read this term use narrative frames to
explore the relationship between the past and the present?
--How do the authors that we've read this term use narrative frames to
engage in social critique?