STUDY GUIDE FOR THE FINAL EXAM FOR ENGLISH 252

There will be a series of discussion questions, perhaps 4 or 5 from which you need to choose 1, or perhaps 7 or 8 from which you need to choose 2. If I only ask for one response, that response must be developed in great detail. Even if you answer two questions, your answers should give a lot of detail. For example, your answers should contain and discuss specific quotations. (Don't come to class without your textbook!) You should spend the full two hours on the exam. Assume that if you leave early, you probably didn't say enough.

No, I'm not going to give you the specific questions in advance. Yes, I will give you a general idea of what to expect. That's what I'm doing here. All discussions will relate to the modern experience (what we have been calling "modernity").

Ideas that have changed a lot in modern times.

Here are some terms, values, and institutions that were spoken of prior to modern times, but are understood much differently now from the way they were in the past.

Here are some words that describe political or psychological problems thought to be unique to modern times.

Here are some unique modern philosophies or ideas .

Questions will invite you to consider some modern problem or idea as it appears in 3 or 4 of the works we read for the course. I might choose any one of the topics highlighted by a bullet, above. It would be too burdensome to show you how each of these topics might work. So I'll choose some of these words at random and show you how they could be developed into any one of several possible essay answer questions.

Below, on this handout, I'll give these examples. In each case, I'll suggest an idea I might ask you to investigate. Then I'll give a list of the works I'd be most likely to have you talk about if I wanted you to discuss this idea. Then I'll give a sampling of a number of different questions I might ask.

POSSIBLE TOPIC: Sanity/Insanity

Works to discuss: Akinari's "Bewitched," the movie Gulliver's Travels, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, Kafka's Metamorphosis.

Possible Questions:
    1. Trace our understanding of the causes of insanity from the 17th century through modern times using these 4 works.
    2. Trace our understanding of the consequences of insanity from the 17th century through modern times using these 4 works.
    3. Trace the attitude of society towards the insane in these 4 works.
    4. Trace the attitude of the insane toward society in these 4 works.
    5. Trace the attitude of the insane toward themselves in these 4 works.
    6. Trace the attitude of the insane toward life in these 4 works. (For example, are they happy fools? Depressed, or even apathetic or catatonic? Anxious or paranoid? One of the things I'd be asking you to do here is gauge their frame of mind or mood.)

POSSIBLE TOPIC: Honesty to Self & Others

Works to discuss: Saikaku's "Barrelmaker Brimful of Love," Voltaire's Candide, Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich, the movie of Kafka's novel The Trial.

Possible Questions:
    1. Which writers believe honesty to self & others is possible? Why? What are the implications?
    2. Which writers believe honesty to self & others is desirable? Why? What are the implications?
    3. According to these writers, what happens to individuals and to society when a majority of people lose the ability to be honest? How big a concern is this? Why?
    4. According to these writers, does dishonesty begin with the individual and move outward toward the whole society, or does it begin with the manners and institutions of society and encroach inward on the individual? Which is worse? Why? What are the implications?

POSSIBLE TOPIC: The structure and duties of the family

Works to discuss: Akinari's "Bewitched," the movie of Gulliver's Travels, Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich, Kafka's Metamorphosis.

Possible Questions:
    1. What are the traditional duties of the family? How many of these are fulfilled in each of these stories? What are the implications?
    2. Are there institutions other than the family taking over the duties of the family in any or all of these stories? What are they? How are they different from traditional families? What are the implications?
    3. What are mothers like as characters in these stories? Is there anything disturbing about their characters? What, and why?
    4. What are fathers like as characters in these stories? Is there anything disturbing about their characters? What, and why?
    5. Who or what forms the character of the main child in each story? For good or for ill? How?
    6. What broader social problems arising in these stories might be attributed to changes in family structure? How, or why?

POSSIBLE TOPIC: Changing ideas about what determines an individual's value to himself & others

Works to discuss: Saikaku's "Barrelmaker Brimful of Love," Voltaire's Candide, Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground, Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich, Kafka's Metamorphosis.

Possible Questions:
    1. In each of these stories, which characters are valued for reasons that make sense? What are these reasons? What are the implications?
    2. In each of these stories, which characters are valued for reasons that make no sense? What are these reasons? What are the implications?
    3. In each of these stories, are there any characters who are not at all what they appear to be? Does this affect the way others value them? How? What are the implications?
    4. In each of these stories, are characters valued more for what they can do for others, or for what they can have others do for them? Why? What are the implications?
    5. Do the stories shed any light on which professions have increased in value in the last two hundred years? What are they? What are the implications?
    6. Do the stories shed any light on which professions have decreased in value in the last two hundred years? What are they? What are the implications?
    7. According to each of these authors, is it better to love or to be loved? Why?

POSSIBLE TOPIC: Social justice

Works to discuss: Saikaku's "Barrelmaker Brimful of Love," Voltaire's Candide, the movie of Gulliver's Travels, Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground, the movie of Kafka's novel The Trial.

Possible Questions:
    1. Which if any of these writers believe social justice is still possible in the modern world? Why?
    2. According to each writer, if social justice is not possible in the modern world, why isn't it? What are the implications?
    3. According to each writer, when social justice is not possible in the modern world, is that because man has always had an evil nature that modernity has encouraged to blossom or brought to the fore? How has that been encouraged? What are the implications?
    4. According to each writer, when social justice is not possible in the modern world, is that because modern institutions stifle man's inherently good nature? How has that happened? What are the implications?
    5. According to each of these writers, what are the main ingredients of a just society? Which of these are present in the modern world, and which are lacking? Why?

 

THESE ARE EXAMPLES OF POSSIBLE TOPICS & QUESTIONS. Your actual questions might differ a little in substance or form. And, of course, they might deal with other topics on the list.

 

RETURN TO 252 SYLLABUS.