Final Examination: Take Home Essay

Directions: Write ONE detailed short essay (about 600-750 words—no less than three and no more than four pages—typed, double-spaced, MLA style, using a standard 12-point font) on any ONE of the topics below, writing for no more than two hours.

This essay exam is worth 15% of your final grade for the class. You may use your class texts, handouts and notes while writing your exam, and should be sure to use specific details and quotes to illustrate and concretely support your answers, and to integrate, quote and cite all sources correctly.

To write a really good essay your analysis should, of course, extend beyond what we did in class, and demonstrate your ability to think on your own. In other words, this essay should be an original analysis, not a transcription of class notes. Please do not use any sources other than the class texts and notes when writing your exam. Your essay will be read for the quality of its composition, as well as the depth and breadth of the knowledge of class readings it contains.

Your completed essay exam is due Tuesday 9 May between 4:00-4:30 p.m. (the scheduled date and time for the final exam) in Professor Sigler's office (H 439). You are welcome to leave your exam in my mailbox in H410 before this time, but it will still be your responsibility to confirm that I have actually received your exam by the due date and time. Please do not e-mail me your exam; electronic copies will not be accepted. Late work will be marked down 10% per day, and cannot be accepted at all after 12:00 noon on Thursday 11 May.

Specific Criteria:

In your answer, you'll be asked to substantively discuss TWO works from our syllabus to support and contextualize your analysis. Each question has its own requirements and restrictions, so read carefully.
These are deliberately open-ended questions, so be sure to begin with a clear main idea/thesis; don't just respond with a list of examples.
Avoid sweeping generalizations about historical period or plot.
Use plenty of examples and specific details (specific references to characters, plot events and other textual details, cultural/historical context, critical terms), including short, direct quotes from the texts; don't rely on generalizations. You'll be graded in part on the range, depth, and specificity of your knowledge of the course material, including the readings, films, discussions, presentations and lectures.
Be sure to correctly (per MLA style) cite correct page numbers/authors for all quotes and ideas that are not your own.
Proofread your work: all errors of fact—including misspellings of author, character, plot details, etc., from the texts—will count as errors.
Please print out your work in "best quality" print on clean paper, and be sure your last name is on each page before the page number (per MLA style).
Please note that a handout with key quotes discussed in class from The Piano is available on the class Website, and that the film and film script are both available from the library reserve desk.

1. You are an instructor in the English department of a large Minnesota high school (congratulations!) that is currently undergoing revision of its outdated class offerings, and you have been asked by your Department Head to write a memo to the school's Curriculum Committee making a case for the inclusion of a new class called "Women Writers." Write this memo, arguing why the study of women's writing would be beneficial for high-school students, and making specific reference to TWO relevant works from our syllabus that you think would best make your case (ONE of these must Toni Morrison's Beloved) as part of your argument. Note: although you'll be writing this essay in the form of a memo, you still need to conform to the requirements of the assignment (quoting and citing specific details from the texts, etc.).

2. You are an instructor in the English department of a large Minnesota high school (once again, congratulations!) that is currently debating the inclusion of works in the twelfth-grade literature curriculum in which issues of slavery and race figure prominently because of fears that such works will create "controversy" and possible censorship challenges to the school's curriculum by parents or community members. You have been asked by your department head to write a memo to the school's Curriculum Committee arguing why it is important for high school students to read and discuss works that address issues of colonialism, racism and/or enslavement, making specific reference to TWO of the following works (at least ONE of which must have been read AFTER the midterm) that you feel should be included in your school's literature classes: Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Heart of Darkness, Beloved, The Piano. Note: although you'll be writing this essay in the form of a memo, you still need to conform to the requirements of the assignment (quoting and citing specific details from the texts, etc.).

3. In "Heart of Darkness: Anti-Imperialism, Racism, or Impressionism," Patrick Brantlinger argues that the ambiguity of Conrad's Heart of Darkness undercuts its effectiveness as an anti-imperialist text, and concludes that "Conrad's critique of empire is never strictly anti-imperialist" (296). Based on your own reading of the novel, and using specific details both from the novel and from Brantlinger's essay, agree or disagree with Brantlinger's argument.

4. Given that Wide Sargasso Sea, Beloved and The Piano could be considered "period pieces," set in the nineteenth century and obviously concerned with that period's issues of domestic ideology, colonialism and enslavement, what is the relevance of these works to contemporary issues of feminism, equality, and sexuality? What can we learn about ourselves, today, from these nineteenth-century characters? Choose any TWO of these works to discuss in your answer.

5. A number of works we've read utilize conventions of what is often described as the "Female Gothic." This powerful tradition of women's writing uses Gothic themes—terror, destruction, haunting, persecution, doubling—to articulate some of the restrictions, terrors and conflicts of the female experience, both physical and psychological, and to dramatize the particularly female experiences of marginalization, isolation, and women's relation to the body, birth, and death. Discuss the uses of this tradition in contemporary women's writing by comparing any TWO of the following works: Jane Eyre, Beloved, The Piano. What are these writers using the Gothic genre to express and or critique?