Show:
LITERARY TERMS
EYE-DENTIFICATIONS
AUTHOR/GENRE
THE PLOT THICKENS!
CRITICAL LENSES
100
This term refers to a contradictory assertion that defies logic but still suggests some essential truth; it is a relationship between seemingly unrelated propositions that nevertheless suggests or provides insight.
What is a PARADOX.
100
IDENTIFY (1) the title and author (if appropriate) of the work from which the following passage comes as well as (2) the context of the passage and (3) the speaker (if appropriate). PASSAGE: "A bold demon who waited in darkness / wretchedly suffered / all the while / for every day he heard the joyful din / loud in / the hall, with the harp's sound / the clear sound of the stop."
What is (1) 'Beowulf,' anon, (2) Beginning of poem (just after Hrothgar and his hall are introduced; introduction to Grendel and the central antagonist/conflict of the first third of the poem (3) General narrator BONUS: For an additional 100 points comment on the importance of the passage. [NOTE: For the final exam this "so what" of your ID is NOT bonus -- it is the most important part of your answer!]
100
Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure leaves many viewers (or ‘readers’) unsettled and does not easily fit into either the category of tragedy or comedy. What sort of style of play is this an example of?
What is a PROBLEM PLAY. (Remember that in a "problem play" complications vacillate between light and grave; it's resolution is also unsatisfactory and ambiguous.)
100
What famous actress played a scandalously-clad Grendelkin in the 2007 film adaptation of Beowulf?
Who is ANGELINA JOLIE.
100
Connect any two texts according to a major motif, theme, or critical lens that we’ve used this semester.
Possible answers: - history/ancestry - kinship/lineage - gender - exiles/outsiders - monstrosity - others!?
200
A brief and usually indirect reference to another literary work, event, place, myth, person, (etc.), meant to bring to mind the thing referenced.
What is an ALLUSION. BONUS: For an additional 100 points, list two allusions from Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein.'
200
IDENTIFY (1) the title and author (if appropriate) of the work from which the following passage comes as well as (2) the context and (3) the speaker (if appropriate). PASSAGE: "Like Adam, I was created apparently with no link to any other being in existence; .... Many times I considered Satan as the fitter emblem of my condition; for often, like him, when I viewed the bliss of my protection, the bitter gall of envy rose within me."
What is (1) Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein,' (2) Passage occurs in Book/Part II, when Victor Frankenstein's monster is recounting his early life/educational experiences, (3) Frankenstein's monster (NOT Frankenstein*). BONUS: For an additional 100 points comment on the importance of this passage. [NOTE: For the final exam this "so what" of your ID is NOT bonus -- it is the most important part of your answer!]
200
We talked about Shelley’s 'Frankenstein' in terms of its genre as a novel. Under which two potential sub-genres does this novel fall?
What are Romantic and Gothic. (Remember that "Romanticism" was a literary movement [circa late 18th/early 19th century] that embraced strong emotion as the valid aesthetic experience; Romantic writers were particularly interested in the human confrontation with nature and science. Gothic fiction was a literary sub-genre of Romanticism. It embraced a combination of horror and the sublime and had its heyday in the late 1790s [well before 'Frankenstein' was published]. It featured explorations of nature as well as the supernatural, madness, and the mysterious. See Dr. Boyarin's slides for other key features of both genres.)
200
What did Dr. Boyarin identify as the “center” of 'Frankenstein'? Why does she describe it as “distanced” from the reader?
What is the story of SAFIE / Safie's letter -- the exotic Turkish beauty. BONUS: For an additional 100 points comment on how this story is "distanced" from the reader? What key critical term did we use to discuss this "distancing"? [HINT: frame narrative came into play here.]
200
In our unit on 'Beowulf' we discussed repetition as a rhetorical strategy—in other words, repetition as a way of providing the poem with a memorable structure. Give two examples of motifs, themes, stock-scenes, plot types, or items that repeat throughout Beowulf.
Possible answers: - scenes: funerals, battles, community-hall - character elements: outsiders (Grendel, Grendelkin, dragon) - items: rings, necklaces, swords - formulaic speeches (“Beowulf spoke, son of Ecgtheow”) - biblical allusions (Grendelkin’s lineage from Cain) - lineage more broadly - others?!
300
This term refers to the repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of nearby words. It is usually applied only to consonants and only when the recurring sound begins a word or a stressed syllable within a word.
What is ALLITERATION. E.G.: "Often Scyld Schefing seized the mead benches..." BONUS: For an additional 100 points, give the standard pattern that Dr. Boyarin expressed alphabetically earlier in the term. (Answer - aa : ax)
300
IDENTIFY (1) the title and author (if appropriate) of the work from which the following passage comes as well as (2) the context and (3) the speaker (if appropriate). PASSAGE: “I thought with a sensation of madness on my promise of creating another like him, and, trembling with passion, tore to pieces the thing on which I was engaged. The wretch saw me destroy the creature on whose future existence he depended for happiness, and, with a howl of devilish despair and revenge, withdrew."
What is (1) Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein,' (2) Part III -- After having been threatened by his monstrous creation, Victor has ensconced himself on an island and proceeded to create a companion for the being. BONUS: For an additional 100 points comment on the significance of this passage. [NOTE: For the final exam this "so what" of your ID is NOT bonus -- it is the most important part of your answer!]
300
'Crackpot' is particular to what recent historical period and cultural context? (i.e. time period, geographical location, and particular minority experience)
What is early 20th century in Winnipeg, Manitoba; a story about a community of Russian-Jewish immigrants.
300
How does 'Measure for Measure' end and why is this final scene so troubling?
What is IN SILENCE. The Duke finally reveals himself and administers justice; however, his judgements seem wrong: • Isabella approves of bed trick and betrothal, but not her brother’s. • Duke threatens Angelo and Lucio with execution, but he marries them off. • Barnardine is an unrepentant murderer, but he goes free. • Claudo and Juliea not clearly reunited or commented upon at all. • Isabella defends her virginity and vocation, but receives a marriage proposal.
300
We approached 'Measure for Measure' from a “performance history” perspective. Name two different ways past directors have navigated or staged the final scene in this problematic play?
Possible answers: • One had Isabella slap the Duke after his proposal. • One had Isabella stabbed by Barnadine as the Duke held her dying in his arms. • One had the Duke force Angelo to his knees with a gun to his head. • Some stage the final scene with no one onstage except for the Duke, Isabella and other key people.
400
A word or group of words that express comparison between something real (something literally in the text) and something imaginary (something figurative) that is only there for the sake of comparison.
What is IMAGERY. BONUS: For an additional 100 points list two of the central images we saw repeated throughout 'Measure for Measure.' (Possible answers: images of pregnancy, rotting/carrion, counterfeiting, among others -- remember to have a few SPECIFIC examples at the ready for your exam.)
400
IDENTIFY (1) the title and author (if appropriate) of the work from which the following passage comes as well as (2) the context and (3) the speaker (if appropriate). PASSAGE: “[I]t must be such an extraordinary thing to become the one you loved loving you … In which case he would be two people, himself and you, and you would be two people, yourself and him, so you would both be four people who were really only one person, since each was the other."
What is (1) Adele Wiseman's 'Crackpot,' (2 & 3) . Hoda (the protagonist) makes this statement about love at a crucial point in the text—just after she has experienced a “collision of worlds”; a great burst of empathy for Mrs. Limprig. Here she contemplates the nature of love as she "makes love" to one of her clients. BONUS: For an additional 100 points comment on the significance of this passage. [NOTE: For the final exam this "so what" of your ID is NOT bonus -- it is the most important part of your answer!]
400
Both 'Frankenstein' and 'Crackpot' fall under the broad genre-category of “the novel”—How is a novel different from other literary genres? (*Hint, we’ve talked a lot about some relevant characteristics with reference to Crackpot.)
Possible answers: - contemporaneity - probability and familiarity - empathy - rejection of tradition (novels show relative freedom and flexibility in terms of stereotypes, stock characters, literary formulae, plot, etc. -- the form is not predictable as in, say, an epic poem or early modern play).
400
In lecture, Dr. Boyarin addressed the significance of the ending of Crackpot. How does the novel end and why is this ending significant to the broader patterns of fragmentation and wholeness we’ve seen throughout the novel? How does the ending “tie up loose ends” so-to-speak?
What is a DREAM SEQUENCE -- Recall that 'Crackpot' ends in with a dream that, while it may seem disjointed, is actually a weaving together of significant moments in Hoda’s story.
400
In our unit on 'Frankenstein' we took an author-biographical approach to Shelley’s Gothic novel. What are some examples of the ways in which Shelley’s personal life came to shape the novel?
Some possible answers: • Allusion: the death of her mother and Victor’s mother’s death. • Allusion: the death of her daughter and Victor’s dream. • She was prompted to write the book because of a competition she had with Percy and Lord Byron. • Her husband, Percy Shelley, edited her work and offered her advice, particularly, on adding “The Modern Prometheus” to the title.
500
This term is used to refer to a "metaphorical compound" in Old English verse; a two-part word used to express poetic comparison.
What is a KENNING. BONUS: For an additional 100 points give two examples and the noun to which they refer. (Possible answers: whale's riding [ocean, sea]; wave-cross [ship]; war-net [armour, chainmail]; swan's riding [ocean, sea]; word-hoard [story, memory, speech].)
500
IDENTIFY (1) the title and author (if appropriate) of the work from which the following passage comes as well as (2) the context and (3) the speaker (if appropriate). PASSAGE: "Heaven in my mouth, As if I did but only chew his name, / and my heart the strong and swelling evil / Of my conception. The state whereon I studied / Is like a good thing, being often read, / Grown seared and tedious; yea, my gravity, / Wherein—le no man hear me—I take pride, / Could I with boot change for an idle plume / Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form, / How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit, / Wrench awe from fools and tie the wiser souls / To thy false seeming!"
What is (1) William Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure,' (2 & 3) Angelo gives this monologue in Act 2 immediately prior to his second meeting with Isabel. In this scene he offers her an ultimatum: sleep with him and save her brother Claudio or let him be hanged for sexual immorality (ironic?!). For an additional 100 points comment on the broader significance of this passage. [NOTE: For the final exam this "so what" of your ID is NOT bonus -- it is the most important part of your answer!]
500
We talked about 'Beowulf,' for the most part, in terms of (National) Epic. J.R.R. Tolkien, however, in his essay “The Monsters and the Critics,” classified the poem somewhat differently. What term did he propose and why?
What is ELEGY. WHY? Tolkien argued that the poem is about the darkness and depth of human existence—an exploration of the past (a pagan past at that) and an attempt to convey the distance and depth of history. The immensity of time. To this end, the confusing historical digressions are included on purpose. They are, Tolkien argues, a poetic device intended to engender confusion/disorientation in the reader.
500
'Beowulf' is a poem rife with digressions that provide what we might call “back stories” for characters, items, and creatures. “The Lay of the Last Survivor” is one such detour. What important information is relayed in this lay? Who/what is introduced?
What is the backstory of the dragon’s hoard.
500
In our unit on 'Frankenstein' we took an author-biographical approach to Shelley’s Gothic novel. For 'Crackpot,' we adopted an epistemological approach. What are some of the ways that characters (Hoda, Danile, Pipick, or anyone) come to “know” things (i.e. the world? history? oneself?).
Possible answers: • Hoda: in fragments • Danile: in flashes • Through story (especially origin stories) • Education (traditional/cultural versus colonial/hegemonic) • Experience (a different kind of educational experience) • others?!