Study Guide, Exam
1
Engl 4040 Modernism and Postmodernism
O'Donnell, ETSU, Fall
2017
Last update: October 11, 2017
Exam date: Wednesday
October 18
About the Exam
1. The exam will have two sections: I) Identification, and II) Short Essay.
Each is explained below.
2. All the prompts that may
appear on the exam are now here on this study guide web page.
3. The exam is "open book": I encourage you to bring your
texts and notes to the exam. However, I require that you compose your responses
in class, during the exam period, rather than composing the sentences ahead of
time and transcribing them during the exam.
Section I.
Identification
A. Instructions
This section is worth
half of the exam grade. The section will include a list of 10 prompts -- that
is, names, titles, concepts, and/or quotes. All 10 of those prompts on the exam
will be drawn from the list of 16 prompts that appears below.
From the 10 on the exam,
you will in turn select 8, to which you will respond in writing.
For each of those 8
prompts, write a "mini essay" -- three or four clear, complete,
self-explanatory sentences -- in which you identify 1) the author(s) and
text(s) with which prompt is associated; 2) the context or definition; 3) an
important issue associated with the prompt.
B. 16 prompts
1. Howard C. Campbell
2. synesthesia
3. Toyota Celica
4. SIMUVAC
5. "Robert Kennedy,
whose summer home is eight miles away from the home I live in all year round,
was shot two nights ago."
6. Septimus Warren Smith
7. Dylar
8. Institute for
Historical Review
9. Sweet Home
10. Billy Pilgrim
11. serenity prayer
12. koan
13. "This is not a
story to pass on."
14. 1850 Fugitive Slave
Act
15. The "rest
cure"
16. The Interrotron
Section II. Short Essay
A. Instructions and 3 Prompts--Choose One
This section is worth half
of the exam grade. Write a short essay -- 300-500 words -- in response to one of the following three
questions. Develop your response by
discussing works that we've read during the first half of this semester.
1. What is literary
modernism?
2. What is postmodernism?
3. Can literary art --
fiction, nonfiction, or poetry -- make you a better person? A better citizen?
B. Grading Criteria for
the Short Essay
An "A" essay
will ...
1. ... have a clear,
well-defined purpose/ focus/ thesis, and a title that reflects that;
2. ... be
well-developed, including dates, author names, titles, other proper nouns, and
specific, well-selected quotes from texts;
3. ... be
well-organized, with clear section divisions and paragraph breaks;
4. ... be reasonably
fluent and readable;
5. ... be well
edited.