British Literature I

Below you will find the educational goals for courses in the Literature Category of the General Education Program followed by an outline of the Final Exam for the course; the exam is intended in part to measure progress toward these goals.

Goals of Courses in the Literature Category

Objective 1: Increased ability to understand and appreciate the nature and uses of language.

Objective 2: Increased awareness of the historic, cultural, spiritual, and personal contexts of literature

Objective 3: Increased appreciation of the unique opportunities for lifelong learning afforded by reading and thinking about literary texts.

Final Exam

Part I: Short-Answer Questions

Ten short-answer questions, of the sort that show up on the quizzes, focusing on issues of general context and technique. These may include national history, linguistic history, development of genres and techniques, and any technical literary terms and concepts.

Part II: Interpretation of Passages

Literary works do not develop in isolation. Each work simultaneously reflects and influences the historical, cultural, spiritual, and personal contexts of its author, who tries to express his or her vision through various engaging uses of language. The two passages below are drawn from the literature of Britain between Beowulf and 1800. For each of the passages, please do the following in a single coherent essay:

(A) Briefly describe or paraphrase the passage. What is happening or being said?

(B) Discuss the ways the language is being handled in the passage. Use, but do not feel limited to, any relevant terminology you learned in the course. What genre is the passage? What can you say of its structure, conventions, or literary technique?

(C) Explain what you can of the historical, cultural, spiritual, and personal significance of the passage. How does the passage reflect its time and culture? What does it imply about politics, the arts, religion, ethics, science, or the experiences and beliefs of the author as an individual? (Discuss only what you actually find in the passage. You're not obliged to cover all of these.) Say when and by whom you think the passage was written.