Information about the Final exam

The final exam for the class will be a "take home" final that uses the same form as most literature exams. The final will be posted as a word document for you to fill in. You will submit the exam as a Word document (12-point font, 1” margins. Be sure to include your name) via Blackboard’s Drop Box or as an email attachment by Friday, August 6th by Midnight.

The structure of the exam is in two parts. The first part will consist of terms, concepts, passages which you will identify 1) the author, 2) the work, 3) the speaker/character (if applicable), 4) the immediate context, and 5) the overall significance of the passage. See the example below:

"Often when one man follows his own will / many are hurt. This has happened to us"

A possible answer might say, Author: anonymous, Title: Beowulf, Speaker: Wiglaf. In this passage, Wiglaf expresses his concern over Beowulf's decision to fight the Dragon alone and give his life for glory and his people. Wiglaf calls into question whether the heroic code for individuals should be the same as for a ruler. He also implies a few lines later that even the code of a ruler as a "ring-giver" might have also contributed to the situation the Geats are now in, vulnerable on all sides since the peace the Geats enjoyed was directly connected to Beowulf as an individual. The situation the Geats are in at the end of the poem is symptomatic to the problems of a society that is structured around heroic individuals.

The second part will be an essay that connects the works we have read to the themes of the class.