Study Guide for Exam 2 (Final 1945-Present) ~~ English 364 ~~ Spring 2015
The exam is based on class notes and readings, including printouts and introductory/editorial materials on
authors, “-isms,” terms given in class, and the works we read from the text(s). Interpretations are not asked
for on the exam. The exam is composed of multiple-choice questions, some of which contain brief, specific
passages we discussed in class.
Know the following areas from readings and class notes:
Authors and Intro. sections that were assigned readings after the first exam, class notes, printouts/handouts.
Authors and Intro materials include:
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Intro.: “Am. Lit. since 1945”
Ellison
Brooks
“Regionalism”
Welty
O’Connor
Postmodern Manifestos
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Postcolonial Fiction (Printout/Handout)
Postmodernism (Printouts/Handout)
Collins
Spiegelman
Lahiri
Tan
Erickson
Media, including music, video, interviews, images (paintings, etc.), PowerPoints that were presented in class and/or
linked on the course page.
Works, including titles and authors; for the individual works assigned, you need know only those we discussed in class;
this is apart from issues listed immediately below that involve issues associated with the works.
 Characters, events, settings
 Major images/symbols (that relate to the next point)
 Major themes/issues of the plays and of authors' concerns for their work as covered in class
 Techniques/conventions the author used in creating the work
 Concerns of the authors in constructing the work
 Concerns of "movements" (Modernism or sub-movements within Modernism) that influence the works
 Contexts (political, social, historical)--as discussed in class--that influence the works
Also know the works beyond the readings that we have considered and discussed.
Know also the following concerning authors and works as we discussed them:
Author’s concerns (their interests and individual concerns in/for their writing) and a brief example of how these
appear in the works; an example would be Ellison’s interests for African-American writers in contrast to Brooks’ views
on being a writer, or, for another example, our authors’ interests in issues of identity.
Concerns of and the Influences that various –isms/movements had upon the works we studied; know examples of
where these appeared in works we discussed: multiculturalism, Postmodernism, deconstruction, etc. Also consider
communities of artists.
Movements
From the printouts/handouts, the text, and from class notes, know the following and be able to illustrate its concerns
through brief but specific details of Postmodernism and how it is distinct from Modernism;
Postmodernism (and its modes of discourse, central ways of “seeing” and “thinking” about issues, and its various
means of creation – as, for instance, with collage, bricolage, etc.)
Also know issues associated with Postcolonialism. While American literature doesn’t “seem” to center upon these
issues, the issues of postcolonial literature(s) are nonetheless present in our literature(s) even as post-colonials from
various diaspora are present in America — and sometimes considered mere “multiculturalism” here.
Terms (literary and otherwise) and Printouts/Handouts, content such as, but not limited to, discussions of anomie,
ennui, accedie, pastiche, bricolage, hybridity, etc. Be able to use, discuss and give brief examples of literary terms and
phrases or symbols associated with the literature we have examined.
Class notes. Study *with* someone! Study your own, then get together with and fill in gaps in notes for each other,
and test one another over the readings.