Debra Bronstein
English 46A
Final Exam Prompts:
The Final Exam is worth 20 points. Everyone must say something insightful in order
to receive credit. If you do not speak, you will fail the exam. Your responses need to
be well thought out and argumentative. An obvious point will not earn you high
marks.
For all of these questions, you will need to develop a narrative arc. You can’t just talk
about the theme or issue in one text, but you will need to have an understanding of
how each text responds to the previous one. How does the theme shift/change/alter
in the 1000 years that we’re studying?
1: “Political and economic situations give rise to social structures creating values
reflected in literature adjusted for social and cultural lag.” This was the premise of
my 10th grade British Literature class. When I was in high school, I had no idea that
my teacher was filtering the literature through Marxist and cultural materialist
theories, but once I entered the graduate program, I could see how useful his
premise was. So, I’m borrowing it for the final exam.
What does this premise mean? How do the political or economic situations of the
time period create values that are reflected in literature? Starting with Beowulf and
going through the 18th century, how do the political shifts or the economic situations
influence the literature we have been reading? Also, where do we see moments of
cultural lag? Is the literature always forward thinking in terms of politics?
Think in terms of:
 Beowulf
 Medieval Chivalry
 Chaucer
 Women’s political writing (Mary I, Elizabeth)
 Titus and Tamburlaine and the foreign dodge
 Oroonoko
 Gulliver’s Travels (as political allegory): Whig/Tory Party (beginning of the 2
party system.
 Pope’s Rape of the Lock (economics)
 Industrial Revolution/Scientific Revolution
2. Trace the role of religion from Anglo-Saxon times through the Enlightenment:
How has religion changed over the ages? How are the concerns about religion
reflected in the texts we’ve read? Think in terms of:
 “The Dream of the Rood”
 Beowulf
 Sir Gawain
 Canterbury Tales
 Tamburlaine




Donne’s holy sonnets, Herbert’s sonnets
Paradise Lost
Gulliver’s Travels
Rape of the Lock
3. Trace the role of women throughout the texts. How do male authors present
female characters? Are they liberating them from stereotypes or are they endorsing
misogynistic views? Do female authors characterize women differently in their
works? How do the authors present sexuality? What changes do you see from the
Middle Ages to the Enlightenment? Consider:
 Beowulf
 Sir Gawain
 “Lanval”
 Canterbury Tales
 The sonnets (esp Mary Wroth)
 Political Writings (Mary I, Elizabeth I)
 Metaphysical poets
 Titus
 Paradise Lost
 Rape of the Lock
 “A Lady’s Dressing Room” and responses to it
 Hogarth’s “Marriage a la Mode”
4. Does the depiction of the Other or Outsider change throughout the time periods
we’ve studied? In each time period, what does the way the Other is characterized or
stereotyped say about the concerns that England had? Is the Other represented in
such a way that it says more about England than it does about the Other? Consider:
 Beowulf
 “Lanval” and Sir Gawain (supernatural others)
 Titus
 Tamburlaine
 Equiano
 Oroonoko
 Gulliver’s Travels
5. Trace the changes/progress of the poetic form from Anglo-Saxon times to the 18th
century. How can you account for these changes? What do these changes say about
the concerns/preoccupations/interests of the various time periods? What poetic
genres are more in fashion at which points and why? Consider:
 Beowulf
 Lanval
 Sir Gawain
 Canterbury Tales
 Sonnets




Metaphysical Poets/Cavalier Poets
Paradise Lost
Rape of the Lock
“The Lady’s Dressing Room” and responses
6. Track the theme of Nature throughout our readings: consider the multiple forms
of nature: outside nature, human nature (see our discussion on Pope for this), the
supernatural superceding the natural, the way natural images are used in the blazon
tradition, the fleetingness of nature, and the nature of the body (the material aspect
of the body instead of the idealization of the body). Look at:
 “The Dream of the Rood”
 Beowulf
 Sir Gawain (supernatural vs. natural—and look at the depiction of the change
in seasons)
 “Lanval” (the reverse blazon tradition and the way the Fairy Queen
transcends natural imagery)
 Canterbury Tales (April is, after all, the cruelest month!)
 Sonnets (for the blazon tradition and the fleetingness of nature)
 Metaphysical Poets (the yoking together of two dissimilar images, usually
something concrete with something in nature)
 Marvell “To his Coy Mistress” (the way he uses natural images of decay to
convince his lady to sleep with him)
 Titus (commentary on human nature)
 Tamburlaine (the way in which natural geography no longer matters in the
face of a conquering political tyrant)
 Milton (human nature and natural disaster images)
 Oroonoko (the individual in nature, the tiger)
 Gulliver’s Travels (material nature of the human body)
 Pope (Nature methodized)
7. How is Morality understood, critiqued, or satirized throughout the time periods?
Look at:
 Beowulf
 Sir Gawain
 Lanval
 Canterbury Tales
 Titus
 Tamburlaine
 Cavalier Poets
 Paradise Lost
 Oroonoko (slavery); Equiano
 Gulliver’s Travels
 “Rape of the Lock”