World Literature II
Exam 2
Ersinghaus
Exam 2 follows the same plot line as Exam 1. It is composed of short and essay length questions. A
level two ability has been added to the history setion, providing just a tad more sophistication to the
question expectations. Make note that the exam covers much of the same material as Exam 1. You
should be brief but specific in your answers on the short answers. For the essays, which require more
in depth analysis, follow MLA submission criteria. It is important that you turn in this assessment sheet
with your completed exam on the day indicated. Download and write directly onto this sheet.
Assessment Criteria
Literary Study Abilities:
Literary Genre
Level 1: Identifies and describes the characteristics of subject genre.
Literary History
Level 1: Identifies periods of literary history and their associated traits.
Level 2: Correlates literary history with its social and cultural context.
Literary Aesthetics
Level 1: Identifies and defines aesthetic elements using terminology of the discipline.
Literary Analysis
Level 1: Evaluates the significance of specific passages to the complete text using appropriate
terminology.
Short Answer
Explain what is meant by poetic form. Provide an example.
Define metaphor and provide an example from Goethe's Faust.
Provide an example of metonymy from our sample of Hugo. Hugo provides a very good example of
this figure of speech
Who speaks the following lines and why do they matter to the narrative?
Others, whose very names escape him now,
too-trusting hearts, deceived by sigh and vow;
Wronged Ariadne, telling the rocks her moan,
Phaedra abducted, though to grace a throne, –
You know how, loathing stories of that sort,
I begged you often to cut them short,
And wished posterity might never hear
The worse half of Theseus' great career.
Consider these lines from Phaedra. In these lines Racine is developing character conflict; each of
these quoted parts employs enjambed lines and ends with nice rhetorical tricks. Explain a significant
technique the author uses using terminology of the discipline (note the answer is not metaphor).
You know how I, a lifelong enemy
Of love, gave thanks for Theseus' tyranny,
Since he forbade what I was glad to shun. (II.67-69)
...................................
Ah, but to move a heart that's firm as stone,
To teach it pangs which it has never known,
To bind my baffled captive in a chain
Against whose sweat constraint he strives in vain: (83-86)
In The Story of the Stone, characters' language is often loaded with coded expressions. Identify one
example of this and explain its significance to the story.
Define Realism in its literary context. How does Dostoevsky fit into this concept?
Define syntax in its poetic context. Use Novalis as a means of providing a brief example.
In Yearning for Death by Novalis, why is the syntactical arrangement of the word “foregone” (18)
significant to the poetic meaning of the stanza, perhaps even of the poem as a whole?
Given the above question, consider stanza 5 in the poem (beginning line 25). What syntactical pattern
is being developed by Novalis here?
Provide a brief argument for the effectiveness of line length in Bunina's From the Seashore.
Note in Leopardi that a poet may employ syntactical arrangements that consistently assist in forming
patterns. Look at lines 49-52 of To Silvia. Here we have an example of anaphora or repetition at the
beginning of sentences or clauses. Explain what you see in these lines. What's the affect?
Essay Questions
Note that it is important that you use sufficient examples from the works to illustrate and reference
your thinking and conclusions.
Required essay
It might be argued that a significant set of themes in “modern” works of World literature treat people in
relation to the world, either motivated by human action or natural phenomenon. Consider Faust's
motivation? The decisions of Lady Wang? The actions of Toyo-o. Using examples from at least three
works of World Literature, examine how and in what contexts conflict is dramatized? Once you have a
handle on this ask this question and go after a conclusion: does the method of developing conflict differ
across cultures?
Choose 1 essay from below:
Dostoevsky's speaker/narrator in Notes from Underground comes to a striking conclusion. Dostoevsky
writes, “The final result, gentlemen, is that's better to do nothing.” How does the speaker mean this?
How does he come to this conclusion?
We've defined aesthetics as those methods and techniques literary artists use to create opportunity for
interpretation and experience. Some significant aesthetic elements come as figures of speech, others as
formal technique. Others come in the form of specific detail and imagery, some of which, by
definition, may depend on figures of speech to work (sure, I'm repeating a lot from the last exam: why
reinvent the wheel?). Drawing from Basho, Novalis, Hugo, and other Romantics, examine significance
of imagery. How do poets of whatever culture build durable images? As you approach this question,
relate your analysis to “culture” and “social” elements.