English 111
Fall 2009
Final exam essay topics
On the final exam, you will be given three of the following five questions and asked to
choose one to answer; your answer must address at least one text from before the
midterm and and least one from after the midterm. None of these questions has a
“right” answer, and you are not required to address every subtopic of a question, although
you should consider them as you formulate your answer. The questions are intended to
give you the opportunity to construct short, focused essays on particular topics and
demonstrate your awareness of the genre of medieval, and especially medieval English,
romance. While you are not expected to be able to produce precise quotations in support
of your argument (you may not bring books or notes to the exam), you do need to provide
specific examples and instances to support your claims. Answers should not just provide
a catalogue of examples, but should place these in a framework of argument that draws
them together in addressing the question as a whole and shows an awareness of the
generic conventions of romance.
1. From the curtained bed to the otherworldly kingdom, romance is filled with evocative
spaces, places, and landscapes. While some of these serve simply as background, others
play an important part in the action, whether by creating a mood, influencing characters’
behavior, or serving as transitional spaces between different moments in the story.
Choose at least three examples that will help you give an account of one important aspect
of the use of space/place in the texts we’ve read.
2. We have seen several pairs of “twinned” or “mirrored” characters in the texts we’ve
read this quarter—whether the pairing is intended to suggest similarity or contrast.
Discuss the purpose of this mirroring in at least two instances (if only two, remember that
you need one from before and one from after the midterm). What is the purpose of such
pairing in your examples? What is the function of this pairing in the work?
3. Although our focus has fallen primarily on love relationships and chivalric fellowship,
family relationships are also important in many romances. In three romances where such
relationships play a role, discuss their workings in the plot and their contribution to the
romance’s themes.
4. What is the importance of history in medieval romance—whether in the authors' views,
the characters', or those of readers? You might discuss this question in terms of the texts’
internal sense of history (is it deterministic of future events? something to be shaped by
individuals? etc.); in terms of their relationship to contemporary and later history (the
potential dynastic, national, or imperial implications, for instance); or in terms of the
authors' sense of their own and their texts' place in literary and cultural history. Your
answer should refer to at least three texts.
5. Recognition, or misrecognition, features in nearly every romance we’ve read this
quarter in one form or another: characters repeatedly either literally fail to recognize
other people they know, or misidentify the roles or functions of other characters; these
failures of recognition are generally set right. Look at three examples to discuss what the
importance of this repeated motif might be.