Final

Due May 6

Final Exam

The precise time and place of the Final Exam will be announced in March.
The Final will take place Wednesday, May 6 at 9:00am in STH B19.

Like the Midterm, the Final Exam will consist of two sections:

  1. Short Essays: Questions will be drawn from HW prompts, with slight modifications. Answer five of six questions using as many specific examples as you can, drawing on incidents, characters and other vital details from the relevant works as evidence. As you introduce each text, orient the reader by identifying its nation and century of origin. Each answer should run roughly one paragraph. I will be looking for a combination of correct factual information AND well-reasoned analysis. 12 points each.
  2. Long Essay: Write a well-developed essay of at least four paragraphs that addresses ONE of the prompts below. Be sure to cite specific examples from the relevant texts. (40 points). Note: these are the ACTUAL long essay prompts, and all three will appear on the exam. Come to class mentally prepared to write in response to ONE of them.
    1. Dante claims in his Vita Nova that his life began anew when he first saw Beatrice, a clear expression of the notion that romantic love is a wellspring of personal identity. Trace the influence of this theme on our culture, drawing in detail from (A) at least TWO sources from after the midterm and (B) ONE film, TV show or novel you’ve encountered outside the course.
    2. Where does a king’s power come from? Divine right? The consent of the governed? Or is kingship a con game? These questions were argued out over the course of centuries during the Renaissance and Enlightenment—and reverberate in the present day. Contrast notions of Kingship (or, more broadly, Governance) found in (A) at least TWO sources from after the midterm and (B) ONE film, TV show or novel you’ve encountered outside the course.
    3. Many of the works we’ve examined in the second half of the semester focus on encounters with foreign peoples and cultures, resulting in the exchange of goods and ideas—as well as the establishment of new social hierarchies. Explore how different authors present such encounters, focusing in detail on (A) at least TWO sources from after the midterm and (B) ONE film, TV show or novel you’ve encountered outside the course.

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