ENG 301 Final, Fall 2008

FINAL EXAM Fall 2008 ENGLISH 301A Dr. Syrine C. Hout DIRECTIONS: Choose four from the following seven short essay questions. Then write, in response to each, a cogent and intelligent (but not necessarily long) essay in which you show your understanding of the issues at hand and referring, when appropriate, to key theorists and definitions. SHORT COMPARATIVE ESSAY QUESTIONS: (25% each) 1. What major premise would a New Critic and a deconstructionist agree upon when approaching a literary text? Discuss the extent of their similarity, ie. where it would start and end, and why. 2. Both feminist and Marxist critics see ‘hegemony’ as a force which needs to be defined and combated. How does each camp see this happening? 3. How does Queer Theory benefit from some of the main premises of poststructuralism? 4. Compare and contrast the different attitudes postmodernism and Marxism have towards mass production of the arts and the value thereof in society in general. 5. How and why would feminist and postcolonial critics agree upon revising canonical Western literature? 6. What do Freudian psychoanalytic critics do and in what ways are their practices compatible with the deconstructionist concept of the ‘textual subconscious’? 7. How do New Historicism and post-structuralism cooperate? GOOD LUCK!