Sunday, February 9, 2014

Literary Terms Test

Literary Terms Test Date: Thursday, February 20th

The Lit Terms Test will consist of three sections:

1) In the first section, you will communicate your knowledge of Gothic fiction as a genre from our class discussions and your own observations and conclusions about the genre based on the body of texts read so far in the course. This section will consist of one question- What is Gothic fiction? You will answer in short essay format. Your answer should include an understanding of the classical features of the genre, common themes and dualities found across gothic stories, and changes or shifts in the genre over time and considering regional focus.

The last two sections will test your ability to identify and analyze literary devices within the contexts of the assigned course texts. The midterm will consist of the literary terms we have used in class discussion, including imagery, metaphor, personification  simile, ambiguity, characterization, setting, allusion, atmosphere, foreshadowing, style, tone, point of view, structure, intertextuality, symbolism, diction, emphasis and dialogue.

2) In the second section of the exam, you will identify the underlined literary element in a given sentence in short answer form.
Example: "It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage" (Poe "The Tell-Tale Heart").
3) In the third section of the test, you will write short essay responses analyzing the function of a literary element in a paragraph length passage. A set of literary elements that apply to the passage will accompany each entry; however, you will only focus on one literary element per question*. For each entry, you will clearly identify the literary element and discuss the significance of the device within the entire excerpt. You will need to keep in mind the context of the story that the excerpt is from when considering the significance.

*Often, literary elements blend together to create a comprehensive meaning. While only one literary element will be the focus of your response, you can discuss the ways the combination of elements in the passage helps contribute to the meaning.

Sample Questions:

From H.P Lovecraft's "The Outsider"

"Unhappy is he to whom the memories of childhood bring only fear and sadness. Wretched is he who looks back upon lone hours in vast and dismal chambers with brown hangings and maddening rows of antique books, or upon awed watches in twilight groves of grotesque, gigantic, and vine-encumbered trees that silently wave twisted branches far aloft. Such a lot the gods gave to me-- to me, the dazed, the disappointed; the barren, the broken. And yet I am strangely content and cling desperately to those sere memories, when my mind momentarily threatens to reach beyond to the other."
 Atmosphere, emphasis, alliteration, setting


From Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter"

"From its appearance, he judged it to be one of those botanic gardens which were of earlier date in Padua than elsewhere in Italy or in the world. Or, not improbably, it might once have been the pleasure-place of an opulent family; for there was the ruin of a marble fountain in the centre, sculptured with rare art, but so woefully shattered that it was impossible to trace the original design from the chaos of remaining fragments. The water, however, continued to gush and sparkle into the sunbeams as cheerfully as ever. A little gurgling sound ascended to the young man's window, and made him feel as if the fountain were an immortal spirit that sung its song unceasingly and without heeding the vicissitudes around it, while one century embodied it in marble and another scattered the perishable garniture on the soil. All about the pool into which the water subsided grew various plants, that seemed to require a plentiful supply of moisture for the nourishment of gigantic leaves, and, in some instances, flowers gorgeously magnificent. There was one shrub in particular, set in a marble vase in the midst of the pool, that bore a profusion of purple blossoms, each of which had the lustre and richness of a gem; and the whole together made a show so resplendent that it seemed enough to illuminate the garden, even had there been no sunshine."
 Imagery, symbolism, point of view


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