House of Cards

Midterm Exam Study Guide

The midterm exam may cover anything that we've read or discussed so far in this semester. It may include True / False, Multiple Choice, Matching, Short Answer, and/or Essay Questions. I expect the exam to be fair and solid, aimed at finding out what you do know rather than getting you for what you don't know. If you have questions that this study guide does not cover, please ask them in the comment section below. That way, everyone will be able to see the answers.

Literary Texts -- For these, you should be able to identify characteristic passages, matching them to author and text. You should also know some general things about the author’s biographies where headnotes are provided. You don't have to be able to recall minute details about texts. But you will have to be familiar with the texts and have a sense of the way they sound, feel, etc., so that if I give you a passage from, say, "This Blessed House" and a passage from "Sure Thing," you should be able to know which is which even if you don't specifically remember those exact passages.

• "Frankie and Johnny"
• Naomi Shihab Nye, "The Traveling Onion"
• Babett's Feast
• Margaret Atwood, "Happy Endings"
• Raymond Carver, Headnote and "What Do We Talk about When We Talk about Love"
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Headnote and "This Blessed House"
• David St. John, "My Tea with Madame Descartes"
• Robert Hass, Headnote and "A Story about the Body"
• Carolyn Forche, Headnote and "The Colonel"
• "Undo" and "The Ark" (videos)
• The Book of Joel
• C. S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
• David Ives, "Sure Thing"
• James Baldwin, Headnote and "Sonny's Blues"

Texts, Concepts, and Practices for Reading Literature -- For these, you should make sure that you understand and be able to apply the concepts discussed. You should be able to explain the rationale for activities and field trips.

• Corrigan, "Literature Is a Thing You Do as Part of Life"
• Pearson, “Active Reading of Literature”
• Pearson, “Why Read Literature”
• Francis X. McAloon, "Reading for Transformation . . . "
• Corrigan, “Darkness, Questions, Poetry, and Spiritual Hope”
• Note on Sound
• Notes on Character
• Notes on Art, Meaning, Theme, and Interpretation
• Notes on A Grief Observed
• The “onion” poem experiment
• Reading out loud outdoors
• Painting in response to reading
• Tuscana Ristorante field trip
• Cemetery field trip
• Sacred reading / lectio divina

Example Questions

1. Explain the following statement and explain what it has to do with reading literature: “Who a person is is more than what can be seen, more even than who that person lives as.”
2. Who wrote the following passage, and what text does it appear in:

You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality.

The only authentic ending is the one provided here:
John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.

3. According to Corrigan, doubt and uncertainty are often signs of weak faith.
   
   Circle one:           True       False
4. Which of the following is true about sound in literature:

a.       An abundance of soft, flowing words are necessary for a piece of literature to sound musical.

b.      Though there are many, many types of literary devices associated with sound, rhyme is the most commonly used and the most important.

c.       Repetition without variation is the basis of all sound and musicality in literature.

d.      Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds within words.

e.      All of the above.

5. In “Reading for Transformation” Francis McAloon suggests that people reading poetry ought to explore what?

a.       The details of the text itself

b.      The historical context in which it was written, including the personal life of the poet

c.       The possible implications of the text for the reader

d.      All of the above.

e.      Something else not listed here.

Cemetery Field Trip

Before class on Thursday, February 24, you will need to visit the oldest burial gardens in Lakeland, three connected cemeteries called Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers. You will need to spend a minimum of a full 40 minutes inside the cemetery. These burial gardens are located less than ten minutes from Southeastern, at the corner of Ingraham Avenue and Parker Street (map). Parking is available across Ingram from the cemeteries, in the parking lot of the Polk County Government Center. I suggest that you enter the Tiger Flowers Cemetery entrance directly across from Everest University. You are responsible for arranging you own transportation, but I encourage you to carpool with other members of the class. 

The purpose of this trip is to "inform" your reading of C. S. Lewis' A Grief Observed. In particular, it may "illustrate" Lewis' discussion of a man caring for his dead mother's grave site in Chapter 2 (page 21 in my book). More generally, it should give you a quite time to reflect on death and on the book as a whole.

You will need to bring the text of A Grief Observed with you to the cemetery. You should arrive at the cemetery quietly and solemnly. This is a public place of grief. You need to show the utmost respect for the dead and for those still alive who have dead loved ones buried there. During your visit, I would like for you to spend most of your time walking around in silence, looking at the tombstones, and reading.  Please reread select pages and passages carefully and meditatively. This should be a "prayerful" event. It should also be an event that takes you deeper into the text and into life.

To be counted as "present," for this field trip, you will need to include the following statement as part of your post for the following class: "I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this fieldtrip, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes." Optimally, you will also post a picture of yourself at the cemetery. You may also want to add some reflections about your visit and/or connections with A Grief Observed.

If visiting this specific cemetery provides some hardship, you may arrange with me to visit a different one, providing that it is comparably old and large.

If you think that visiting a cemetery at all will prove too emotionally difficult for you, you may arrange in advance with me for an alternative activity.

Hebrew Audio Bible

Check out this link to hear Joel and all of the other books of the Hebrew Bible read aloud in Hebrew.

Bring Your Painting Supplies to Class, February 17

Make sure to bring your painting supplies to class on Thursday, February 17, as the course syllabus lists: "Brushes, paints, and a sketch pad suitable for painting, something other than watercolor. About $10." Participation on this day depends on you bringing these painting materials to class. We will be painting in response to The Book of Joel (download the version on the course calendar). Visual and visceral elements are central to apocalyptic literature. By painting in response to Joel, we will be able to appreciate and participate in these other dynamics of the text. Painting--if you emphasize the actual, physical process of painting and not just the end result--is a physical activity that happens in time that will allow us yet another way of experiencing the text. This means that it does not matter whether you can paint or not or even whether you consider yourself "artistic." I certainly do not have any painting abilities, but I have been able to get a lot out of this activity. The texts I've painted from are some of the ones I remember best and most meaningfully. The images in this post are samples of my painting in response to literature.