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.