Masters of Arts in English
Comprehensive Examination
Spring 2011
Section 1: In a full paragraph, answer ten of the following twelve questions. This section is
worth 100 of 300 points. You may do these in any order, but be sure to number your responses.
For the two that you choose not to do, write the number and then the word “omit.”
1. In what ways does “The Prioress’ Tale” pit the Old Testament law of retribution against
the New Testament law of mercy? What does this reveal about the Prioress?
2. Anita Pacheco writes, “The chivalric attitude to rape, it would seem, is that it exists only
in relation to women whose class and sexuality make them valuable patriarchal
commodities.” How does social class or economic status influence the commodification
of women in Aphra Behn’s The Rover?
3. What does Tristram Shandy mean by "hobbyhorses"? Do you believe this is a mock
theory that Sterne is satirizing or is it a serious idea that governs Sterne’s understanding
of human psychology?
4. Critic Viktor Shklovsky argues that Tristam Shandy offers a parody of realistic
conventions of the novel. What conventions of realism do you think Sterne might be
parodying in the book?
5. Following a long line of poets, Keats explores the tension between life experience and art:
action and immortality. Does he resolve this tension in any of his poems? Why or why
not?
6. Why is Woolf so astonished when she comes across the line “Chloe liked Olivia” in the
novel by Mary Carmichael that she imagines reading? How does this line represent an
“immense …change” in literature?
7. Discuss how the revelation at the end of Atonement—that Briony is a novelist writing this
book—is prepared for from the very beginning of the novel. How is Atonement a novel
concerned with the making of fiction from the start?
8. Would you consider Anne Bradstreet a nascent feminist or more of a product of her time
in respect to her views on gender roles?
9. Poe frequently embeds texts within his stories ("The Mad Trist" in "Usher") or presents
the story as a found text ("The Black Cat"); at other times he uses text as metaphor ("The
Man of the Crowd"). Analyze and compare the uses of writing (or reading) in two or
more of Poe's tales.
10. The narrator of "The Black Cat" claims that he was motivated to hang his cat by "the
spirit of perverseness." What does that mean, does it seem plausible in this story, and
does it help explain the behavior of characters in any other Poe stories?
11. Discuss how Native Son explores the psychological effects of racism.
12. Is Bigger’s trial at the end of Native Son a fair one? Why or why not? Does Wright
believe that racism infects the American judicial system?
Section 2: Essay. This section is worth 200 of 300 points.
Current critical literary theory, especially postmodern theory, tends to use the term “subject”
rather than “self” when referring to individuals, whether real people or literary characters. These
terms suggest different understandings of the individual and his or her relationship to society.
The following excerpts from 2003 book The Theory Toolbox explain these different views in
more detail:
We tend to think of the “self” as that which is primary, untouched by cultural
influences. We like to believe that our selfhood is the essence of our unique
individuality: the intrinsic, singular qualities that define us as who we are. We like to
think that intrinsic qualities would preserve our unique individuality, without regard to
the circumstances under which we were born and raised. . .
In contrast, we understand the “subject” as anything but unique or untouched by
social factors. . . The subject is defined by its place among various social positions . . .
Unlike the word ‘self,’ then, the word ‘subject’ carries . . . the sense of having one’s
personhood defined not by intrinsic or internal qualities by external factors. . . .
We tend to understand the “self” as an inwardly generated phenomenon, a notion of
personhood based on the particular (yet strangely abstract) qualities that make us who we
are. The self is the strangely intangible core—the soul? The personality? The real me?—
that we take for the cause of our lives and actions. On the other hand, the “subject” is an
outwardly generated concept, an effect, an understanding of personhood based on the
social laws or codes to which we are made to answer.
Write an essay in which you reflect on how the writers on our reading list view the individual—
are individuals presented as unique selves, who act on the world around them, or are they
presented as subjects of their societies and environments, largely shaped by the world around
them rather than shaping that world? In your answer, you might want to consider gender and
ethnic/racial differences as well—for instance, the position of Jews, women, African Americans
and other historically oppressed groups in relation to the dominant society. Are gender, race, and
ethnicity traits represented as intrinsic, essential differences among human beings or as socially
constructed?
Your essay must include at least one work from pre-1800 British literature, one from post-1800
British literature, and one from American literature, and you must choose works from at least
two different genres. If an author you choose is represented on the reading list by poems or short
stories, be sure to include a sampling of the author’s work rather than focus on just one text.