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English and Cultural Studies 3QQ3
Cultural Studies and Critical Theory 3QQ3
29 March 2013
Contemporary Critical Theory:
Knowledge, Power, Precarity
Instructor:
T.A.:
Dr. David L. Clark
Dr. Ailsa Kay
FINAL EXAMINATION FORMAT AND STUDY TIPS
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates (1787)
Let me begin by saying what a distinct pleasure it has been teaching this course and teaching this
particular class. You are a remarkably attentive group, brimming with intellectual courage! I
thoroughly enjoyed thinking with you every week, and have learned a great deal from the
experience. You make the task of resisting the current and intensifying war on youth and the war
on thinking worth embracing. Thank you.
The final examination for this course will two hours in duration.
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There will be one essay question.
You are responsible for all of the assigned course materials except for the materials listed under
the heading “Animals…in Theory” in the course outline. You are certainly free to discuss those
materials in the final examination, but you are not responsible for them. Those materials are:
Derrida, Jacques. “The Animal Therefore that I Am (More to Follow).” Trans. David Wills.
Critical Inquiry 28 (Winter 2002): 369-418.
Derrida, Jacques. “Violence Against Animals.”
Levinas, Emmanuel. “The Name of a Dog, or Natural Rights.”
Clark, David L. “`On Being the Last Kantian in Nazi Germany:’ Dwelling with Animals after
Levinas.”
You will be asked to answer a particular question and to do so by comparing and contrasting the
work of a number of thinkers assigned on the course.
You are free to discuss thinkers and texts that you also discussed in your essays, if it makes sense
to do so.
You may write your answer single-spaced or double-spaced.
Being a bit apprehensive about writing any final examination is to be expected. But try your
level best not to think of the final examination negatively as something frightful, but positively as
an opportunity to demonstrate how much good work you’ve done in the course, and how closely
you’ve engaged the course materials and guiding questions. Don’t forget to return to your
midterm examination, and to learn from that experience. Based on your midterm performance,
determine how you can strengthen your examination writing skills. Look at Dr. Kay’s remarks
about your particular midterm and about the midterms generally (these remarks are posted on the
coursepage, http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~dclark/documents/courses/3qq3/3QQ313.Mid.remarks.pdf), and ensure that you avoid the sorts of problems that she describes so
carefully and succinctly there.
Here are a few suggestions regarding your preparations for the exam:
* Read all of the assigned course materials with care.
*Connect what was said in class to the specific arguments of the assigned materials.
* If you missed some classes, ensure that you borrow good notes from others.
* Use the Study Questions and Course Blog document posted on the coursepage as a tool
to help ensure a good comprehension of the course and lecture materials…keeping
in mind that the Study Questions and Course Blog is not a summary of the lectures
or the course materials and is not a replacement for the lectures or course
materials.
* Carefully consider the course's major themes and lines of inquiry—themes and lines of
inquiry that were raised in class, described in the course outline, and often
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affirmed in the Study Questions and Course Blog. What specific questions and
problems connect the assigned materials? In what ways do different thinkers pose
and investigate these questions and problems differently?
When writing the exam:
* Avoid making large generalizations and instead move quickly and repeatedly to specific
details (of the sort that the Study Questions and Course Blog document nurtures in
you). Consistently ground your claims in specific details and examples drawn
from the assigned texts. The object here is to support your claims and to convey
that you have read the assigned texts with care, and are therefore familiar with
their arguments, terms, and examples. In other words, demonstrate that you have
read the assigned texts by being able to refer to the particular arguments,
illustrations, terms, and turns in the assigned texts.
* Start many of your sentences with a turn of phrase like, "For example." This way you
turn your exam answer towards those specific details.
* Don't forget to answer the question! I.e., carefully consider the particular focus of the
final examination question. Be careful not to put down on paper everything that
you know about the theorists and their work. Instead, route what you know
through the particular focus of the final examination question. Use the
examination question to organize your thoughts and focus your response. In other
words, answer the question at hand.
* There is no single right answer to the examination question. There are instead lots of
different ways to answer the question well. Craft an answer to the question at
hand.
*Remember to compare and contrast the work of the thinkers you are discussing. That
means considering the ways in which they differ and the ways in which they align
with each other.
* Pace yourself: i.e., ensure that you devote as much time and effort to each of the
thinkers that you are discussing. Bring a watch.
* Begin by taking a deep breath. Compose yourself. You've attended classes, done the
readings, taken good lecture notes, thought rigorously about the arguments at
hand, and considered the ways in which the lectures spring from the readings and
the readings inform the lectures. Now is an opportunity to demonstrate your
commitment to your own education and to grappling with the questions and
problems that quicken the course.