Literature - Claudia Doroholschi
1st year, 1st semester 2014-2015
1
6: Exam practice
LECTURE 6: Exam practice
Course overview
In this course, we have looked at several concepts used in the analysis of narratives:
characters, point of view, setting, framing, story/plot. Our main focus has been analysing
literary narratives, but we have also briefly focused on narratives in other media. The main
aim of the course was to familiarize you with a set of concepts which you can use in order to
develop your own analyses of literary texts.
Evaluation
In the exam, the evaluation will focus on how well you have internalized the ‘tools’ you
acquired during the course, i.e. how well you can use the concepts to build coherent text
analyses.
As a general rule, you should be able to:
1. identify aspects of the narrative (e.g. what means of characterisation are used, what
type of narrator, etc.)
2. describe how these aspects work in the text
3. identify how these elements contribute to the effect of the text.
You can sit the exam if you attended at least 4 seminars out of 6. If you did not attend the
minimum number of seminars, you can compensate missing a class by writing a short essay
(500-1000 words) on a question out of those discussed during that particular seminar. You
need to contact your seminar tutor and request the task for the seminar that you missed.
Your mark will be a 10 if you accumulate 100 points. The marks are allocated as follows:
1. 10 base points (“nota 1 din oficiu”).
2. semestrial activity 30 p – awarded for the homework. Each piece of homework gets
the same number of marks. You got full marks if the homework was submitted on time and
half the marks if it was submitted late. The latest that you can submit the homework and the
essay tasks is at the exam itself.
3. final exam 60 p, for two subjects: one based on the texts studied during the semester,
one based on a text at first sight.
If the mark you receive in the exam is lower than what you expected, or if you failed, do come
to see your papers, I am more than willing to show you what needs improvement (but I won’t
negotiate the marks!).
If you sit the exam in one of the later sessions (February, summer etc.), the same rules apply.
Your points for semester work remain valid, and you can submit any late homework or
essays at the exam at the latest.
The exam
The exam questions will require you to apply the principles and techniques taught during the
course to analysing a known text (question 1) or to analysing a fragment at first sight
(question 2). In any case, the task will require you to do some thinking on the spot, which
means it will not be exactly what we discussed in class.
Here is what the questions may focus on:
means of characterization
point of view
setting
framing
story vs. plot
Literature - Claudia Doroholschi
1st year, 1st semester 2014-2015
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6: Exam practice
Set texts:
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Alasdair Gray, The Spread of Ian Nicol (only for the Romanian-English group)
Raymond Carver, Little Things
Katherine Mansfield, Life of Ma Parker
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
Edgar Allan Poe, The Black Cat
Myla Goldberg, Going for the Orange Julius
How to study
Don’t try to learn anything in the lecture by heart – we do not encourage reproductive
learning. You should make sure that:
- you have understood the terms
- you can recognize the various aspects of narrative (means of characterisation, various
types of point of view, etc.) in a text
- you can comment on how they function in the text
- you know the terms and concepts studied
- you are familiar with the texts (short stories and novels) studied
Models for analysis are our discussion of texts during the lectures and seminars. You can
practise further by thinking about the texts you have read, and how the concepts you have
learned can be applied to them (e.g. what you could say about means of characterisation in
Going for the Orange Julius), or look at the fragments in lectures and on seminar handouts
and try to analyse them using another set of "tools" than the one that was used in class.
Marking criteria
The answers will carry the same weight - you will have 2 questions, worth 30 points each.
For each question, the points will be awarded as follows:
task achievement 6p
the answer expresses judgements which are sustained by arguments 6p
clarity and coherence; register (formal, academic English) 6p
background and/or text knowledge as required by the task 6p
appropriate use of terminology, concepts etc. 6p
How to write your exam response
Try to build your analysis as an argument – begin by stating something and then bring
arguments to support your view. Take, for example, the fragment from Wuthering Heights in
the setting section of Lecture 5 and my analysis of it. An outline of an exam essay could look
like this:
Introduction: The function of the setting in the fragment is mainly to offer a first image
of the character Heathcliff.
Content: Arguments supporting the thesis statement in the introduction; examples from
the text. Follow how the various elements in the description of the house are suggestive
of features of Heathcliff’s personality.
Conclusion: Each element in the description of the house is suggestive of an element in
Heathcliff’s personality; we get an image of him through the setting, even before we have
any contact with his behaviour or his words.
This is only one possible suggestion – there are many other ways of dealing with the same
task. Whatever you choose, however, make sure your answer is clear and coherent, and your
arguments link logically.
Exam do’s and don’t’s
-
Stick to the word limit; make sure you know what 100 words look like in your
handwriting - you need to be able to appreciate this because counting words should not
be done in the exam (it’s a waste of time)
Stick to the task; look at the task carefully and underline any key words that will help you
decide what you need to focus on. Information that is not relevant to the task (e.g. re-
Literature - Claudia Doroholschi
1st year, 1st semester 2014-2015
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6: Exam practice
telling the plot, general information about the author, reproducing sections of the
lectures) will not bring you any points
Make sure you have written your name and group on the paper
Don’t forget to bring a picture ID
Don’t philosophise about life in general – remember this is an exam that tests what this
course has taught you (the way you can use the ‘tools’ we have studied in your own
analyses of literature).
Keep the tone formal and neutral (don’t make your paper sound like a page from a diary
or a subjective response)
Mobile phones should not be on your person during the exam. They should be switched
off and placed with the rest of your belongings, away from the desk.
Don’t attempt to cheat. Any attempts to cheat will attract serious administrative
consequences.
Exam questions – types and examples
1. Set text question (30 points) - question based on the texts read during the semester. It
will test your use of the critical concepts in analysing a familiar text (however, it will not be
one of the issues discussed in detail in class). You won't be given a fragment to look at, so you
need to be familiar with the texts.
2. Analysis of a text at first sight (30 points) - will test your ability to apply the terms
and concepts studied in a fragment from an unknown text.
Example
The following is an example of examination handout. Look at question 2. Decide on
a possible plan for your answer. What would you begin with? What observations on the use
of point of view could you include, and what examples would you use to illustrate them? How
would you conclude?
1. Set text question (30 p): In about 250-300 words, discuss comparatively the use of
means of characterisation in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and The Black Cat
by Edgar Allan Poe.
2. Unseen text question (30 p): Discuss the use of point of view in the following
fragment (about 250-300 words).
She was so deeply imbedded in my consciousness that for the first year of school I seem to
have believed that each of my teachers was my mother in disguise. As soon as the last bell
had sounded, I would rush off for home, wondering as I ran if I could possibly make it to our
apartment before she had succeeded in transforming herself. Invariably she was already in
the kitchen by the time I arrived, and setting out my milk and cookies. Instead of causing me
to give up my delusions, however, the feat1 merely intensified my respect for her powers. And
then it was always a relief not to have caught her between incarnations anyway– even if I
never stopped trying; I knew that my father and sister were innocent of my mother's real
nature, and the burden of betrayal that I imagined would fall to me if I ever came upon her
unawares2 was more than I wanted to bear at the age of five. I think I even feared that I
might have to be done away with3 were I to catch sight of her flying in from school through
the bedroom window, or making herself emerge, limb by limb, out of an invisible state and
into her apron. Of course, when she asked me to tell her all about my day at kindergarten, I
did so scrupulously. I didn't pretend to understand all the implications of her ubiquity,4 but
that it had to do with finding out the kind of little boy I was when I thought she wasn't
around-that was indisputable. One consequence of this fantasy, which survived (in this
particular form) into the first grade, was that seeing as I had no choice, I became honest. Ah,
and brilliant. Of my sallow,5 overweight older sister, my mother would say (in Hannah's
presence, of course: honesty was her policy too), "The child is no genius, but then we don't
ask the impossible. God bless her, she works hard, she applies herself to her limits, and so
Literature - Claudia Doroholschi
1st year, 1st semester 2014-2015
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6: Exam practice
whatever she gets is all right." Of me, the heir to her long Egyptian nose and clever babbling
mouth, of me my mother would say, with characteristic restraint, "This bonditt?6 He doesn't
even have to open a book– 'A' in everything. Albert Einstein the Second!" (Philip Roth,
Portnoy’s complaint).
1) something impressive that someone does 2) by surprise 3) they may have to get rid of me 4)
presence everywhere 5) pale and unhealthy-looking 6) crook, clever guy (in Yiddish – they are a
Jewish family)
Now look at the following student responses and try to mark them according to the mark
scheme above. Justify your mark. (The obvious language mistakes have been underlined but not marked down as such)
Student 1: The fragment of Philip Roth, “Portnoy’s complaint” is a description where the
narrator is at the first person singular, because he tell’s what is happening in his life and
what he thinks. This description tends to be more a journal of a chield where he talks about
his life, especially his relation with his mother. I can say that is a short story about what is
related in this fragment. In the final of the fragment we also have the description of the
mother made to his chield.
The author is relating the thoughts of the chield on his cruel word. The majority of his
thoughts are about the kindergarden/school and his mother. He always imagin his mother
being anywere.
The narrator is not reliable because of the fact that he is only a chield and he doesn’t know
who life is and don’t know the pearsons to have such a caracterisation. The action present in
the fragment is not so complicated, because there are not many caracters involved or many
places. It is a complexe description because he relates every steap he make and everiting he
is doing, also he reproduce the words of the other people, his mother
Portnoy’s Complaint of Philip Roth is a chield description and is not a reliable story. (215
words)
Student 2: The point of view used in Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth is a first person,
intrinsic, internal and innocent eye one. The narrative voice bearer describes his views on the
story he is involved in from the perspective of a naïve child in kindergarten.
The grammatical marks that point out the first person are the pronouns and verbs in the first
person: “I”, “was,” “my” etc. The use of the first person point of view makes the reader
sympathize with the character, he understands the reasons why the boy thinks his mother
has supernatural powers, perhaps because the teachers agreed with his mother made him
think it must be her in disguize. However, because the reader knows more than the narrative
voice, for instance when he confesses to his fantasy, his mother might have taken it as a
metaphor: the teachers were her in disguise meant that they told her everything he did or
that they had the same principles as her.
One can argue that because the story is narrated in the first person by an intrinsic narrator,
he is unreliable, he himself being involved in the story as the main character. The reader only
gets his biased perspective on the situation.
Being a first person narration, we as readers get insight into the characters’ thoughts and we
say the point of view is internal. For example when he says “that was indisputable,” we tend
to believe him because we are looking through his eyes and we tend to sympathize with him.
In conclusion we can say that the point of view is used in all the ways described above to
achieve a humorous effect by playing on the belief that children, who see their parents as
ideal, have. (290 words)
Think
What should the following students have done better? Which of the criteria did they lose marks in?
1. (Analyse point of view in the following fragment). My point of view is that the narrator
knew the characters well, he knew all about them. The gentleman was kind, but she was a little bit
rough with this gentleman.
Literature - Claudia Doroholschi
1st year, 1st semester 2014-2015
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6: Exam practice
2. (Point of view in The Black Cat) The Black Cat is a short story which is written from the
author’s point of view, using the 1st person. After I read it I still haven’t figured it out what kind of
story it is. Of course I’ve done some research and I came to the conclusion that it is a horror one. What
can I say? It didn’t seem like a horror story to me – to be honest – and I hope this doesn’t affect my
mark – given the fact that the whole narration is based on the killing of a cat and on the interior
struggle of the author. The story is told from the author’s perspective. Who else can it be? Who else
can tell the story? The cat???!
3. (Setting in a fragment at first sight) In this text is described a house called Higher Crowstairs
and the place where the house is placed. Use of means of foregrounding because it tells us how
difficult life is in this place.