Answer all three parts of the exam in the bluebooks. Number the parts you answer.
PART
I: Paired IDs. Answer five out of eight. (30 points total; just under an
hour)
Briefly
identify both parts of each pair (who, what, when, where) and write a paragraph
about the connection between the parts. The connection is up to you. It can be a
comparison, a contrast, thematic, whatever—be creative, but support the
connection you draw.
1. Juan the Chamula AND Paul Bäumer
2. “[T]he
perfectibility of man is truly indefinite. . . .” (Condorcet) AND
“We
are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men, we are crude and
sorrowful and superficial – I believe we are lost.” (Remarque)
3. Hume’s “Of Miracles” AND Zande
witchcraft
4. Adam
Smith AND Rivera’s “Wall Street
Banquet”/”Our Bread”
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5. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” AND “Chac-Mool”
6. Delia Sykes in “Sweat” AND
7. “Cast down your bucket where you are” AND
“.
. . Negroes must insist continually . . . that voting is necessary to modern
manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need
education as well as white boys.”
8. William Wordsworth AND Stephen
Hawking
PART
II: Focused Essay. Answer one out of three. (30 points; about 45
minutes)
Choose
one of the following questions focusing on a particular theme or set of C&T
readings. In answering the question, you should have a thesis and be able to
demonstrate familiarity with the major ideas and concepts in the readings. Use
concrete details to illustrate your ideas.
1. Consider the values of the Enlightenment
as suggested by Kant and others.
How have these values been reflected in the representations of African
Americans in the
2. Paul Bäumer, Troy Maxson, and Henry
Reyna find themselves thrown together by chance for a few hours and have a
conversation. What would they talk
about? How are their life experiences similar? How are they so different that
communication would be difficult?
How might the life lessons each has learned change and influence the
other two? Use specific elements of
their stories to support your answer.
3. In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois
presents the concept of the "double consciousness" that confronts
African-Americans throughout their lives.
In many of the texts in the African-American unit, we have observed how
African-Americans have been affected by and have responded to this double
consciousness. In this essay, 1)
explain what Du Bois means by "double consciousness,” and
2) discuss its effects upon individuals from at least 3 of the texts that
we considered in this unit.
PART
III: General Reflective Essay. Answer one. (40 points; about 1 hour and 15
minutes)
In
this essay, you should develop a coherent thesis that answers one of the
following questions. You will be expected to illustrate your arguments with
specific, concrete examples drawn from a broad range of readings we have done
this semester. Do not simply
discuss serially a subset of our readings, and do not summarize the
readings. Draw a key point from a
reading where appropriate to your argument, make sure its relationship to your
argument is clear, and then continue with your argument.
1. Various
arguments have been advanced for why the liberally educated student should
examine not only one's own culture but other cultures as well. Presumably, studying oneself leads to
greater understanding on one's own history, literature, values, attitudes,
beliefs and motives. In other
words, one attains a deeper, richer understanding of one's own cultural
identity. But is that enough? Some would argue that it is only by
studying others, by seeing what one is not, that one comes to comprehend more
fully one's own identity. Presumably one learns not only what one is
not, but also what one shares with
all others of the human race. Studying other cultures may have the further
advantage of leading to a deeper, richer understanding of "the other" that may
serve to reduce prejudice based on stereotypes.
Having
had the opportunity to study both self and other during the Spring semester, where do you stand on these issues? Discuss the extent to which your understanding of both self and other deepened or was
hindered by the various readings, art, and music you studied this semester.
In
your essay, be sure to include substantial references to works from at least
four of the six parts of the course.
2. In his lecture, "What Is Culture?"
Professor Placher suggested that a tradition is an "ongoing argument." That is, different men and women—in
books, essays, declarations, stories, novels, works of art, etc.—talk and argue
with each other, down through time and across the generations, about the
"meaning of life." But Professor Placher also suggested that some arguments are
specific to a given culture (e.g. the Azande argument about whether someone is a
witch), and that people outside that culture (like us) cannot really understand
them or take part in them.
This
being so, write an essay in which you address the following questions. Are there, or are there not, some
“arguments” that are specific to a given culture, i.e. arguments about ideas,
issues, themes, or concerns that make sense only to the people in that
culture? If so, what are they, and
how specific to the culture are
they? (That is, can an outsider
ever understand anything about them at all? If not, why not? If so, what, how much, and by what
means?) Or conversely, are there
"arguments" that transcend specific cultures, and are about ideas, issues, etc.,
that are common to all humanity?
And if so, what are they? If
(as is possible) you think that both kinds of arguments exist, which do you
think it's more important for an educated, cultured person to know about, and
why?
In
your essay, be sure to include substantial references to works from at least
four of the six parts of the course.