LITS2002 EXAM ADVICE
2005-2006

1. The exam is two hours in length: you must answer (in the form of essays) any two questions chosen from a total of 5.
2. The questions are comparative, asking you to address a particular topic discussed in class with reference to at least two poets.
3. The exam is based on Module 2 which is devoted to the following topics:
   1. the nature of Romantic poetry in general:
      1. their thematic speculations on the nature of:
         1. reality;
         2. the self;
         3. the relationship of the self to the world;
         4. the social structure and politics;
      2. the forms characteristic of Romantic poetry (e.g. the use of the ode);
   2. the 'second wave' of Romanticism (Shelley, Keats) and their relationship to the 'first wave' (especially Wordsworth):
      1. in what ways is the poetry of the second wave a continuation of the characteristic themes and forms of the first wave and in what ways is it critical of this legacy?
   3. 'Victorian' poetry in the UK and USA (illustrated by samples drawn from Tennyson, Arnold, Hardy, Hopkins, Thoreau, Whitman, Robert Browning):
      1. in what ways is Victorian poetry a continuation of the characteristic themes and forms of the Romantics per se and in what ways is it critical of this legacy?
      2. the growing skepticism concerning many of the philosophical assumptions of the earliest Romantics in the wake of Darwinism, Marxism and Nietzschean nihilism;
   4. the work of selected nineteenth century women poets (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Bronte, Dickenson, Rossetti):
      1. 'gynocriticism': in what ways is women's poetry a continuation of the characteristic themes and forms of the male poets and in what ways does it diverge from this inheritance (what Curran terms the 'altering of the I')?
      2. 'feminist critique': in what ways is women's poetry critical of the condition of women?
   5. the work of selected nineteenth century African American poets (Harper, Johnson, Dunbar):
      1. in what ways is 'black' poetry a continuation of the characteristic themes and forms of the 'white' poets and in what ways does it diverge from this inheritance (how is the 'I' altered [Curran])?
      2. in what ways is African American poetry critical of the condition of 'black' people?
4. In the exam, you will need for the most part to discuss poets studied in Module Two.  However, for one or two of the questions, you may need to also draw on your knowledge of poets studied in Module One.
5. Though the emphasis is on the poetry, where necessary you should draw on those theoretical essays (by, for example, Shelley) which we have discussed and which necessarily inform our view of the poets and their work.

This site was last updated: February 03, 2011

Please direct all queries HERE

↑ Grab this Headline Animator