Exam 1 will consist of the following elements: (1) a 10-question multiple-choice section; (2) a section featuring either identification questions or a passage to explicate; (3) an essay question, usually from a choice of 2-3 questions.
This study guide provides general information about the exam. It may not cover everything. Your notes will be your best guide to studying for the exam; also, you may want to read some of the class weblogs, which have interesting interpretations of the works.
I. Works to be covered
- Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"; "Winter Dreams"; The Beautiful and Damned
- Dorothy Parker, "Resume"; (PDP 99); "Interview" (117); "News Item" (109); "Bohemia" (223); "Unfortunate Coincidence" (96)
"Big Blonde" (PDP 187-210)
- Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, "The Sea Change," "Hills Like White Elephants"
- Harold Lloyd, The Freshman (general knowledge)
- Selected songs: "Collegiate," "Old King Tut" (general knowledge only)
II. Terms and concepts
- Material covered in the reports (prohibition, gangster culture, the flapper, advertising, slang, etc.--general knowledge)
- Hemingway and modernism
- Information from our visit to the MASC
- Basic historical background (Prohibition, World War I, , etc.)
III. Sample essay questions. (Note: These are samples; there is no guarantee that these will be on the exam.)
- In what ways do the works of this period portray fixed gender roles as uncomfortable or even toxic? What kinds of struggles for power occur in the works you've read?
- How does the idea of race or racial otherness appear in one or two of these stories?
- Setting and place are crucial to the action of the works we've read. Using one or two examples, show how the symbolic use of place or setting contributes to the themes of a work.
- In a "Lost Generation" era, what do the works we've read propose as a substitute for conventional religious beliefs?
- Stark contrasts--of a place, a future, a culture, gender expectations--drive the plot in several works. How does the vision of life differ between North and South in "The Ice Palace," for example?
- In what ways does The Freshman reflect social changes occurring during the 1920s?
- Popular culture--music, movies, and advertising, especially--plays an important role in the works we've read so far. Choosing any two works, discuss the function of popular culture in establishing its themes.
- Several of the works we've read have dealt directly or indirectly with issues of class, including defining what constitutes a true aristocracy. Choosing any two works, discuss the ways in which they present issues of class.
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