Sample Mid Term
English 399 Literary Criticism Mid Term Examination
Directions: Make certain you carefully read, critically
consider, and fully answer each question. Please write your
answers in bluebooks for ease of grading and handling. You may
also type your answers and print the results. Make sure
handwriting is legible. Feel free to cite any materials you use
for evidence or support. Any indications of academic dishonesty
will result in a failing grade. Your answers are due back in my
mailbox no later than:___________.
- The definition of "text" has posed an ongoing
problem for scholars of literature and rhetoric. Provide,
justify, and apply (through examples) your definition of
text. Pay special attention to intertextuality and
intersubjectivity.
- Significance of text involves a series of subjective
criteria. Examine and explain "significance" in
light of a comparison between the text you have chosen to
study (for the first paper) and the works of Shakespeare,
Milton, or any other icon of Western literature.
- Examine and explain the importance of the distinction
between the text of the nobility and the text of the
common man. Pay particular attention to : Homer, Hessiod,
Aeschylus, Euripedes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and
Oristeia as well as the concepts of Themis, Deke, Agon,
and Aratae.
- Knowledge was an important theme for the ancients.
Compare and Contrast the epistemology of Pythagoras,
Socrates, Aristotle, and the Sophists.
- Francis Bacon's work (especially the idols) set a great
deal of the groundwork for phenomenology (especially
Husserl). Compare their approaches to bracketing
(Epoche).
- Many theorists and schools of thought examined the role
of text in the creation of such notions as
"truth" and "reality." Choose any
three theorists and compare and contrast their ideas
about text, truth, and reality.
- Examine the role of Verbum in both the hermeneutics of
faith and the hermeneutics of suspicion. Explain how the
hermeneutic circle facilitates critical analysis of text.
Questions? Email me at Sophist@Bigfoot.Com
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