Study Guide
Midterm Exam
World Literature (Fall 2009)
Structure:
The midterm will have three parts. Part I will consist of passage identification from primary texts. I will ask you to choose 5 out of 6 passages and identify the text, the author, the period in which the text was written (or composed), and the speaker or the person portrayed.
Part II will consist of short answer questions (1-2 sentences) focusing on background and context. You will not have a choice of questions.
Part III will consist of interpretive short answer questions. I will ask you to choose 2 questions from a choice of several. Your responses should be well thought out, analytic paragraphs. I will be looking for depth of interpretation and for enough detail to demonstrate familiarity with the material and to back up your claims convincingly.
Primary Texts:
- Genesis 1-11
- John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9 lines 896-916
- “Utanapishtim’s Flood” (Tablet XI from The Epic of Gilgamesh).
- Homer, The Odyssey, Books 6 and 9
- Excerpts from Virgil, The Aeneid (Norton vol. 1, pp. 795-831)
- Excerpts from Valmiki, The Ramayana (Norton vol. 1, pp. 728-761)
- “The Mabinogi of Pwyll,” also known as “Pwyll Lord of Dyved”
- The Mali Epic of Son-Jara (Norton vol. 1, pp. 1552-1587)
- Yüan Chen, “The Story of Ying-ying” (Norton vol. 1, pp. 983-990)
Secondary Texts:
- “Ancient Near Eastern Literature and the Bible” (p. 42 to top of 51)
Some Historical Background:
The Epic of Gilgamesh and Utnapishtim’s Flood:
The Sumerian myth “The Deluge” dates to the 3rd millennium BCE. It was incorporated into the Assyrian Atrahasis Epic in the 2nd millennium BCE and incorporated into the Epic of Gilgamesh soon after that. Gilgamesh was a historical king of Uruk, Babylonia, thought to have lived around 2700 BCE.
The epic names the author Sin-leqqi-unninni. He selected and compiled material from oral stories into a written narrative around 1600 BCE.
The Epic of Gilgamesh was found in the library of Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, at Nineveh, which was destroyed in 612 BCE.
George Smith found the flood story among the tablets from Nineveh around 1872.
Genesis:
Written in Biblical Hebrew. The first book of the Pentateuch (literally “5 scrolls:” Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy).
Genesis 1-11 is set in the remote past; the rest of the Pentateuch is set between 1950 and 1250 BCE.
The Biblical texts were first written down around 1000 BCE, though some material, such as the story of Adam and Eve, circulated orally before that.
The Pentateuch was canonized around the 5th century BCE.
The Odyssey:
An oral epic composed in Ancient Greek verse around the 8th century BCE, partly based on myths already in circulation. Set at the time of the Trojan War, around the 12th century BCE.
Little is known about Homer, though scholars believe he is from Asia Minor. It is possible (but unproven) that there was more than one “Homer” (i.e. more than one person responsible for the “Homeric” epics).
Archaeologist Heinrich Schleimann found evidence of the existence of Troy in the 19th century. Excavations have shown that Troy had undergone violent destruction in the 12th century BCE, hence the dating for the Trojan War.
The Ramayana:
Written in Sanskrit verse around 550 BCE, based on oral stories dating to the 7th century BCE. Considered the first poem of India. Composed of 24,000 verses divided into 7 books.
Attributed to the bard Valmiki.
The Aeneid:
Written in Latin verse by Virgil in the first century BCE; unfinished at the time of his death in 19 BCE. Set at the same time as The Odyssey (just after the Trojan War, around the 12th century BCE).
Virgil’s full name was Publius Vergilius Maro. He was a court poet -- he was supported by the emperor, Augustus. He wrote three books: The Eclogues (a book of pastoral poems also known as The Bucolics); The Georgics (a book on farming); and The Aeneid.
Written 804 CE by Yüan Chen; takes place around the same time.
Most famous T’ang love story.
The T’ang period (618-907) was generally a period of prosperity and flourishing literature. China started to develop short stories and longer fiction during that time. This fiction fell into two groups: Classical Chinese and vernacular Chinese. The vernacular Chinese stories were generally based on well-known historical and religious tales. The Classical Chinese stories (including “The Story of Ying-ying”) were original materials, though writers/narrators often claimed to have heard them from someone else.
“Pwyll Lord of Dyved:”
From the middle Welsh prose epic, The Mabinogion.
The earliest manuscripts containing parts of the Mabinogion date from the 12th and 13th centuries CE:
- the earliest copy of the complete Mabinogion (all 11 tales) is in the Red Book of Hergest, c. 1400
- the earliest complete copy of the Four Branches of the Mabinogion (the first 4 tales) is in the White Book of Rhydderch, c. 1325
- Peniarth 6, c. 1225, is the earliest manuscript to preserve fragments of the Four Branches.
The tales presumably approached their present form between 1000 and 1250 CE; they are based on oral stories dating to the 5th century CE.
The stories were not necessarily written by the same person, but based on their consistency of style and unity of structure, they were probably redacted by one person.
First translated into English by Lady Charlotte Guest between 1838 and 1845. She provided the title because each of the four branches ends with the phrase, “So ends this branch of the Mabinogi”. The Welsh word “mab” means “boy”, so a “mabinogi” may have referred to a story of someone’s early years or a story of someone’s descendents.
The Epic of Son-Jara:
An oral epic in verse composed in the late 13th / early 14th century CE; takes place mid-13th century CE.
Depicts the founding of the Mali empire, which took place (in real life) in the middle of the 13th century. The founding of the empire is attributed to Son-Jara Keita, sometimes called Sundiata.
All that is known about Son-Jara comes from Manding oral tradition (primarily the Epic of Son-Jara) and records by Arab historians. According to the Norton, the most significant record of Son-Jara is from Ibn Khaldoun, a 15th century historian and philosopher.
The epic is still performed orally in Mali today. The earliest published version was printed in 1968 in French by a Malian historian. Our version is the translation of a transcription of an oral performance by the griot (bard) Fa-Digi Sisoko.
Some themes and questions to think about:
Homes and nations
Consider the portrayals of home in various texts we’ve read. How do people define their homes? As concrete places? Through other people? How do people define themselves through their depictions of home? What are the implications of leaving home, or being away from home? What is involved in finding -- or founding -- a new home?
How do tales of nation-building, such as The Aeneid and The Epic of Son-Jara, define the cultures they represent? How do these stories confer legitimacy on the nations they portray?
How does cultural contact help characters in these texts consolidate their identities -- or by contrast, change their identities?
We discussed ways in which Odysseus defines himself against his definition of Polyphemus. Do any other characters define themselves against other people? Do the texts define their protagonists through contrasts with other characters?
What roles do fame and reputation play in driving the behaviour of characters in these texts?
How do these texts portray virtue or excellence? Consider similarities and differences between the ideals of virtue in various epics. How do patience, respect, self-discipline vie with assertion or aggression, or with cleverness/intelligence? How does moral virtue relate to social appropriateness?
What causes falls from virtue, or falls from grace, among protagonists and antagonists?
What tensions do you see between the characters’ personal desires (where they want to go, what they want to do) and their duties (where the gods have decided they should go, where their duties to others require them to go, etc.)
To what extent to the humans in these texts have agency – power over their decisions and/or over the course of their lives?
How do the texts portray violence? If the texts justify acts of violence, what kinds do they justify, and in what contexts? What purposes do their justifications serve?
What roles do women play in these texts? In which texts do they demonstrate equality to men? In many of the texts, women have supernatural powers; how do these powers affect their social status or agency?
How do women affect the lives and goals of the male protagonists (for example, as sources of support? As hindrances?) To what extent can they control their roles in the lives of male protagonists?
What strengths and weaknesses do the female characters display?
How do the texts represent female virtue or female heroism (if at all)? Are the women subject to different moral criteria than the men?
In these texts, what consequences are associated with love? In what ways does love move stories forward? How does love, in these texts, relate to lust? Are the boundaries between them clear? Is love within one’s control?
How do different texts characterize the gods, or (in Genesis) the Judeo-Christian God? What roles do gods/God play in the lives of humans? How do these texts portray divine justice -- in other words, what kinds of justice (or “justice”) are meted out by gods/God?