2190 Midterm guidelines.

The midterm, which is worth 10% of your grade, is designed to show that you are conversant with the major texts (Chopin’s The Awakening and Brontë’s Wuthering Heights) and the key ideas that we have been discussing this semester. It will not test your memory of minor details. One question will address the Nina Baym article from which we read—and extensively discussed—an excerpt. The exam will consist of 10 questions, all of which, on some level, will ask you to discuss the novels in the context of “women’s literature.” You should be able to answer each question in a few lines. You may  consult your notes (but not the books) during the exam. If you have taken good notes, this will help you enormously.

Here are a couple of sample questions:

1.    How does The Awakening challenge the prevailing 19^th century concept of motherhood?

2.    Why were these novels considered shocking or scandalous upon publication?

*Although these are questions you could certainly answer at considerable length, your goal here will be to give a thoughtful, solid answer to each in a few sentences. The more specific references to the texts you incorporate into your answers, the stronger they will be.