English 331
Final Exam
Due May 21
(Your exam may be placed in my mail box in the English office, slipped under by office door (6-057 Wheatley), given to me there in person (Wednesday, May 21, 4-6 p.m.), or, at your own risk, sent to me via e-mail: charles.knight@umb.edu .
I (50%). Write substantial, informative, and elegant paragraphs on ten of the following. You should write no more than one paragraph on any given work or author. Each paragraph should identify the author and the work and should say something about the context and function of the character (or place or quotation) and the significance of the issues it raises.1. Momus
2. "This is the sublime and refined point of felicity, called the possession of being well deceived; the serene and peaceful state, of being a fool among knaves."
3. Atticus
4. Dionysos
5. Silenus
6. Lucilius
7. If you mention vice or
bribe,
'Tis so pat
to all the tribe;
Each cries--That was levelled at me.
8. Donna Julia
9. Emory Bortz
10. "Ask for a sound mind in a sound body."
11. Clarissa
12. Jesús Arrabal
13. Tiger Brown
14. Maecenas
15. Peachum
16. "The stiffest sentences of all were being served by those who, in life, had been lairs or had written books that didn't tell the truth; Ctesias, Herodotus, and a good many others were in this group. The sight of them gave me high hopes for my own future; I knew in my heart that I had never told a lie."
17. For I will teach, if possible, the stones
To rise against earth's tyrants. Never let it
Be said that we still truckle unto thrones.
But ye, our children's children, think how we
Showed what things were before the world was
free.
18. Bob Booty
19. Euripides
20. Nor public
Flame, nor private, dares to shine;
Nor human Spark is left,
nor Glimpse divine!
21. Aeolists
22. Umbricius
23. Llanabba Castle
24. What keeps mankind alive? The fact that millions
Are daily tortured, stifled,
punished, silenced oppressed.
Mankind can keep alive thanks
to its brilliance
In keeping its humanity
repressed.
II (50%). Write on one or two of the following questions. Your essay or essays must include substantial discussion of three works read in the course, one of which must be early (before Byron) and one late (Byron or after). If you write one essay, if should be 4-6 pages long; if you write two, each should be 2-3 pages.
1. The speaker or persona of satire, from Horace to Byron (and beyond), is often a character who is a self-consciously a writer. Whatever else the work may be about, it is also about the process or predicament of writing. Compare at least three works in which the speaker is a self-conscious writer. What connections can be made between problems of authorship and social problems that the author describes?2. Some satirists we have read (e.g., Horace and Lucian) use dialogue as a basic form of their satires. Such dialogues shade naturally into drama--the agon (or contest) of Aristophanes, the conversations between characters in Gay and Brecht, the dialogues in the novels of Waugh and Pynchon. What characteristics of satire make dialogue particularly appropriate to it? What does dialogue add to satire?
3. Violence and the threat of violence seem to play a significant role in most satires, and the satirist sometimes seems cruel, treating this violence as a source of humor. Discuss this pattern of violence and cruelty in satire. What does it accomplish? Why is it used? In what ways and under what circumstances does it become funny?
4. The most universal generic feature of satire seems to be its function to attack. Is attack an important as well as universal feature of satire, and if so, why? Consider the meaning and significance of satiric attack in various satiric works. What problems does attack raise for satirists and their readers?
5. Satire usually proposes a clear satiric target who is distinctly different from ourselves. But because satire is sometimes tricky to interpret, it may be the case that the reader as well as the satiric target is a satiric victim, in some sense an object of satiric attack. Discuss the victimization of the reader in several satiric works.
6. Most satires seem to depend on the establishment of some norm of behavior or judgment, on the basis of which the material of the satire is to be evaluated. Compare several works in which the satiric norm is established in different ways. An alternative approach to the topic would be to ask how, when we make a judgment regarding the object of satire, we know that judgment to be more than a private one depending only on our personal values.
7. In the absurd world sometimes depicted by satire, events seem often governed by blind chance rather than human choice. In such cases it seems difficult to talk about the moral responsibility of the individual or about the traditional function of satire to provide moral instruction or clarification. Discuss this ethical problem as it relates to satire in such works as those by Horace, Juvenal, Lucian, Gay, Byron, Brecht, Waugh and Pynchon.
8. Some critics have claimed that satire tends to be conservative in thought and politics, that the satirist prefers old values and old ways of behavior rather than some new, upstart system. On the basis of the various works read in this course, would you argue that this characterization of satirical politics is true? Waugh might be confidently identified, for purpose of this argument, as a conservative satirist, Byron as a liberal one.
9. Swift was an Anglican minister; Pope and Waugh were well-known as Roman Catholics, and Greek Old Comedy was performed in honor of Dionysos. Using several works that take up religious topics or are written by officially religious authors, discuss the connections you find between a basically religious attitude and an essentially satiric one.
10. Do all satires take place in San Narciso? Does Tristero's silent empire threaten in many satiric works? Pynchon's satiric novel is in part a complicated exploration of egoism and paranoia, of the real or imagined possibilities of personal or global destruction. Are these general satiric topics (or are they limited to Southern California)?
11. If your fancy is not tickled by any of the above, or if your mind is gripped by some other compelling issue, compose and write about a topic that follows the rules for this section: it should raise a substantial point about satire and should be discussed in terms of at least three works from different periods. (In this case, the question gets graded as well as the answer.)