Dept.

of English
ENG 610 The Language of Love, Sex, and Gender
Winter 2016
TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM
Due date:
Time:

Monday, April 18, 2016

must be submitted online no later than 3:00pm (see link on D2L
Brightspace in Assignments, Dropbox)

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:

This is a take-home exercise that should take approximately 1.5 to 2 hours to

complete
In composing your responses, please make use of whatever textual resources
at your disposal that you deem relevant this is NOT a closed-book exercise.
Take the time to read over all the questions before you begin
Proofread your work before you submit the completed exam.
All answers should be double-spaced.
Make sure your first and last name and your student ID number appear on
the first page of your submitted work.
This exam is worth 30% of your final mark for ENG 610.

YOU CANNOT DUPLICATE YOUR WORK FROM EITHER OF THE TWO ESSAYS
THAT YOU HAVE SUBMITTED THIS SEMESTER. IF YOU WRITE ON A TOPIC
THAT YOU HAVE ALREADY COVERED, YOU MUST DO SO IN THE CONTEXT OF
A DIFFERENT LITERARY TEXT. IF YOU USE A LITERARY TEXT THAT YOU HAVE
PREVIOUSLY DISCUSSED, YOU MUST COVER A DIFFERENT TOPIC.

PART ONE: SHORT ANSWER (40%)

INSTRUCTIONS
Choose ONE of the following quotes, taken from the texts on the course syllabus,
and write a 2-page essay in response to it (double-spaced). Your response should be
written as a short, formal analytic essay with AN UNDERLINED THESIS
STATEMENT and a conclusion. In composing your answer, you are required to
analyse the significance of the passage in question and contextualize it by
discussing its significance in relation to the text as a whole (i.e., how does the
passage relate to the text in which it appears?).
1. He thought about the bridges the train would cross, and bridges that had not
yet been envisioned. He knew now that there were schools where you learned

how to design bridges that would be built, bridges that were beautiful. This
was what he wanted to do. In his pocket lay the Labrador Credit Union bank
book containing the record of his fathers gold. He knew on the train that in
his thinking he was not so different from his father. His father would, this
coming winter, walk his trapline towards unnamed places, and Wayne would
finally be on his way to a landscape that was for him as magnetic and as big
as Labrador (Winter, Annabel 456-57).
2. Who were these kids? What right had they to be born into a world where
they were taught to look endlessly into themselves, to ask how the texture of
a mushroom made them feel? To ask themselves, and not be told, whether
they were boys or girls? You eat whats there or you starve (Fu, For Today I
Am a Boy 218).
3. In 1994, Rolakes younger brother had died of sickle cell anemia, and her
community had come together to mourn him. Now, suddenly, friends and
relatives were pouring into the house again, holding out their arms and tearstained cheeks to her mother. Rolake found herself being waked, just like her
brother had been. Watching people come to mourn when you are still alive
it wasnt a very good feeling. My father had to ask, Exactly what is the
problem now? Have you seen this Rolake you are crying over? Shes okay,
shes fine, she hasnt changed. He dispatched the would-be mourners. But
she couldnt understand the shock and dismay: it wasnt just that she was
infected, it was the implication. Our kind of people dont get HIV: my cousin,
my brother, my sister cant get HIV. People like us dont get HIV middleclass university graduates. This three million youre talking about the
number of people then infected in Nigeria theyre not real (Nolen, 28
Stories of AIDS in Africa 316).

PART TWO: COMPARATIVE ESSAY (60%)

INSTRUCTIONS
Choose ONE of the following topics and write a comparison-contrast essay (doublespaced) using at least two of the texts covered this semester. Note that at least one
of those texts must be one of the longer works on the syllabus i.e., Wintersons
Written on the Body, Winters Annabel, Fus For Today I Am a Boy, or Nolens 28
Stories of AIDS in Africa. For your second text, you may choose another of these
longer texts or, instead, use any of the poems or other works (films) covered in
class. In constructing an argument, be sure that your thesis statement articulates a
clear, logical connection between the two texts you have selected so that you are
not simply arguing two parallel theses with limited or arbitrary points of contact.
Finally, while you may write on a text that you have previously used in
either of the research papers (or in Part One of this exam), you may not
duplicate your work. That is to say, you must present wholly original material for
this essay and not repeat previous thesis statements or arguments regarding the
selected texts. UNDERLINE YOUR THESIS STATEMENT AND THE TOPIC
SENTENCES IN EACH OF YOUR PARAGRAPHS.

These extremely general topics are starting points, not actual thesis statements.
You will need to transform one of them into an argument. You can start by
considering what role the topic plays in the texts, how it is used or deployed in the
texts, and ultimately what its significance is in helping you to formulate an answer
to the question Therefore what?.

Take the time to outline your thesis before you write. Your essay will be graded on
the quality of your argument and its development, as well as on your mastery of the
form of the essay and English syntax and grammar.
LENGTH: 4-5 pages, double-spaced
TOPICS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Alterity (Otherness) and/or Difference

Liminality or so-called In-between/third spaces
Marginalization
Monsters, the monstrous.
Performance
Silence

Its been a pleasure working with you this semester! Enjoy your break and good luck
with the rest of your exams.