A319: Mid-Term Revision: Fall 2007 – 2008

1. Concentrate on the theories and theorists writings of the following:

a. Structuralism: Roland Barthes, Gerard Genette
− How are the elements related to the whole?
− How do other structural elements such as binary opposites and language
construction (verb tenses and sentence structure) contribute to the text’s
meanings?
− How do various elements of the work such as plot, character, point of
view, setting, tone, diction, images, and symbol reinforce its meanings?
− What is the work’s major organizing principle? How is its structure unified?
− What issues does the work raise? How does the work’s structure resolve those
issues?
b. Marxism: Louis Althusser, Terry Eagleton, and Pierre Macherey
− Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it describes?
− How are class differences presented in the work? Are characters aware or
unaware of the economic and social forces that affect their lives?
− How do economic conditions determine the characters’ lives?
− What ideological values are explicit or implicit?
− What is the relationship between the conditions of production to the text itself?
c. Feminism: Simone de Beauvoir and Julia Kristeva
− Do the men and women in the work accept or reject these roles?
− Does the work challenge or affirm traditional ideas about men and
women in the society depicted?
− How are the lives of men and women portrayed in the work?
− Is the form and content of the work influenced by the author’s gender?
2. Read (p 5 & 6) as guides into these three different approaches.
3. What attracts you to a story, and what makes you continue until the
end? For example:
− Conflict between characters
− Psychological probing
− The role of the narrator
− Time at the center of events
− Vagueness in meaning and environment and want to see an end to the puzzle
4. The meaning of one story or one poem or play is determined by its
structure.
5. See Block 1, page 15 for a discussion of types of narrators.
6. The discourse of the story is determined by the influence left on us the by the
narrator whether he is telling us something or choosing not to tell us.
7. Poems are also like stories; the narrator plays a role but also does
rhyme and rhythm. (p 20)
8. How is ‘Endgame’ a good example of a modernist drama? (no meaning /
part of the theme)
9. Does it speak of ideology? (fragmentation and dissolution)
10.Read Eagleton’s article, page183, on the role-played by the State and power and
literature.
11.Read Eagleton on Eliot and the ‘Waste Land’, page 187.
 12.Pierre Macherey’s “The Text Says What it does not Say”: Do books say what they
mean? (p 192 & 193)
13.What it does not say about certain absence in the book? (p 193)
14.What is important in a book is what it does not say. (p 194)
15.W. B. Yeats Poetry
− Examples of Yeats use of symbolism in his poetry “Sailing to Byzantium”
− His use of history and Irish Mythology
− Horace’s view on poetry (delighting & instructing)
− How is myth employed in the ‘Waste Land’?
− Main characters of ‘Waste Land’: Doris, Dusty, and Sweeney
− Main Characters of ‘Sahib’s War’: Umr Singh, Kurban Sahib, and Sikandar Khan
− Main event in ‘Sahib’s War’: Raid on a Boer-log house (p 9 &10)
− Modernists (p 104) argued that poetry is not for preaching. What do
you think?
− Rudyard Kipling’s “A Sahib’s War”
− The Relation between Modernism and Ideology (p 102-106)
− The theme of ‘solitariness’ in the ‘Waste Land’ and ‘Mrs. Dalloway’
− Consult the excellent discussion of themes in Block 3
− Themes of ‘death’, ‘boredom’, and ‘anxiety’ in the ‘Waste Land’ and
‘Mrs. Dalloway’
− What is the theme of ‘Sweeney Agonistes’?
− Who is Kipling? Why is he controversial?
− What is the reason for searching the house? What happens afterwards?
Important Terms, where you should provide: Definition,
Characteristics, Example, and Critical Theory
− Drama: anti-natural + absurd
− Englishness
− Feminism
− Ideology
− Marxism
− Modernism
− Modernist Literature
− Structuralism
Notes Prepared by Dr. Angelica DeAngelis, Course Chair A319
In A319, we will have one MTA each semester, and each will be held during
class time in Week 9 of the semester. Each MTA is worth 7.5% of the total course
score (which is out of 100%) – together MTA 01 and MTA 02 make up 15% of your
final grade in A319.
This semester (Semester 1) MTA 01 will cover the material covered during
Weeks 1-8 in the course. You can see a list of the detailed readings in the Course
Calendar (posted online).
For each week, you may have material (readings/audio) from the following
sources:
− Set Texts (this includes novels, plays, poems, and short stories from the
Anthologies)
− Block Texts
− Essays (from the Critical Essays and Documents book)
− Audio Tracks
 MTA 01 covers materials from Blocks 1, 2, and part of 3. The exam will consist of
short answers (such as a paragraph or two) – it will NOT be in essay format – and you
will be given a choice of questions to answer. The major concepts of each Block to be
covered on the MTA are outlined below.
Block 1: Introduction
− Differences in the formal analysis of prose fiction, poetry and drama
− Major theoretical approaches to be used in the course (Structuralism;
Marxism and Ideology; Feminism)
Block 2: The Impact of Modernism
− Cultural and historical context of Modernism
− Literary conventions of modernism in different genres
Block 3: Literature and Ideology: Englishness
− The concept of ideology and a range of different definitions of the term
− ‘Englishness’ as one reaction to Modernism amongst English writers
− ‘Englishness’ as an ideology – often unconscious and contradictory
While you are not expected to know every detail of every reading, you are
expected to be familiar with all material, to have clear idea of the main themes and
concepts, and to be able to apply this knowledge to any literary work – even ones
you have not studied in class.