ENGL 2600 “midterm” (revised according to our decisions in class Nov. 15)
Total points for take-home AND testing center portion—200 points
This portion of the exam will be due by midnight Wednesday, Dec. 1 in my e-mail. When
your answers are revisions of previous assignments, provide those graded previous answers
to me during class on Dec. 1 during class.
Part-I: Directions for take-home portion
You’ll be answering six of the following in a typed and double-spaced essay-question
answer format that will require at least ½ to 1 page (125-200 words) from you in
response to each question. You may let your responses go longer if need be. Since this
portion of the exam will now be a take-home, I’ll expect it to be edited for common usage
errors and cited according to MLA style when citing is appropriate. If you are answering
by improving one of your previous response papers or practice quiz responses, please
include the original with the revision so I can be impressed by your efforts to clarify your
earlier work. You may turn in that printout on Friday, our last day of class. If you are
providing me a new printout or e-copy of your previous answer, make sure I can tell
which one you want me to grade this time around.
You MUST answer the boldfaced questions.
Present your manuscript in MLA style.
You then MUST choose three of the other.
IF you choose to try the bonus, you may answer any of the remaining questions or
provide your own. Avoid redundancy please!
Answers will be worth 25 points each.
1. REQUIRED QUESION Contrast Plato’s definition of mimesis with Aristotle’s, citing
particular passages. Go on to contrast the two philosophers’ contrasting ideas about
the value of art—and more specifically, of poetry—as mimesis.
2. Define “structuralism” using Barry’s “chicken and egg” concept.
3. What makes Barthes’s “Striptease” an example of structuralism?
4. Again using Barry, contrast structuralism and poststructuralism.
5. List the objects and aims of each of the theories we have covered—structuralism,
poststructuralism, Marxism and Neo-marxism, psychoanalytic theory (look for this info in
my post-structuralist slide show).
6. REQUIRED QUESTION List one of Barry’s answers to “what ______ critics do?”
for structuralism and post-structuralism and Marxism and psychoanalytic theory
(either Freud or Lacan) and then provide a thesis statement that makes an argument
about a insight that could be produced by each of those theoretical approaches. You
will end up with a list of four critical actions and four thesis statements representing
the four theories listed. Make sure you label each one so I don’t get confused about
your intentions.
7. Because of Saussure’s concept of the sign, he makes three observations about linguistic
structures. Identify these three observations and explain them briefly.
8. Contrast the way Marxism saw the role of literature as opposed to the way Althusser saw
the role of literature.
9. Take one dream or looking glass image from WSS and analyze it using Freud or Lacan.
10. What is the connection between poststructuralism and deconstructionism? What does a
deconstructionist do? Why?
11. REQUIRED: List five recurrent ideas in critical theory, explaining instances in which
you’ve seen three of them surfacing in this class. (Barry 33-35 at the end of the
“Theory Before Theory” chapter for the list of these recurrent ideas. Draw from your
own experience in learning about theory in finding examples of where those themes
have become obvious to you in class.
12. Why study critical theory? In explaining reason, add specific insights you have gained this
semester in reading WSS.
BONUS: Write your own question (not one covered above or in the list of terms below)
and answer it, referencing specific theory or theories we have covered in class. Like the
others, this response will be worth up to 25 points.
See the next page for Exam Part II directions
PART II—testing center section. This section of the test us available in the testing center. You may
complete this portion of the exam through the end of the ELC testing center hours through
Wednesday, Dec. 1. Note: because of our snow day last week, I’ve extended the test into Thursday.
Realize that you must begin the exam at least one hour before the center’s closing time. I advise you
to allow two hours for this exam.
You may bring ONE page of notes filled in on ONE side in completing this portion of the exam.
You’ll be asked to define 12 of these terms (MY CHOICE) , explaining them in detail and offering
illustrations and examples when possible.
1. Langue vs. Parole
2. Signified/Signifier/Sign
3. Barthes’s semic code
4. Barthes’s symbolic code
5. Binaries (structuralism)
6. Ideology (Marx) vs. Ideology (Althusser)
7. Alienation (Marx)
8. Base/superstructure (Marx)
9. Dialectic (Marx)
10. ISA (Althusser)
11. Interpellation Althusser)
12. Hegemony (neo-Marxism)
13. Repression (Freud)
14. Condensation (Freud)
15. Defense mechanisms (Freud)
16. Displacement (Freud)
17. Oedipus complex (Freud)
18. Id/Ego/Superego (Freud)
19. real/imaginary/symbolic (Lacan—class notes and Dr. Harris handout)
20. Mirror Stage (Lacan)
21. Auto-antonyms (Postructuralist slide show)
22. Diffe’rance
23. “Reading a text against itself” (deconstruction)