| MA
SAMPLE EXAM
CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERISTY, FULLERTON
DEPARTMENT
OF ENGLISH, COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, AND LINGUISTICS
COMPREHENSIVE
EXAMINATION—M.A. IN ENGLISH
SPRING
2003
PART
I. CRITICAL
ANALYSIS (120 minutes). Select one of the
following three options as the basis for a unified,
clearly organized, and well-supported essay.
1. In a well organized essay,
analyze the following poem, “To Rosemounde,” by Geoffrey
Chaucer (1340-1400). In your analysis, you should
identify the stylistic elements of the text and show how
those elements contribute to the theme of the passage. You
will want to consider some, but not necessarily all, of
the following stylistic elements: point
of view, theme, levels of language, irony, figures
of speech, syntax, rhythms, and others which you might
identify.
To
Rosemound, A Ballade
Madame,
ye ben of al beaute shrineo enshrined
As fer as cercled is the mapemounde,o map
of the world
For as the cristal glorious ye shyne,
And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.
Therwith ye ben so mery and so jocoundeo gay,
lively
That at a revel whan that I see you
daunce,
It is an oynemento unto
my wounde, ointment
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.o attention
For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne,o vat
or cask
Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde;o ruin,
disturb
Your semyo voys,
that ye so small out twyne,o sweet,
entwine
Maketh my thoght in joy and blis habounde.o abound
So curtayslyo I
go, with love bounde, courteously
That to myself I sey, in my penaunce,o suffering
“Suffysetho me
to love you, Rosemounde, it
satisfies
Thogh
ye to me ne do no daliaunce.”
Nas never pyko walwed
in galauntyneo pike
(fish), sauce
As I in love am walwedo and
ywounde, tumbled, tossed
For which ful ofte I of myself devyneo believe
That I am trewe Tristam the secounde.o Tristran,
lover of Isolde
My love may not refreydeo nor
affounde;o grow
cold, abate
I brenne ay in an amorous plesaunce.
Do what you lyst, I wyl your thralo be
founde, slave
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.
Tregentil. Chaucer
2. In
a well organized essay, analyze the following excerpt
from the beginning
of Pride
and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1775-1817). In
your analysis, you should identify the stylistic
elements of the text and show how those elements contribute
to the theme of the passage. You will want to consider
some, but not necessarily all, of the following stylistic
elements: point of view, theme, levels of language, irony,
figures of speech, syntax, rhythms, and others which you
might identify.
Pride
and Prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged,
that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must
be in want of a wife. However
little known the feelings or views of such a man may be
on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so
well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that
he is considered as the rightful property of some one or
other of their daughters.
“My dear Mr. Bennet,” said his lady
to him one day, “have you heard that Netherfield Park is
let at last?”
Mr.
Bennet replied that he had not.
“But it is,” returned she; “for
Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about
it.”
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
“Do not you want to know who has taken
it?” cried his wife impatiently.
"You want
to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.”
This
was invitation enough.
“Why,
my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield
is taken by a young
man of large
fortune from the north of England; that he came down on
Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and was so
much delighted with it that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately;
that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some
of his servants are to be in the house by the end of next
week.
“What
is his name?”
“Bingley.”
“Is
he married or single?”
“Oh! Single, my dear, to be sure! A
single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What
a fine thing for our girls!”
"How
so? How can it affect them?”
"My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied
his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know
that I am thinking of marrying one of them.”
“Is
that his design in settling here?”
“Design! Nonsense, how can you
talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall
in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit
him as soon as he comes.”
“I see no occasion for that. You
and the girls may go, or you may send them by themselves,
which perhaps will be still better, for as you are as handsome
as any of them, Mr. Bingley might like you the best of
the party.”
“My dear, you flatter me. I
certainly have had
my share of beauty, but I do not pretend to be any thing
extraordinary now. When a woman has five grown up
daughters, she ought to give over thinking of her own beauty.”
“In
such cases, a woman has not often much beauty to think
of.”
“But,
my dear, you must indeed go and see Mr. Bingley when
he comes into the
neighbourhood.”
“It
is more than I engage for, I assure you.”
“But consider your daughters. Only
think what an establishment it would be for one of them. Sir
William and Lady Lucas are determined to go, merely on
that account, for in general you know they visit no new
corners. Indeed you must go, for it will be impossible
for us to visit him, if you do not."
3. In
a well organized essay, analyze the following poem, “90
North,” by Randall Jarrell (1914-1965). In
your analysis, you should identify the stylistic elements
of the text and show how those elements contribute to the
theme of the passage. You will want to consider some,
but not necessarily all, of the following stylistic elements:
point of view, theme, levels of language, irony, figures
of speech, syntax, rhythms, and others which you might
identify.
90
North
At home, in my flannel gown, like a
bear to its floe,
I
clambered to bed; up the globe’s impossible
sides
I
sailed all night—till
at last, with my black beard,
My furs and my dogs, I stood at the
northern pole.
There in the childish night my companions
lay frozen,
The stiff furs knocked at my starveling
throat,
And I gave my great sigh; the flakes
came huddling,
Were
they really my end? In
the darkness I turned to my rest.
—Here
where, the flag snaps in the glare and silence
Of the unbroken ice. I stand here,
The
dogs bark, my beard is black, and I stare At
the North Pole…
And
now what? Why, go back,
Turn as I please, my step is to the
south.
The world—my
world spins on this final point
Of cold and wretchedness: all lines,
all winds
End in this whirlpool I at last discover.
And it is meaningless. In
the child’s bed
After
the night’s voyage,
in that warm world
Where people work and suffer for the
end
That
crowns the pain—in
that Cloud-Cuckoo land I reached my North and it had meaning.
Here at the actual pole of my existence,
Where all that I have done is meaningless,
Where
I die or live by accident alone—
Where, living or dying, I am still alone;
Here where North, the night, the berg
of death
Crowd me out of the ignorant darkness,
I see at last that all the knowledge
I
wrung from the darkness—that
the darkness flung me—
Is worthless as ignorance: nothing comes
from nothing, The
darkness from the darkness. Pain
comes from the darkness
And
we call it wisdom. It
is pain. 1942
CALIFORNIA
STATE UNIVERISTY, FULLERTON
DEPARTMENT
OF ENGLISH, COMPARATIVE LITERATURE, AND LINGUISTICS
COMPREHENSIVE
EXAMINATION—M.A. IN ENGLISH
SPRING
2003
PART
II. SYNTHESIS
(120 MINUTES). Select one of the following three
options as the basis for a unified, clearly organized,
and well-supported essay. Your detailed discussion should
center upon three works from at least two different cultures
or periods, each by a different author. Include more
than one genre.*
1. "What enrages me is
the way women are used as extensions of men, mirrors of
men, devices for showing men off, devices for helping men
get what they want. They are never there in their own right,
or rarely." Jane
Tompkins, “Me and My Shadow”
Agree or disagree with this comment
by literary critic Jane Tompkins, citing in your
discussion the treatment of women in three
works.
2. Samuel Johnson describes metaphysical
wit as “a kind of discordia concors, a combination
of dissimilar images or discovery of occult resemblances
in things apparently unlike.” Although the concept
of metaphysical wit is usually applied to
the work of the Metaphysical poets of the 17th century,
it is certainly found in works from other periods and in
other genres. Analyze the ways in which discordia
concors might reflect tensions in the structure, characterization,
and/or theme in three works.
3. The way in which a culture
deals with death reveals much about that society’s value
system. Select three works where a confrontation with death
comprises an important feature of the work’s theme and/or
influences the development of a major character. Account
for the lessons derived from that encounter and the ways
in which death either asserts meaning in life or questions
meaning.
*Genre in
these directions is understood to mean these categories:
poetry, drama, fictional prose, nonfictional prose.
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