English 113 (Fall 2011) Dr. Katherine D.

Harris Mid-Term Examination Gothic Novel & Horror Fiction Due: Sunday, 10/16, 5pm via email On Tuesday, October 11, we discussed and collaborated on the style of this course's mid-term. After discussing the pedagogical goals for giving an in-class mid-term in this course, we discussed how we could alter the format to afford the best learning strategies and to prepare for our conversations throughout the remainder of the semester. We discussed that the mid-term typically tests students' knowledge of key concepts, historical contexts, connection among the texts, and the application of Gothic elements. In my estimation, memorization has proved over my years of teaching to be the best form of producing complex understanding of course ideas for later use. However, the class articulated their desire for an alternative to the standard in-class mid-term: 1) a section of identification to be completed by each individual; 2) two brief essays written collaboratively by established groups; and 3) an individually-produced peer review of group-mates' efforts. Rules for each section were briefly articulated during our class discussion and are finalized below. We will have two grades for this mid-term: one for the individual section and one for the group section. Those two grades will then be averaged together to represent your final grade on the mid-term exam. SECTION I: INDIVIDUAL WORK Each student individually will submit responses to the below identifications. Email your responses to this section separate from your group essays (Section II). Your responses to these identifications need to be legible, coherent and written using complete sentences. One point will be deducted for each instance that a complete sentence is not used. Section 1A: Identification Using a single, complete sentence, define the following terms as they relate to the literature that we've been reading. Worth 2 points each 1. horror 2. Edgar Allen Poe 3. Prioress 4. Anna L. Aiken [Barbauld] 5. The Rambler No. 4" 6. Lord Strongmore 7. Decadence 8. French Revolution 9. Elvira 10. Schauer Romantik 11. werewolf 12. Imitation of Horace 13. ladykiller 14. sensibility 15. ghost story

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Section 1B: Short Answer In 3-4 complete sentences, give a full and complete description of 10 of the following literary terms. Include the source (full name of author & title of text) and the relevance of each to the literature. Be very specific in your description and use effective writing (i.e., no sloppy writing, please). Worth 7 points each 1. Male Gothic 2. Emily 3. I tried to kill him for the purpose of strengthening my vital powers by the assimilation with my own body of his life through the medium of blood relying, of course, upon the Scriptural phrase, For the blood is the life (206). 4. sublime 5. Orientalism 6. American Gothic 7. Had you resisted me one minute longer, you had saved your body and soul. The guards whom you heard at your prison-door, came to signify your pardon (440). 8. Rosario 9. Victorian Gothic 10. shorthand 11. Aubrey 12. Scarcely had the Abbey-Bell tolled for five minutes, and already was the Church of the Capuchins thronged with auditors. Do not encourage the idea that the Crowd was assembled either from motives of piety or thirst of information. But very few were influenced by those reasons (7). 13. fragmented bodies 14. Catholicism 15. telegram, phonograph, typewriter 16. Bleeding Nun 17. We want no proofs; we ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care; later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake (327). 18. Wandering Jew SECTION II: GROUP COLLABORATIVE ESSAYS For this section, each group will write two essays, 750-1000 words per essay, in response to the following prompts. The response on this portion of the exam should demonstrate your understanding of the readings, the historical context, and the gothic elements that we've been discussing thus far in the semester. In addition, since this is effectively a take-home exam, the writing for each essay needs to be free from mechanical, grammatical, and stylistic errors and should generally demonstrate a sophistication in writing appropriate to an upper-division literature course. In your responses, refer to specifics in the texts, but use quotes only if they are necessary to the argument. (You may paraphrase instead as long as you also use an in-text citation with page number to demonstrate your familiarity with the text. Use the editions of the texts that are specified on the course syllabus, please, so that I may find your quotes with ease.) DO NOT consult, plagiarize, or read through outside sources to create your essays other than our class literary texts, of course. Each essay needs to contain an arguable thesis statement with the body paragraphs proving that argument. A conclusion is not necessary, especially since it's one of the most difficult pieces of an essay to write. Use MLA style for citation and your Works Cited. (Append a Works Cited to each essay, please.) Avoid summarizing the text; instead, these essays are meant to allow you the chance to make connections among our texts and to demonstrate your understanding of
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Gothic elements. Please designate a single group member to email this portion of the exam (as an attachment). Be sure to list each student name in the header on the essay itself. You might also want to cc all of your group members on that email. Please submit both essays (as a single document) to Turnitin for verification. A word on group dynamics: Some class members expressed concern about working in a group. If someone in your group is not committed to his/her portion of the workload, and that person has expressed a resistance to his/her role in the group, bring the matter to me via email. (Please, first discuss this matter with the entire group and the person in question before coming to me.) At that point, we will decide if that person needs to be fired from the group (which will carry its own consequences). This avenue will be used as a last measure and is not to be taken lightly. Essay Questions: 1. In A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, Edmund Burke defines pain, pleasure, danger, and horror. In On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror, Anna Barbauld furthers Burke's ideas and proposes that reading Gothic novels, with all of their terror, horror, surprise, pleasure, and danger, will enervate the soul. In The Rambler No. 4, Ben Johnson denigrates the Gothic novel by labeling it promiscuous and unrestrained. Then, Jane Austen supplies a formula for producing a Gothic novel, a formula that is meant to criticize the proliferation of the Gothic writing style. Using Matthew Lewis' novel, The Monk, write an essay that discusses both the development and the criticism of the Gothic novel as demonstrated by all four of these essays. (Your essay should take a particular argumentative stance rather than simple observation. Please do not simply regurgitate class lectures/discussions.)

2. Monsters and vampires have dominated the first half of our semester. During class
discussions, we've ranged from divining British nationalism to defining/re-defining gender roles in nineteenth-century Britain. We've also discussed the social and cultural anxieties inherent to British literature. Write an essay that compares and contrasts the social and cultural anxieties at either end of the nineteenth-century as they are demonstrated in Frankenstein and Dracula. Keep in mind that these two novels represent the quintessential Female and Male Gothic. (Your essay should take a particular argumentative stance rather than simple observation. Please do not simply regurgitate class lectures/discussions.) SECTION III: PEER REVIEW OF GROUP MEMBERS This portion of the exam will not be graded. Instead, it is meant to highlight your role in the essay collaboration, what worked/what didn't work in particular in your group. Write a brief statement about your role in the collaboration and what you learned from the experience. (Please don't take this as a moment to complain; instead, reflect on the positive and negative experiences.) Then, assign a grade to each group member based on his/her contribution to the collaborative essay. Each grade needs to be accompanied by a brief explanatory paragraph. Criteria for grade: 1) Intellectual contribution to the ideas forming the essays (pre-work); 2) Percentage of labor and intellectual contribution to drafting the essay; 3) Percentage of labor and intellectual contribution to revising the essay; and
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4) Percentage of labor and intellectual contribution to writing the essay (sentence-level, etc.); and 5) Overall willingness to participate in the collaboration. Email this portion of the mid-term directly to me (or attached to Section I). This section is not to be shared with the rest of the group or other classmates. A final note: Please remember that this is a somewhat experimental style of mid-term examination. However, we are not the first to use this method. (Cathy Davidson at Duke did this last Spring in her classes and was quite successful.) If you have reasonable questions, please email me. Otherwise, the unwritten goal of this mid-term exam is to afford you the opportunity to participate in a collaboration with a specific product as the result. Be generous to each other.

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