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This is the midterm exam of 2014. The basic format of the exam will remain more or less the same this year.
Studies in British and American Culture (34789-03)
Midterm Exam
October 23, 2014
I. Cultural Theories (5 points)
1. What are the three definitions of culture given by Raymond Williams in his Keywords?
2. What is the definition of culture by Matthew Arnold in his Culture and Anarchy?
3. What is the social constructivism?
4. Explain Sherry Ortner’s idea of Gender difference in its relationship with culture.
5. Explain how the act of “naming” can be and an act of power.
II. The basic facts about literary texts and their authors (5 points)
Identify the authors of the following works (their full names) and write what you know about their lives.
6. “The Yellow Wallpaper”
7. “Lady Lazarus”
8. “Everyday Use”
9. “A Pair of Ticket”
10. “Tintern Abbey”
III. The literary understanding of quoted passages (their contexts and significances)(15 points)
Explain the meaning of the following passages with the context of the whole novel.
11. I kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. "I've got out at last," said I, "in spite of you and Jane. And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!" Now why should that man have fainted? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that I had to creep over him every time!
12. Out of a dark and soft-seated limousine I am ushered into a bright room filled with many people. There 1 meet a smiling, gray, sporty man like Johnny Carson who shakes my hand and tells me what a fine girl I have. Then we are on the stage and Dee is embracing me with tears in her eyes.
13. "Where is Mama?" they would say, and look around, still smiling, two flushed and eager faces. "Is she hiding?" And this would have been like my mother, to stand behind just a bit, to tease a little and make people's patience pull a little on their hearts. I would shake my head and tell my sisters she was not hiding.
IV. Write a short essay of about 150 words on the following topic.(10 points)
Compare “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “Lady Lazarus” in the context of Feminism.
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