Lit 160: Mid-Term Exam

Answer one and only one question from each group. Your responses should be thorough and specific using plenty of references to the works we’ve covered to back up what you’re saying. Each group should be about two pages long.
Due: Oct 24/25

Group A
1) Consider the discussions about the slave trade in Equiano and Wheatley. How do they use religion to explain the situation? In what ways do they use comparison to attack the institution of slavery in the New World? How and why does Equiano explain life in his Ibo village?

2) In what ways do the slave narratives differ? How do Jacobs and Douglass discuss the brutality more precisely? Why do the earlier writers like Equiano and Wheatley need to be less graphic? How did these writers demonstrate and awareness of their audience?

Group B
1) Discuss the “Oral Tradition.” How do the “Brer Rabbit” and “Stagger Lee” stories evolve and grow over time? How does this tradition differ from a written one? In what ways might subversive ideas be hidden within these works under the guise of simple animal tales? How might Wheately and Washington be doing something similar in their writings?

2) What is a “Trickster Figure”? In what ways does this character undermine the status quo by working against the system? How can we see this influencing more recent forms of popular entertainment? How do writers like Douglass portray themselves this position in order to undermine the systems of oppression within which they were operating?

Group C
1) Discuss Douglass, Washington, and Du Bois in terms of their focus on education. In what ways do they seem to differ? What are their main goals? How did Douglass use education as a means to escape? In what ways might Du Bois be influenced by Douglass? How might Washington and Du Bois find some common ground within their approaches?

2) What does Du Bois mean when he claims to have lived “Behind the veil”? How does this relate to his discussion of “Double Consciousness”? How might this relate to Washington’s ability to address his rich, white audience? In what ways might this relate to Dunbar’s poetry?

Group D
1) Consider the works we’ve covered by female authors. In what ways are they addressing issues differently than the male authors? How did they face a “double discrimination” while trying to get published? In what ways can “Sweat” be read as a feminist text?
2) Consider the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Why were certain writers attempting to follow traditional European styles? What is sonnet? How and why did Hughes decide to construct poetry in a different way?