MDVL 302 FINAL EXAM (DRAFT VERSION FOR REVISION PURPOSES)
SECTION ONE (5 points)
[Image of medieval chapbook]
Identification exercise on TEN of the following passages:
(1-15)
They will be taken from a combination of the midterm commentary topics and quotations in your blog comments. In each case, you’ll be given the page number but not the book title. Identify the book and situate the quotation VERY VERY BRIEFLY.
Maximum length: 3 lines per item
THE PASSAGES WILL BE FROM:
ROMANCE OF THE ROSE
39-40, 60, 76-77, 80, 140-41, 197-99, 252, 287-89, 302, 332-34.
RENARD
46, 95-97, 125, 127-29, 137-38, 141-45
BOOK OF THE CITY OF LADIES
33, 93, 103, 110, 138, 140-41, 162-63, 205-07, 211-14, 221-23, 232-33, 239
CELESTINA
1, 5, 18, 26, 33, 56, 103-05, 110, 130, 133, 141, 151-52, 157, 163, 185, 189
PRAISE OF FOLLY
3, 6, 14-15, 19, 37, 43, 48, 51, 53-55, 61, 65, 72, 75, 81, 87
SECTION TWO (10 points)
Write a short commentary on ONE of the passages you identified in SECTION ONE above. Short = maximum length: one side of a page.
SECTION THREE (35 points)
Please write an essay on ONE of the following topics:
1-2 In this course we explored various aspects of later Medieval literature through the theme of criticism, as expressed in a number of texts. We saw how criticism pervades pre-modern literature: across a range of kinds of writing, high and low, scholarly and popular, serious and light-hearted—even scathingly satirical. From a long continuing tradition of exegesis and commentary, through didactic works, to incorporation within works such as the Roman de la Rose and “quarrels” about and around them, we saw a subversive side to questioning and debate. We investigated themes of social and religious critique, attacks on hypocrisy and on corruption, and the development of ideas of privacy and identity, freedom of conscience and expression, and the figure of the public intellectual.
1- Discuss one of the aspects of our course theme outlined above (in bold) in relation to your final paper and two of the texts studied in this course.
2- Discuss one of the aspects of our course theme outlined above (in bold) in relation to one of the texts you worked on in your final paper and to two of the texts studied in this course.
3-10: Similar sorts of question, each tailored to individual final papers (in case they don’t fit exactly with 1. & 2. above). To formulate the questions, I’ll be using a combination of my notes from our individual meetings and your actual final papers. Some other topics associated with the main course topics (1-2 above) will include: commentary, continuation, new versions, dissection and analysis, maps and mapping, and methodology (in relation to meta-commentary…).
