I. SHORT RESPONSE (3 x 15%)
• Answer ALL PARTS of the following questions to the best of your ability and in your own words
(no marks will be awarded for answers that have been copied and pasted from other sources
such as the lecture notes).
• Your response to each question should be in the neighbourhood of a few sentences to a short
paragraph in length.
• Make sure to give a full and detailed, yet clear and concise, response to each question. Use
examples from the course texts where appropriate.
• Discuss a different literary text in each of your three short responses.
1. As H. Porter Abbott notes in the Cambridge Introduction to Narrative, masterplots can “have a
strong rhetorical impact” for the reason that “our values and identity are linked to” these plots
(46). Define the term “masterplot.” Identify at least one example of a masterplot. Explain how
masterplots encode values and influence the opinions of readers. Discuss how ONE of the texts
we’ve read this semester is structured upon the basis of a masterplot (use specific examples
from the text) and talk about how the author’s use and manipulation of this masterplot
communicates ideas and meanings related to the central themes and issues of the text.
2
2. While H. Porter Abbott identifies various types of closure in The Cambridge Introduction to
Narrative, he focuses his discussion on two types specifically: closure at the level of questions
and closure at the level of expectations. Define these two types of closure. Explain how ONE of
the fictional texts we’ve studied this semester exhibits ONE type of closure (or a lack of such
closure). Refer to specific evidence from the text as much as possible. In one or two sentences,
explain how the author’s use of such closure (or failure to provide such closure) communicates
ideas and meanings related to the text’s central themes and issues.
3. Define the term “focalization.” As part of your definition, explain how focalization is different
from narration. Also define the term “fixed internal focalization.” Explain how one fictional text
we’ve read this semester exhibits the concept of fixed internal focalization (refer to specific
evidence from the text as much as possible). In a single sentence, explain how the author’s use
of fixed internal focalization in this text communicates meanings related to the text’s central
themes and/or issues.
II. ESSAY QUESTION (1 x 55%)
• Choose a fictional work we’ve read this semester and write ONE short essay of about five
paragraphs in length on ONE of the topics below.
• Structure your response as an argumentative essay with a thesis, strategy, and connection.
• Support your argument with textual evidence and detailed analysis.
• Develop your own argument; don’t simply recite an argument I’ve made in lecture.
• You must format your quotations properly (in accordance with MLA guidelines) but you are not
required to include a list of works cited.
• You may not write about any of the texts you focused on in the close reading and essay
assignments
1. Many of the works we’ve discussed in this course have engaged with the theme of time. Some
of the texts focus on characters who are simply waiting for time to pass. Other texts collapse
and manipulate time through the use of analepsis, repeating narrative, ellipsis, summary, etc.
Choose ONE of the texts we’ve read this semester and discuss how the text engages with the
theme of time, both at the level of content and through the medium of narrative form. (Support
and illustrate your claims by providing textual examples and by close-reading direct quotations
3
from the text). You might wish to consider one or more of the following questions when
preparing your response: How does the narrator manipulate, distort, and collapse time through
the use of the above-mentioned narrative techniques? How do the characters experience and
reflect on the topic of time within the world of the story? And how do the text’s form and
content work together to communicate meanings and ideas related to the theme of time?
2. Many of the works we’ve read this semester have engaged with themes of violence, pain, and
suffering in creative and unconventional ways. Choose ONE of these texts and talk about how its
author uses imagery—be it poetic imagery or visual images—to represent violence, pain,
suffering, etc. Support and illustrate your claims by providing textual examples and by closereading direct quotations from the text. You might wish to consider one or more of the
following questions when preparing your response: What ideas and meanings are evoked by
these images of violence, pain, and/or suffering? How does the author use imagery to add a
depth of meaning and feeling to the otherwise direct representation of violence, pain, and/or
suffering? And how do these images communicate meanings and ideas related to the central
themes and issues of the text in which they appear?
3. Many of the texts we’ve read this year depict characters who are lonely, isolated, and/or
detached from a broader society or kinship group. Choose ONE of these texts and examine how
it explores the theme of loneliness, isolation, and/or detachment. Support and illustrate your
claims with examples and direct quotations from the text. Focus on representations of
loneliness/isolation/detachment and identify the reason for the character’s condition.
Moreover, discuss how the issue of loneliness/isolation/detachment is resolved in the text. If
the issue is not resolved, identify the reason for this and explain what this failure tells us about
the characters and the world in which they live.
