ENG/WMS 232: American Women Writers
Final Exam Study Guide
Fall 2005

 The final exam for this course will have two parts. The first part will consist of identification questions in which you respond to a term with its 1) identification/definition; 2) an example; 3) its significance to the tradition of American women's writing as we have explored it throughout the semester. Each identification is worth four points, and you must respond to ten of fourteen terms.

 EXAMPLE

Character: A character is a person represented in a literary work who has particular moral, intellectual and emotional qualities. There are flat characters, who are a kind of “type” and can be described with a single sentence and round characters, who are complex in temperament and motivation. Sylvy in "The White Heron" is a round character, complex in her desire to be liked by the hunter and to protect the heron. Characters like Sylvy are important to literary works because they are one means through which authors comment on or communicate a work’s theme.

 The essay questions will be of two sorts: a question about a particular important work and a question that requires you to synthesize your analysis of two or more literary works. These essays are worth thirty points each, and you will have a choice of questions.

 EXAMPLE

 1) How does Sandra Cisneros use other women characters on Mango Street as lessons for Esperanza?

 2) How do Alvarez, Walker, and Shields structure in their novels? How do those structures affect at least one theme the author communicates?

 
The following terms (in no particular order) may appear in EITHER identification questions or essay questions. In class, I will suggest study tips for this kind of exam.

 every work we have read in the class until this point

 stereotypes        
four stages of African American women's writing            
cultural icons                                                     ideals
gender roles                                                      sex v. gender
modernism/post-modernism                              Historical-Biographical approach        
Feminist Approach                                           Four Virtues of Chinese womanhood
Cultural Studies approach                                 setting
Three Obediences                                            Barbie                                   
character                                                          plot
motifs in Alice Walker's writing             Kunstlerroman
theme                                                               structure
style                                                                 genre
geography                                                        silence
authenticity                                                       room of one's own
voice                                                                resistance
symbolism                                                        vignette
epistolary novel                                     motherhood
contrariness                                                      map
point of view                                                     confessional poetry
immigration and gender                         family
Trujillo                                                  identity
miscommunication                                             language
the ordinary                                                      GOODNESS