ENG/LAS 254: Latino/a
Literature and the
Study Guide for the
Final Exam
EXAM FORMAT
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 Latino/a Literature 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. Ultima is a round character who does not feel it necessary to choose between the indigenous customs she knows and the Catholicism that was imported to the US Southwest through Spanish conquest. Characters like Ultima are important to literary works because they are one means through which authors comment on or communicate a work’s theme, such as hybridity of spiritual practices in the Southwest.
[NB: You probably won't be able to write quite this much for each identification.]
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.
Questions like the following essay questions may appear on the final exam. Choose one of the following questions for your final short writing for the course, due at the time of the Final Exam:
1) Compare and contrast La Llorona and La Malinche. What do these figures tell us about ideas about women in Mexican American (or Chicano/a) culture?
2) Define setting. Using this tri-partite concept (hint), describe the setting of Bless Me, Ultima and how that setting influences one of the themes of the novel.
3) What is biculturalism? Choose three works we have read this semester and describe the effect of biculturalism on the protagonist (main character) of the work.
4) Many Latino/a authors are concerned with collective memory. Choose three authors that we have read this semester and describe the way that they "remember" history for others how have not lived it or were not familiar with it. (Hint: Villegas de Magnon, Julia Alvarez, Corky Gonzalez, Piri Thomas, Tomás Rivera, Rudolfo Anaya, Pat Mora.)
5) How is La Gritona a metaphor for the Chicana voice? How has the Chicana literary tradition differed from that of the Chicano authors? Choose two Chicana writers and discuss how their work is innovative.
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 author on the syllabus
Spanish-American
war
Nuyorican poetry
Rafael
Leonidas Trujillo
Puerto Rican im/migration
Salvador
Allende
literature of immigration
point
of view
literature of exile
structure
native literature
genre
language
style
ethnicity
Latino/a
v. Hispanic
Aztecs
Historical-Biographical
approach
Cultural Studies approach
Feminist
approach
Chicano/a Literature
cultural
preservation
memory
corrido
Gregorio Córtez
Teatro
Campesino
setting
theme
la Virgin de Guadalupe
la
Malinche
la Llorona
Coatlicue
regionalism
bildungsroman
community
biculturalism
bilingualism
Cihuacoatl
La Gritona
four phases of El Movimiento (The Movement)
Aztlán
agitprop theater
actos
nationalism
matrix
of identity
film: El Norte
barrio
vignette
composite
novel
testimonio
Kunstlerroman
symbol/symbolism
character
urban space
memoir
stereotype
gender
American Dream
macho/machismo
border/lands