The final exam for English 431A is Tuesday, May 8, 8:00-10:00 am in Modern Languages 411 (our regular classroom). Studying for this comprehensive final gives you the opportunity to review the semester's material, an activity that will make you retain more of what you have studied. This study guide should help make your review productive and effective. I encourage you to study together; use the class list or your group email lists to organize study sessions. The exam will be open note: that is, you may use one sheet (2 pages) of notes made especially for the exam, NOT all your class notes. You may also use a dictionary, but you may not consult your textbook, articles, or any xeroxes during the exam. You will write your exam in a blue book (any size) using either pen or pencil (think legible).
The exam will have two parts:
As you study, think about the following themes:
1. Transvestism, gender-bending, cross-dressing in Shakespeare's plays and in their sixteenth-century production.
2. The presentation, function, meaning, purpose, figuration of marriage, seduction, romantic love, and family relationships in Shakespeare's plays.
3. Shakespeare's plays and contemporary (i.e., sixteenth-century) situation: his plays' relationship to questions of religion, monarchy, economy.
4. Shakespeare's use of "a play within a play" and his explicit references to "playing," acting, and drama in various works; the function of these references.
5. The way Shakespeare's plays comment on and contribute to contemporary (i.e., sixteenth-century) discussions about gender, masculinity, femininity (including medical discourse on gender).
6. Reading one or more plays from an American
New Critical, New Historicist, or Feminist perspective.