Exam Option
The Exam Option aims to push students to develop an integrated understanding of the several areas that make up the major, and of the way in which they relate to one another. Its goal is not, therefore, success in an exam, but an understanding of the nature and development of Literatures in English. The exam is merely a rough measure of how far a student has been able to achieve such an understanding.
The core of the exam option is the process of study students undertake during Fall and Winter Terms. The department believes that the best way for students to work towards an integrated understanding of the major is to do so on their own, free from the overarching structure and perspective afforded by a Carleton course. Individual study is thus central to the process. But since everyone needs to put their ideas to the test, the department recommends that students form themselves into study groups, which will meet regularly throughout Winter Term. These groups are self-selecting and autonomous. Groups are welcome to invite faculty members to visit and join in their deliberations if they so wish.
If a group is to engage in a discussion it needs to have texts in common. For this reason the department produces annually a “Comps list” of about 15-30 titles for students to examine and discuss. The list is selective rather than comprehensive, and, as such, will irritate everybody by excluding many of their favorite works. It aims to offer, in as brief a compass as possible, a suggestive selection of works designed to express the generic range and historical breadth of the major, as reflected in the four groups, with the goal of facilitating the process of integration. The list is not “the canon,” it is a convenience.
Students who take the exam generally concur on two points. First, the process of studying for it is extremely rewarding, often the highlight of their major. Second, the process of taking the exam is rather frustrating: how can one do justice to all that one has learned in the major over a single weekend in April? The department recognizes this difficulty: a student who could adequately communicate everything he or she knows about a subject in the course of a single exam is unlikely to have much to brag about. The real goal of the exam option is to prepare students for a lifetime of informed reading.
FALL TERMWeek 5: the department asks students to form themselves into study groups of 3 to 8 exam-takers and to inform the department of the roster for each group.
Registration: students wishing to take the exam should register for ENGL 400-03.
WINTER TERM
At end of Winter Term, the faculty heading up the Comps Exam will hold an informational meeting to clarify the nature of the exam and its various parts, and to answer student questions about the exam.
SPRING TERM
The exam itself traditionally takes place over the weekend between Week 1 and Week 2 of Spring Term. In 2008, these dates fall on April 5–7.
Books:
Eliza Haywood, Fantomina; or Love in a Maze (1724)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
Thomas de Quincey, Confessions of an Opium Eater (1822)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of Seven Gables (1851)
(& Barbara Fields adaptation at Carleton)
Virginia Woolf, Orlando (1928)
Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)
William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch (1959)
(and 1991 Cronenberg film adaption)
Toni Morrison, Sula (1973)
Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (1980)
Nuruddin Farah, Secrets (1998)
Plays:
Christopher Marlowe, Edward II (1592)
Aphra Behn, The Rover (1677)
Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love (1997)
Short Stories:
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat” (1843)
Dorothy Parker, “Big Blonde” (1929)
Junot Díaz, “Aurora” and “Boyfriend” from Drown (1996)
Poems:
Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale” (1390ish) from The Canterbury Tales
Sir Philip Sidney, #71 and #72 from Astrophil and Stella
William Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis (1593)
George Herbert, “Love III” (1633)
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, “The Imperfect Enjoyment” (1680)
Aphra Behn, “The Disappointment” (1680)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (1797)
Alfred Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters” (1833)
Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market” (1859)
A.E. Housman, #44 from A Shropshire Lad (1896)
Allen Ginsburg, “Howl” (1955)
Sylvia Plath, “Tulips” (1965)
Li Young-Lee, “The Cleaving” (1990)
Other:
Oscar Wilde, De Profundis (1908)
Peter Stallybrass and Allon White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression (a section) (1986)
This list will be available near the end of Fall Term 2008-09.
EXAM OPTION STUDY GROUPS
The study groups will be available near the beginning of Winter Term 2008-09.
- Exam Option
- Essay Option
