Comprehensive Exam Archive

This archive collects all of the comprehensive exams that have been administered since the inception of the joint M.A. program in English. The joint program committee is providing these files for the reference of graduate students who are preparing to complete this important degree requirement.

Spring 2002
 Fall 2001
Spring 2001
Fall 2000
Spring 2000 		Fall 1999
Spring 1999
Fall 1998
Spring 1998 		Fall 1997
Spring 1997
Fall 1996
Spring 1996 		Fall 1995
Spring 1995
Fall 1994
Spring 1994

THE CITADEL AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 1994

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I. As appropriate, identify, define, and discuss the significance of any twenty-five (25) of the following items. Devote one to two sentences to each.

 II. In response to the following topic write a coherent, well-developed essay.

One handbook to literature defines satire as follows:

Satire can be described as the literary art of diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation. It differs from the comic in that comedy evokes laughter mainly as an end itself, while satire "derides"; that is, it uses laughter as a weapon, and against a butt that exists outside the work itself. That butt may be an individual . . . or a type of person, a class, an institution, a nation, or even ... the whole human race.... Satire has usually been justified by those who practice it as a corrective of human vice and folly....

(M. H. Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms. 6th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1993)

With detailed and ample references to at least one literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, analyze the targets and techniques used by the respective satirists. Your essay should include more than one genre.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON AND THE CITADEL

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 1994

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your answer before writing. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I . As appropriate, identify, define, and discuss the significance of any twenty-five (25) of the following items. Devote one to two sentences to each identification.

II . In response to the following topic write a coherent, well-developed essay:

Much criticism of the late twentieth century has focused on the way works of literature portray differences perceived to be based on race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and economic status. With detailed and ample references to at least one literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, choose one of these five bases for group stereotyping and discuss how and with what effect it has been represented in British and American literature. Your essay should include more than one genre.

THE CITADEL AND THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 1995

General Directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part I, two hours for Part Two.

I. As appropriate, identify, define, and discuss the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one or two sentences to each.

 II. In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

One guide to literary analysis defines "symbol" as follows:

A symbol is an object that has meaning beyond itself.... A symbol ... is a concrete object with no clear referent and thus no fixed meaning. Instead, it merely suggests the meaning and, in an odd way, partly is the meaning. For this reason, the meaning of symbols is difficult to pin down. And the more inexhaustible their potential meaning, the richer they are.

(Kelley Griffith, Jr. Writing Essays About Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986)

With detailed and ample references to at least one literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, analyze and demonstrate the appropriateness of symbols to theme or character or both (as appropriate) in each work. Your essay should include more than one genre.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON AND THE CITADEL

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 1995

General Directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I. As appropriate, identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two sentences to each.

II. In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay

The concept of "organic unity" is at least as old as Aristotle's Poetics, which says that each element of plot should be "an organic part of the whole"—meaning that it should fall within the chain of cause and effect that defines plot from beginning to end. The more modern version of "organic unity" focuses on the relation between form and content, believing that, as Coleridge says, "nothing can permanently please which does not contain in itself the reason why it is so, and not otherwise." In other words, the artist--whether poet, dramatist, or fiction writer--does not simply choose a particular form as vehicle for the content; he or she discovers the form that is the right one for the occasion

With detailed and ample references to at least one literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, discuss the relationship of form to content and the degree to which that relationship in the works you have selected fulfills the criterion of "organic unity." Your essay should include more than one genre.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON, SC AND THE CITADEL

JOINT GRADUATE PR0GRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 1996

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

1. As appropriate, identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two sentences to each.

II. In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

A recurring stratagem among poets is to proclaim that, unlike preceding generations of poets who relied on "poetic" language and themes, the current poet will re-establish a proper connection between the real world and the realm of poetry by using the language that people actually use and by addressing more universal concerns. Dramatists and fiction writers have likewise sought to bridge the gap between the world of literature-as-art and the real world context in which the reader lives.

With detailed and ample references to at least one literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, analyze the efforts of authors to maintain a viable connection between their creations and the world of commonplace experience without sacrificing the integrity of the work of literature as a work of art. Your essay should include more than one genre.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHARLESTON, SC AND THE CITADEL

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 1996

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part one, two hours for Part Two.

1 As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two sentences to each.

II. In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

Literary artists work within a spectrum that stretches between, on one hand, a direct reproduction of ordinary experience and, on the other, a transcendence of ordinary experience in search of some meaningful beyond.

With detailed and ample references to at least one literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, analyze the ways in which the authors of those works have placed themselves along that spectrum and the degrees of self-consciousness their works demonstrate in approaching the problem of faithfulness to reality versus creation of meaning. Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 1997

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part one, two hours for Part Two.

1 As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

One handbook to literature defines a classic as follows:

A classic is a work that endures.  It is inherently rich, capable, it has been suggested, of sustaining diverse interpretations simultaneously.  The qualities that distinguish it as ranking with the best are those that educated people have come to value.  It is the job of criticism to define and apply the standards.

(Northrop Frye, Sheridan Baker, George Perkins, The Harper Handbook to Literature. New York: Harper & Row, 1985)

Adhering to this definition, select at least one literary work (but no more than two) from ach of the categories below that you believe are or, in more modern instances, will become classics.  Be specific and detailed in pointing out the various interpretations that each work sustains. Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 1997

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part one, two hours for Part Two.

1 As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II. In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

Among the oldest themes in literature is the conflict between innocence and experience, between ignorance and knowledge of the reality of the human condition.

With detailed and ample references to at least one literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, analyze the ways in which authors have incorporated this theme in their writing. Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 1998

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part one, two hours for Part Two.

1 As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II. In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

 Central to the meaning of many works of literature is irony, a sense of disjunction between appearance and reality, what seems and what is (or will be). Whether verbal, dramatic, cosmic, or another form, irony frequently provides writers with a strategy to develop character, plot, or theme.

With detailed and ample references to at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, analyze the nature and purpose of the irony. Your essay should include more than one genre.

 
JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 1998

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part one, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II. In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.
In many works of literature setting is an essential element of the author's creative strategy.  Place (geographical area or a smaller physical environment), time (historical era, season, or even time of day), and cultural milieu--or some combination of them--often prove to be central in the development of charcter and theme.

With detailed and ample references to at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories, analyze the nature and purpose of the setting. Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 1999

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part one, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.
Recognizing that it is a "term that has a variety of meanings and applications in criticism and literary history," one handbook to literature offers the following broad definition of tragedy:
If a generalization can be made about so protean a subject as tragedy, it is probably that tragedy treats human beings in terms of their godlike potential, of their transcendent ideals, of the part of themselves that is in rebellion against not only the implacable universe but the frailty of their own flesh and will.  In this sense tragedy as the record of human strivings and aspirations is in contrast to comedy, which is the amusing spectacle of people's limitations and frailties. (C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature.  4th ed.  Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1980.)
Select at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories and analyze how the works fulfill this definition of tragedy.   Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 1999

General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part one, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay. General directions: Answer I and II. Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing. Be specific in your answers. Use your time wisely: one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty (20) of the following items. Devote one to two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.
The "identity politics" so much a part of the cultural scene of our own day has informed current literary criticism, sensitizing it to sometimes understated tensions and conflicts in earlier literature.  Many literary works have focused on "outsiders," who because of difference(s) in religion, race, ethnicity, sex or sexual orientation have found themselves at odds with their own environments.

Select at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories and analyze how the works reveal this theme of the outsider.  Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 2000

General Directions:  Answer I and II.  Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing.  Be specific in your answers.  Use your time wisely:  one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty of the following items.  Devote one or two grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.
Chaucer's Pardoner gave the Canterbury pilgrims a memorable homily on the Scriptural text "radix malorum est cupiditas," usually translated as "the love of money is the root of all evil."  We can think of numerous examples from British and American literature that would substantiate this Scriptural observation.  And who but a movie villain would take the position that "greed is good"?

But traditional views of worldly wealth are by no means uniformly negative.  Even in Scripture being an enterprising steward of the resources of one's master is praised.  Characters like Dickens' Mr. and Mrs. Boffin are beloved because, when they come into vast wealth, they manage not to become unhinged but to do something worthwhile with their money.  And, after all, many novels end with virtue both triumphant and newly rich.

Select at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories and write an essay that reflects the ambivalent views authors reflect towards worldly wealth.  Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 2001

General Directions:  Answer I and II.  Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing.  Be specific in your answers.  Use your time wisely:  one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty of the following items.  Devote two to three grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

Some modern writers, nostalgic for a supposed bygone “age of certainty,” lament the absence of God, while others embrace human freedom unfettered by holy restraint.  Still others find God’s presence in the most surprising events and places, such as a multiple murder alongside a south Georgia road.  In any event, whether he is silent and present, indifferent and absent, or even non-existent, God casts quite a shadow over our literature.

And so has it ever been.  While they may not have questioned the existence of God in an age of faith, writers and readers of the past were obsessed with God’s justice and mercy.  They feared to face his judgment of their own personal evils, even as they longed for him to establish his reign on this earth.

Select at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories and write an essay that reflects the depth and range of the understanding of God present in British and American literature.  Your essay should include more than one genre.

JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Fall 2001

General Directions:  Answer I and II.  Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing.  Be specific in your answers.  Use your time wisely:  one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty of the following items.  Devote two to three grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

In many circumstances, readers take for granted the decisions authors make about the form of their works.  Shakespeare's decision to tell the story of Hamlet in a five-act tragedy seems obvious and appropriate.  After all, Hamlet is a tragic figure and not an epic or romantic hero.  Similarly we assume that no one would cast Hitler and the Nazis in a Broadway musical comedy.  But then along comes Mel Brooks, The Producers is a mega-hit, and we are forced to think about the interplay of form and content.

Your task today will be to write about how the decisions that an author makes about the form of a work define the essence of that work.  Think, for instance, of the first-person narrative form of The Great Gatsby or A Farewell to Arms, or of the epic retelling of biblical material in Paradise Lost .  Once you put your mind to this issue, countless examples will spring forth.  Think about works that call particular attention to their own forms, or you might choose works whose authors are doing something new or original with form that hasn't been done before or that directly challenges previous literary forms.

Select at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories and write an essay that discusses how the forms of the works inform our understanding of their content.  Your essay should include more than one genre.



JOINT GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH

M.A. Comprehensive Examination

Spring 2002

General Directions:  Answer I and II.  Read each question carefully and plan your response before writing.  Be specific in your answers.  Use your time wisely:  one hour for Part One, two hours for Part Two.

I.  As appropriate identify, define, and explain the significance of any twenty of the following items.  Devote two to three grammatically complete sentences to each identification.

II.  In response to the following topic, write a coherent, well-developed essay.

"Between the idea / And the reality / Between the motion / And the act / Falls the Shadow," wrote T. S. Eliot.  His description of this phenomenon may be particularly memorable, but numerous authors throughout the literary history of Britain and America have taken this "falling of the shadow" for their theme, perhaps in describing a lover's understanding of a beloved or a parent's hopes for a child.  Or perhaps they have encountered "the Shadow" in their own work, as a text grows and evolves over the course of its composition far beyond what seems to have been the original inspiration.  (Think, for example, of all the shadows looming over Pound's Cantos .)  A simple example of this phenomenon might be what happens to King Lear, who had an idea about how to divide his kingdom.  Similarly, we see Hawthorne's Ethan Brand abandon his obsessive quest to find the Unpardonable Sin when he discovers it in his own hardened heart.  A more complex example can be found in how Pandarus's plans for the relationship between Troilus and Criseyde unfold in Chaucer's work; fate and the complex interactions of the different personalities of the three individuals combine to produce a monumental tragedy, leaving Pandarus speechless.  Even God, perhaps especially God, knows the Shadow; for the focus of Paradise Lost seems to be on how God uses the freedom of his Son, of Satan, and of Adam and Eve to achieve Providence.

Select at least one relevant literary work (but no more than two) in each of the following categories and write an essay that discusses how "the Shadow" (whatever it may be in the different cases) alters human dreams, how life itself changes our plans.  Your essay should include more than one genre.