Final Class Guiding Question
Please come up with one or more questions relating to course content, not to exam coverage or format (which we will discuss in class): themes, findings, ongoing uncertainties, furthedr connections.
Needless to say, we'll explore in class. Come to class!
Guide to Final Exam
Coverage
- To aid in study, I'm providing access to a PFD version of the final exam paper with questions removed.
This will be a comprehensive final — think of it as having dual coverage:
- Part 1. Here, you'll address assignments since the midterm. You will, though, need to review certain terms/concepts that were the focus of the midterm exam — see below
- Part 2. Here, you'll be writing on readings and topics addressed over the course of the entire semester
Preparation, Expectations
To prepare, you'll want to study/review:
- Relevant assigned texts
- Your notes on lectures and discussions
- Your Brightspace course site online discussion entries
- Terms listed below
- Study guides
- PowerPoints
- You won't be required to know exact dates, but a basic grasp of chronology of plays, and of how that chronology relates to historical developments, will be important.
Outside texts, issues, etc. I am sometimes asked if you can discuss texts, concepts, or issues not dealt with in our class. Well, sure, but the focus of your writing must still be on texts, concepts, and issues we have explored for this class.
Grammar, style, spelling, argumentation. I don't expect quite the same level of writing that I would for a formal paper, but we need at this point to be able to spell correctly play titles, playwrights' and character names, important terms — that kind of thing. Arguments need to be defended with evidence. You must cite the texts (title, author) you are discussing.
Academic honesty. For clarity on the academic-honesty dimension of this exam, see the Syllabus.
Format
Part 1 (34 points, 30 minutes)
For Part 1, you will address:
- Post-midterm terms/concepts drawn from the "post-midterm" list, below
- Named characters from plays. (Know titles, authors, characters' names)
In either case, you will be offered a choice of terms/characters to choose from.
Unlike on the midterm, Part 1 of this final will ask you to write a generous paragraph, approximately half a page or more (100+ words), on each item or question you select. You will need to cite authors, character names, play titles, anything relevant.
Examples (though neither of these will be on the test):
- What is an ekkuklema? How does it relate to a play or plays read since the midterm?
- Who is Pylades? How does he relate to a play or plays read since the midterm?
Part 2 (66 points, 60 minutes)
This will be a longer essay, a minimum of, approximately, six, single-spaced, hand-written blue-book pages (roughly, 800+ words). You will be asked to respond to a question/prompt based on the Critchley reading and on the Brill's quotation quoted and discussed on the Phaedra Study Guide.
- This longer essay will have you address a selection of Greek and Roman plays in relation to issues raised by Critchley and Brill's. Know your Critchley reading! (Very brief.) Know your Brill's quotation! (Even shorter.) Know your texts generally!
I am not going to give you the Part 2 essay question in advance, but please know that it will be very much in line with issues addressed in class.
Terms/Concepts to Study
Find out more about each of the following items by consulting the List of Key Terms with Definitions page.
Part 1 of the exam addresses post-midterm terms and concepts directly. Beyond that, studying both lists, pre- and post-midterm, will enrich your writing on the exam, especially for the two essays.
As for the Terms page itself, it includes a number of items not listed below: some not dealt with in class (they can be safely ignored), others that we have dealt with (if you have time, go ahead and review them). But the crucial stuff is listed below.
Post-Midterm
- crepidata
- empyrosis
- fascination, fascinatio, fascinum
- praetexta
- rhetoric
- satyr drama, satyr play
- Senecan schema, Senecan formula
- sophist, sophistic
- trope of decline
- tyrant, tyranny
Pre-midterm terms, concepts include, but are not limited to:
- anagnorisis ("recognition," see Aristotle's Poetics — not the same as "learning through suffering")
- ate ("delusion," "ruin")
- catharsis (see Aristotle's Poetics)
- dike ("justice")
- hamartia ("error," "crime," "sin")
- hubris ("insult," "arrogance," "injury"), hubristic
- koros ("excess")
- pathei mathos ("learning through suffering," tragic learning)
- peripeteia ("reversal of fortune," see Aristotle's Poetics)
- tragic cycle (cycle of suffering/violence/retribution, etc.)