General
I advise bringing pencils, not pen to class. If you need to revise, pencil helps.
Write legibly. If, like me, that's hard for you to pull off, WRITE BIG. (There will be extra blue books.) I need to be able to read it, and I'd rather not have to ask you to come in and read it to me.
Preparing
To prepare, review:
- Readings
- Your online discussion entries
- Study guides
- Your class notes
- Terms and "lenses" (see below)
- My PowerPoints
Coverage, Format
This is not an open book test, so study, be prepared!
The midterm will cover readings, discussions, lectures, technical terms, study guides, starting with the opening class of the semester (19-Aug) and continuing through Aeschylus' Eumenides (5-Oct).
- You won't be required to know exact dates, but a basic grasp of chronology of plays, and of how that chronology relates to key historical events, 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
- Names of playwright and characters
- Important terms (e.g., hubris, peripeteia)
Arguments need to be defended with evidence. You must cite the texts (title, author) you are discussing. Obviously not page, section numbers, that kind of thing.
Academic honesty. For clarity on the academic-honesty dimension of this exam, see the Syllabus.
Format, timing. You will have the full class period for the test, though I plan to structure it as an hour-long affair. The timings mentioned below assume that most folks can finish the test in about an hour, with the last ½ hour for possible revision. Expect two types of questions:
1. Shorter answers. 25 points, figure on 15 minutes total (several of these; you'll have a selection to choose from).
- Two or more sentences for each response. (Don't go overboard, aim for two sentences!)
- Responses focused on factual matters and seeking concrete examples. Know your plays, know your terms!
- Questions/prompts like this:
- What is [term]?
- [character name] appears in which three plays that we have read? (Supply playwright, play.) Identify and define what role or function that character takes on in each of those plays
- Further examples: sample questions and answers (for illustration alone, not things you need to know for the test):
- QUESTION: What is a parabasis?
- ANSWER: It's a section of an Old Comedy where the chorus addresses the audience directly, often speaking for the playwright. In Aristophanes' Clouds, the parabasis has the chorus claim that Aristophanes, unlike other comic playwrights, makes "tasteful" jokes about public figures
- QUESTION: Who is Cleon?
- ANSWER: A leading politician in Athens in the 420s BCE, he is a target of satire in Aristophanes' Knights and Wasps. In Knights, the Cleon character is one of Demos' slaves. In Wasps, Cleon is Philocleon's favorite politician
2. Essay. 75 points, figure on 45+ minutes. Just one question/prompt, no choice, but an opportunity for open-ended reflection.
I'm not going to give you the exact essay question in advance, but I can tell you that it will put your critical-thinking faculities to the test and will focus on how various interpretive models ("lenses") studied so far give voice to (enrich our understanding of) or "interrupt" (distract us from) important aspects of the tragedies that we have read for this class up till this point.
That's the jist of the essay question. The specifics will have to do with how many plays and how many lenses I'm going to ask you to discuss. You will therefore need to review all plays and all lenses, even if you won't have to discuss all of those in your essay.
- Honig Antigone Interrupted (an assigned reading) and issues that come up there
- Aristotle's Poetics (an assigned reading — note terms featured there)
- "tragedy, Greek." Oxford Classical Dictionary (an assigned reading)
- Interpretive models featured in/on study guides, PowerPoints, Terms page, in-class discussion (those "Guiding Questions"), lecture:
- "The ancient law of hybris and ātē"
- "Aeschylean Progression"
- Dionysian impersonation
- Tragic cycle (cycle of suffering/violence/retribution, etc.)
Grading Criteria
- Writing. Provided I can read your writing and make sense of your sentences, I will grade on content alone. BUT I MUST BE ABLE TO MAKE SENSE OF YOUR SENTENCES.
- Spelling of character names, places, titles does count. Otherwise, I'm lenient on spelling, provided I can read it
- Get your facts right! For instance,
- hamartia is not "tragic flaw" — what is it?
- Aristotle does not discuss the tragic cycle or the "ancient law" thing. What does he discuss?
- Most of the test is to get you to put your critical thinking skills to work. It will help to review the Syllabus for what that's all about, though the following summarizes:
- Aim for nuance, avoid exaggeration. Anticipate and address, as appropriate, views that differ from your own. Be conscious of the limits of your knowledge and evidence. So, watch out for:
- Sentences with words like "totally," "absolutely," "all," or similar. Not that such words are never appropriate, but using them can risk making sweeping or tendentious assertions, statements like:
- "Persians proves that Aeschylus always had scenes bringing back the dead" — really??
- "Aristotle has nothing of value to tell us about tragedy" — well, okay, maybe, but how are you so sure? How are you going to prove it?
- Stick to the theme of the question
- Argue coherently
- Cite evidence as per above
- Making connections is good! — provided they're valid
- Aim for nuance, avoid exaggeration. Anticipate and address, as appropriate, views that differ from your own. Be conscious of the limits of your knowledge and evidence. So, watch out for:
Terms/Concepts Relevant to Material to Be Tested
Part of your review (not all of it, not an exhaustive list!) should be focused on the following terms. For definitions, see Terms page.
- agon
- anagnorisis
- Areopagus
- atē
- bakkhe
- blood-guilt
- catharsis
- choregia, choregus
- coryphaeus, chorus leader, leader
- Delphi
- desis
- dikē
- Dionysia
- Dionysus
- ekkuklēma
- episode
- Erinys, Erinyes (pl.)
- ethos
- exodos
- Greater Dionysia
- hamartia
- hubris, hubristic
- khoros
- kommos
- koros
- libation
- lusis
- maenad
- mēkhanē
- messenger speech
- mimesis
- muthos
- omophagia
- orkhestra
- parodos
- peripeteia
- phallus pole
- prologue, prologos
- skēnē
- sparagmos
- stasimon
- stichomythia
- tetralogy
- theatron
- thyrsus
- tyrant, tyranny