ENGLISH 4270 WINTER 2011 MIDTERM EXAM OUTLINE

PART I. Seven or eight of these terms will appear on the midterm; you will be asked to identify four or five of them and the way they pertain to this semester’s reading, in two or three sentences.

Odoric of Pordenone

parataxis

reliquary

rex quondam rexque futurus

Sir Robert Cotton

translatio imperii

Wars of the Roses

William Caxton

Winchester MS

worship

aa/ax

Candlemas

Chretien de Troyes

cynocephales

T/O map

embôitement

Fair Unknown

Geoffrey of Monmouth

Joseph of Arimathea

Nine Worthies

PART II. You will be asked to identify four passages drawn from the semester’s reading in a short paragraph. In a short paragraph you should provide the title of the work from which the passage is taken (and the author if known), give a short account of the context (the speaker, the setting, what is being described or referred to), and briefly discuss the passage’s importance—its thematic, symbolic, moral, or other kind of significance in the text from which it is drawn.

PART III. You will be asked to respond to one of the following questions with a thoughtful, well-organized essay that uses plenty of specific examples. Which question will appear on the exam? Perhaps you will dream the correct answer over the weekend, and a hermit will appear in time to explain it to you.

1. The author of Mandeville’s Travels and William Caxton, the printer/editor of Malory's Morte D'Arthur, are both faced with a problem of credibility in their texts: that is, they have to (or at least seek to) convince their readers to believe in some pretty amazing stories. What strategies do they adopt in order to gain the confidence of, solicit the good will of, or otherwise seduce or browbeat their readers, so that those readers will take their texts seriously?

2. Does the taking of sides matter in Malory's Morte D'Arthur? Under what set of circumstances does it matter which group or team or country one fights with, in a joust, a tournament, or a war? What are the consequences of choosing a particular side in a particular situation? In what ways do such choices merit praise or blame--and from whom? (And what's the difference between a tournament and a war, anyway?)

3. “….If chivalric rectitude lies on the side of the knight who kills a knight because that knight has killed a knight, then what activity distinguishes good knights from bad? How can the chivalric good be defined if killing knights marks knightly rectitude as well as the evil it opposes?” (Christopher Cannon, “Malory’s Crime,” 160-61) Write an essay about telling good knights from bad in Malory's Morte D'Arthur.