HAS 120: Exam Questions to Prepare

The exam will contain three sections, each with two essay questions. One of the sections will be compulsory. You will be expected to write two essay questions, one from the compulsory section, and one from another section.

Section A: Existentialism

Answer ONE of the following questions.Use full sentences and paragraphs.

  1. Write a critical essay 1 ½ to 2 pages long on the following passage from Jan Rabie’s “The man with the heavy leg”.Use the instructions and questions that follow the extract to guide your discussion.

A man had fallen down against the railings of the Luxemburg Gardens. The shadows of the chestnut trees cut across the sidewalk illuminated by a gas lamp every fifty yards, and it took some time before the passers-by noticed him. One by one they joined the gathering crowd. They remained reserved, and looked on with the dignified reticence of old people taking part in a frequently-rehearsed event. Somebody left unhurriedly across the square to Port Royal to phone for an ambulance.

The man moaned and tried to hoist himself up against the railings. But he fell back every time, trembling violently. His hands slid down to his chest, and grasped at his clothes, and shuddered down to the ground. The palms of his hands opened and quivered like moths dying under the pins of an insect collector.

“Have pity on me”, he moaned, “pity”. Beads of sweat rolled from his young face, distorted by pain and fever. “It’s all over with me…” His monotonous trembling and efforts to lift himself up were painfully futile. The onlookers left him lying there. They showed no sentiment, only practical consideration. A gentleman moved forward with the servitude of a delegate. He bent over the sick man and asked:

“What do you usually take?”

“Quinine.” The sick man’s eyes rolled up in fright. “But it does not help at all… it’s the end…” His teeth clenched with the onset of a new bout of shivering as he rolled his head from side to side in his efforts to say more. His hands clutched at the clothes on his chest.

  • Give a brief overview of the story (no more than four sentences).
  • Does this story belong to the genre of Absurdist literature? You should
  • Give a short definition of the absurd;
  • Provide and discuss one example from the given passage that supports your claim.
  • Comment on the crowd’s reaction to Jean Thomas. If we assume that Rabie’s story engages with social and political issues, what could this reaction suggest about the French people?
  • Later in the story a ‘slender man’ attempts to offer help to Jean Thomas. In doing so he defies the prevailing attitude of the bystanders. What does this action open him up to?

[50]

OR

  1. Give a detailed account of Existentialism. (Your essay should be 1 ½ to 2 pages long.)
  • Define Absurdism.
  • Describe the absurdist hero and comment on the myth of Sisyphus.
  • Give an account of the ‘literature of engagement’ and how this combats the dread of a meaningless existence. (You answer might take into account: Camus’s idea of community; human dignity; the function of literature).

[50]

Section B: Postmodernism

Answer ONE of the following questions. Use full sentences and paragraphs.

  1. The artist Andy Warhol brought about changes in the way we understand visual art. This change is often referred to as the “Warhol-effect”. Write a critical essay 1 ½ to 2 pages longin which you respond to the following instructions and questions concerning Warhol’s approach to the visual arts:
  • Give a short explanation of what the Warhol-effect entails.
  • Give a brief definition of Jean Baudrillard’s idea of the “simulacrum”.
  • How does Warhol’s insistence that he is a machine and that he creates like a machine relate to the Warhol-effect?

[50]

OR

  1. Write a critical essay 1 ½ to 2 pageslong in which you analyse Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych (1962). Use the instructions and questions that followthe image to guide your discussion.

Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych (1962)

  • Give a brief overview of the characteristics of Postmodernism and identify those which are relevant to Andy Warhol’s art.
  • Explain the tension in Warhol’s art between the private self and the public star. Comment on:
  • High portraiture and Warhol’s ‘portraiture’;
  • Warhol’s artistic techniques;
  • Warhol’s separation from Abstract Expressionism. You should thus explain what Abstract Expressionism is and how Warhol’s art differs from it.
  • Why does Warhol repeat the image of Marilyn Monroe over and over? How is this technique influenced by the mass media?

[50]

Section C: Popular Culture

Answer ONE of the following questions. Use full sentences and paragraphs.

  1. Read the following extracts from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallowsand then discuss, in an essay 1 ½ to 2pages long, howeach one can berelatedto the key themes and issues dealt with in your Harry Potter lectures. (N.B.Relateyour comments to these extracts. Do NOT simply write down everything you can remember about Harry Potter.) Use the questions that follow the extracts to guide your discussion.

BellatrixLestrange was striding across the lawn toward them, accompanied by Griphook. As she walked, she was tucking the small, beaded bag into the inside pocket of another set of the old robes they had taken from Grimmauld Place. Though Harry knew perfectly well that it was really Hermione, he could not suppress a shiver of loathing. She was taller than he was, her long black hair rippling down her back, her heavily lidded eyes disdainful as they rested upon him; but then she spoke, and he heard Hermione through Bellatrix’s low voice.

“She tasted disgusting, worse than Gurdyroots! Okay, Ron, come here so I can do you . . .”

“Right, but remember, I don’t like the beard too long”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, this isn’t about looking handsome!”

“It’s not that, it gets in the way! But I liked my nose a bit shorter, try and do it the way you did last time.”

Hermione sighed and set to work, muttering under her breath as she transformed various aspects of Ron's appearance.

...

“If there was a wizard of whom I would believe that they did not seek personal gain,” said Griphook finally, “it would be you, Harry Potter. Goblins and elves are not used to the protection or the respect that you have shown this night. Not from wand-carriers.”

“Wand-carriers,” repeated Harry:the phrase fell oddly upon his ears as his scar prickled, as Voldemort turned his thoughts northward, and as Harry burned to question Ollivander next door.

“The right to carry a wand,” said the goblin quietly, “has long been contested between wizards and goblins.”

“Well, goblins can do magic without wands,” said Ron.

“That is immaterial! Wizards refuse to share the secrets of wand-lore with other magical beings, they deny us the possibility of extending our powers!”

...

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and above all, those who live without love. By returning, you may ensure that fewer souls are maimed, fewer families are torn apart. If that seems to you a worthy goal, they we saw good-bye for the present.”

Harry nodded and sighed. Leaving this place would not be nearly as hard as walking into the forest had been, but it was warm and light and peaceful here, and he knew that he was heading back to pain and the fear of more loss. He stood up, and Dumbledore did the same, and they looked for a long moment into each other’s faces.

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry, “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”

Dumbledore beamed at him, and his voice sounded loud and strong in Harry’s ears even though the bright mist was descending again, obscuring his figure.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?”

  • Is the Harry Potter series sexist? Quote from the extracts to support your answer.
  • Is the Harry Potter series racist, or rather ‘speciesist’? Quote from the extracts to support your answer.
  • How does Harry Potter adhere to the ancient and recurring narrative pattern common to all hero stories (and identified by Joseph Campbell in his book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces)? Quote from the extract to support your answer.
  • Is Harry Potter a threat to Christians?

[50]

OR

  1. Discuss, in an essay 1 ½ to 2 pages long, how the Harry Potter series comments on the experience of being a teenager. Consider the following questions:
  • How does Rowling mimic the experience of puberty in her depictions of her characters?
  • How does the series correspond to the young adolescent’s fantasy of life?
  • How does Rowling, as the series progresses, shift the focus away from the physical challenges of adolescence to the moral ones?

[50]

[TOTAL: 100]

1