Dr. Tina L. Hanlon
Ferrum College,
English Department
Fall 2010
Please note: If you have questions or see mistakes in this study guide, contact the professor as soon as possible. It will not be revised again unless someone finds an error that needs to be corrected.
General Guidelines:
Review all readings and the introductions in anthologies and other required background material, putting emphasis on being most familiar with assignments that have received the most attention in class discussions since the midterm.
Be sure all your answers make reference to one or more specific works of literature or folklore.
You do not need to remember in detail every work we have studied, but you should know well the title, characters and plot of one or two examples to fit each category in the review list of assignments below, and you must be prepared to write about the novels River of Earth and Belle Prater's Boy.
Write all answers in complete sentences and standard English. Test answers aren’t expected to be as polished stylistically or mechanically as out-of-class papers, but college-level writing skills must be used to make your answers clear to the reader who evaluates them.
In general, you should have a good understanding of how the literature we have studied for this test represents trends in Appalachian literature and culture or particular issues from the List of Themes as we have discussed some of those themes in class.
Don't forget that in ANGEL, you can set the calendar to display as a list (and print those pages if you wish), in order to view a list of the assignments for each month or week.
Short Answer Section: 6 questions (50% of test grade)
You must name the author and title of the work if there is an author and these facts are not given in the question. Only works discussed in class will appear in the short answer section but you may mention other works if that makes sense for the question. One paragraph in answer to the question should be sufficient. See the sample short answer question on the study guide for the midterm in this course.
Essay Questions (50% of test grade):
There will be two essay questions, each requiring you to write about several different works of literature or folklore we have studied.
You will have a choice of essay questions. You choose which work(s) you will discuss to answer the questions you have chosen. Be sure to use specific examples and details from the works to support the generalizations in your essay.
If questions ask for comparison/contrast, be sure you have included specific, explicit points of comparison and/or contrast in your essay.
See Pointers for Taking Essay Tests. Many writing and literature textbooks also give advice about responding to essay questions and samples of essay questions and answers..
Particular themes that may appear in exam questions (not necessarily a complete list here):
Different perceptions of progress, advantages and disadvantages of modernization (especially mining industry), folk traditions vs. modernization
Relationship between memories of childhood/youth and realities of adult life, or nostalgia for past and coping with present realities
Cultural diversity in Appalachia
Writers' treatment of conflicts caused by racism in Appalachia
Differences between oral traditions and written literature and/or between folklore and realistic literature
Relationship between historical or personal past and present realities
Strong women and strong men in Appalachian folktales and literature
Different uses of humor in Appalachian folklore, literature and culture
Sense of place in relation to home, family, and natural world
Personal identity in relation to region and different views of Appalachia
River of Earth by James Still
Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White
"Between the Lines" by Lee Smith, in the Higgs anthology, vol. 2, pp. 428-37
From Chapter 4, vol. 1, Labor, Wealth, and Commonwealth: poems (including the section on gandy dancing) and the short story by Marat Moore, "Because the Earth is Dark and Deep"
Chapter 5, vol. I, Nature and Progress, especially the poems in this chapter
"Just a Mountain," a song written and sung by author George Ella Lyon on the CD Songs for the Mountaintop (2006) by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (a group of artists and citizens working to end mountaintop removal). You can listen to the song at this link on Lyon's web site.
Chapter 6, Minority and Majority. Below are the poems students chose to discuss in class:
Garry Barker, "My Grandfather Belonged to the Ku Klux Klan" (p. 234)
Jo Carson, "Crows" (245)
Rita Bradley, "I Y'am What I Y'am" (240)
Amy T. Gray, "No Minority" (264)
E. W. Smith, ""My Native Mountains" (230)
D. Chiltoskie, "The New Indians" (225)
Marilou Awiakta, excerpts from Selu in handout (notes on Cherokee tales of Selu and Kanati at this link) and poems in anthology ("When Earth Becomes an 'It'" in Higgs, vol. 1, p. 202)
Cherokee tales told by Carl Lambert in Higgs, vol. 1, 215-19
African American poems
Poems by Frank X Walker and Patricia Johnson on handouts
Nikki Giovanni poem "knoxville, tennessee"
Fred Chappell, "A Prayer for the Mountains"
James Still, "Heritage," vol. 2, p. 741
(also short passage, not a poem, by James Still, "Appalachia," p. 683
Jesse Stuart, "Our Heritage," vol. 2, p. 740
Julie Pennell, "Conflict," vol. 2, p. 720 (compare with G. L. Lyon's "Where I'm From")
Read the instructions carefully and answer the number of questions required. Don't leave any blank or it will cost you too many points.
Budget your time so that you won't be forced to leave anything blank or run out of time for checking your answers at the end.
Follow any instructions you might find about not duplicating the same examples or writing about a certain number of different authors.
Select examples that you know well and that fit the question especially well.
Don't just summarize plot or rephrase the idea in the question. Be sure you stress the significance of the examples you discuss.
Include specific details as much as possible, without just summarizing plot or using up too much time on any one question.
Write clearly, legibly, and in complete sentences (for your sake as you check your answers as well as the reader of the test).
If you have time, take a mental break from working on the test and then look back over answers you wrote earlier in the test period.
12/9/10 11:58 AM