Foundation Exam Question Poll Please mark "yes" for questions that you want to keep in the question pool and "no" for questions you want to remove.Name* First Last 1. What is the role of perspective in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness? yes no 2. What perspectives are valued in the American Experiment? yes no 3. Does intersectionality complicate the fight against oppression or strengthen it? yes no 4. One could say identity is a combination of two perspectives: who we say we are and who others say we are. In terms of national identity, what values do we claim to be uniquely American? How do these values align with the written experience of “others” (foreigners, marginalized groups, etc.)? Taking these two perspectives into consideration, who or what is the real America? yes no 5. What role(s) have our female writers and characters played in moving our theoretical discussions along? For example, do they stand as voices of reason? Perhaps they manage to be harbingers of the future? Alternatively (still workshopping): Given their positionality, in what ways have our female authors or characters been voices “of their time” as well as “timeless” voices? yes no 6. What does the immigrant/refugee vantage point tell us about what it means to be an American? yes no 7. What is the role of poetry and music in the history and memory of a society? Consider the myriad foci of the poems and music we’ve encountered in the course of the semester. Using at least three authors, focus on how these texts can (both in terms of content and form) change how we view our own shared histories. yes no 8. Discuss the value of art, literature, and poetry to comment on political and social systems. yes no 9. How can the written word act as a tool of resistance? [or worded differently: What marks a piece of writing as a tool of resistance?] yes no 10. Language evolves over time. Several of our works this semester incorporate language that is considered offensive today (and sometimes was offensive at the time). Discuss how our authors’ message(s) are helped or harmed by the language they use. yes no 11. Can any of the works we’ve read/watched/listened to deliver their intended message if stripped of the historical context that surrounds them? Choose three authors and explain how their message could or could not be effectively communicated without historical context. yes no 12. Does the medium affect the message? Would any of the works we read this semester be more effective if they were presented in a different style? Choose three and explain. (NB: this could work as poetry vs prose vs speech vs play vs song, or humor vs stoic vs tragic) yes no 13. How and why does genre affect us as readers? This semester you’ve read plays in the style of realism and theatre of the absurd, speeches, epistles, short stories, essays built from nothing but images, songs, a novel adapted into a major studio television series, among many other things. Choosing 3 authors, develop an argument as to why their genre choices and those conventions were necessary and, further, what larger impact they have on us as audience(s). Could this information be imparted in any different way? How/why would that change the material? yes no 14. Who determines what an American is? (note that it is WHAT an American is, not WHO an American is). Refer to three authors for assistance/suggestions. yes no 15. Choose three authors that best support your interpretation of “America: Possibilities” and explain how they each belong in the curriculum (can also be reversed – choose three to cut, and explain why). yes no 16. Tocqueville writes that there are no great writers in America because there can be no literary genius without freedom of opinion, which does not exist in America (according to him). Using at least three authors we’ve read in the course, develop an argument as to what makes their work “American.” yes no 17. “The arc of the moral universe is long,” Martin Luther King was fond of saying, paraphrasing a nineteenth-century theologian, “but it bends toward justice.” Based on your readings this semester, is that true of the United States across its history? yes no 18. Is purpose of education, as articulated by George Murchison in A Raisin in the Sun, "to read books, learn facts, to get grades, to pass the course, to get a degree?" What do our authors suggest? yes no 19. What are our authors’ assumptions about human nature and how do these assumptions affect their political or economic views? yes no 20. Does the nature of society present us problems to fix or do we create the problems we seek to overcome? yes no 21. Several of our authors/characters directly experience violence and aggression between humans. How do these experiences affect their overall views of existence and reality? Why do they reach different conclusions? yes no 22. What are the different ways that tyranny of the majority is seen in our works and how do people choose to fight back? yes no 23. Multiple authors reference the concept of time. How is the concept of time used both negatively and positively in reference to societal change? yes no Δ
