Exam 1

Question 1

What are the two approaches to literature?

Answer 1

Literary Criticism and Literary History

Question 2

What is the difference between literary criticism and literary history?

Answer 2

Literary criticism: what does this story mean to us now?

Literary history: what did this story mean to its original audience?

Question 3

What are art’s three questions?

Answer 3

What is the “self” and what should it be?
How should human beings relate to each other?
How should human beings relate to God or the Gods, provided that God or the Gods exist?

Question 4

What are Harold Bloom’s ages of literature?

Answer 4

Theocratic – Focus on the Gods.

Aristocratic – Focus on mortal rulers.

Democratic – Focus on individual insight.

Chaotic – There is no clear focus.

Question 5

Bloom’s ages of literature:

Theocratic

Answer 5

Focus on the Gods

Question 6

Bloom’s ages of literature:

Aristocratic

Answer 6

Focus on mortal rules

Question 7

Bloom’s ages of literature:

Democratic

Answer 7

Focus on individual insight

Question 8

Bloom’s ages of literature:

Chaotic

Answer 8

There is no clear focus

Question 9

Polythiesm

Answer 9

The belief of many gods

Question 10

Monothiesm

Answer 10

The belief of one god

Question 11

Anthropomorphic Gods

Answer 11

Deities that look and act like people

Question 12

The Epic of Giglamesh

Answer 12

Like most stories, began as oral tradition, or stories told by speaking or singing.

Is an epic poem, which tells the story of the heroes and their adventures.

The version in our book is from c.1200 BC, and was written down in Akkadian by Sin-lique-unninni.

Question 13

The Code of Hammurabi

Answer 13

often called the earliest known written code of laws. From ancient Sumer, just like Gilgamesh.

Question 14

Bildungsroman

Answer 14

a story in which the young hero grows and develops by facing challenges that test him and form his character.

Question 15

Quest Narrative

Answer 15

story about a likable, flawed hero seeking a worthy goal and struggling against obstacles in his way.

Question 16

Didactic Literature

Answer 16

literature meant to instruct, inform, or to teach a lesson

Question 17

Archetype

Answer 17

a plot pattern or character type that shows up over and over again in literature.
The Seductress or Wandering Womanizer
The Wise Old Man or The Cunning Trickster
The Ultimate Warrior, etc.

Question 18

Motif

Answer 18

a symbol or pattern that recurs over and over again within a story.

Question 19

Mythos

Answer 19

Greek word for myth. Stories about gods and heroes that explain how the universe works.

Question 20

Mysogyny

Answer 20

characterized by an extremely negative portrayal of women, showing female sexuality as a destructive force that leads the male to his doom.

Question 21

The Homeric Question: Who was Homer and did he really write the Odyssey and the Iliad? And if so, how?

Answer 21

still a puzzle.

Question 22

The Parts of the Odyssey:

Books 1-4

Answer 22

The Telemachy (Literally the story of Telemachus).

Question 23

The Parts of the Odyssey:

Books 5-8

Answer 23

Odysseus with Calypso, Ino, and Nausicaa (all happening during Telemachus’ journeys).

Question 24

The Parts of the Odyssey:

Books 9-12

Answer 24

Odysseus tells his story to the Phaeacians (also while Telemachus is abroad).

Question 25

The Parts of the Odyssey:

Books 13-24

Answer 25

Odysseus returns to Ithaca and reclaims his kingdom (his return coinciding with the return of Telemachus.

Question 26

Ubi Sunt

Answer 26

Latin for “Where are…?”

A type of speech that expresses sadness at things that are lost, as in King Nestor’s recollections of the losses at Troy.

This is an example from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings:

Where now the horse and the rider? 
Where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk, 
and the bright hair flowing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, 
like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West 
behind the hills into shadow.

Question 27

Carpe Diem

Answer 27

Latin for “Seize (take) the Day.”

Expresses the importance of living now, as in The Odyssey, Book 23, lines 289-293.

Another example from another poet:

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day,
To-morrow will be dying.

Question 28

Timé

Answer 28

Honor (while alive) and Glory (associated with the stories about one’s name that would live on after death)

Question 29

Kleos

Answer 29

These were acquired through combat with other warriors on the battlefield.

Question 30

Indo-European

Answer 30

modify

Question 31

Theocratic Literature

Answer 31

modify

Question 32

Epic

Answer 32

modify

Question 33

Covenant

Answer 33

modify

Question 34

Theodicy

Answer 34

modify

Question 35

Telemachy

Answer 35

modify

Question 36

Archetypes

Answer 36

modify

Question 37

Misogyny

Answer 37

modify

Question 38

Misanthropy

Answer 38

modify

Question 39

Lyric (Monody and Chorus)

Answer 39

modify

Question 40

Sophocles and his concept of tragedy in Oedipus the King

Answer 40

modify

Question 41

The elements of Greek Tragedy

Answer 41

modify

Question 42

Dramatic Trilogy

Answer 42

modify

Question 43

City Dionysia

Answer 43

modify

Question 44

The Athenian tragedians

Answer 44

modify

Question 45

The Oresteia by Aeschylus (only the coverage given in lecture )

Answer 45

modify

Question 46

The Furies

Answer 46

modify

Question 47

The Persian Wars

Answer 47

modify