Fall 2008 Comprehensive Exam
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The Fall 2008 Comprehensive Exam will be given on Friday, November 7, 1:00-5:00pm and Saturday, November 8, 9:00am-12:00noon. The deadline to register with the School of Graduate Studies to take the exams is Wednesday, October 1. Note: If you are planning to take the exam, or even strongly considering it, please contact Dr. Stephen Cohen, chair of the English Department’s Graduate Committee, at cohens@ccsu.edu or 832-2751. This will assure you an invitation to any informational or preparatory meetings.Primary Texts Geoffrey Chaucer, The Book of the Duchess Caryl Churchill, Cloud Nine Don DeLillo, White Noise Allen Ginsberg, Howl Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust Part One Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter Samuel Johnson, Rasselas and The Vanity of Human Wishes Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus Andrew Marvell, Complete Poems Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Note: While all of the primary texts will soon be on reserve at Burritt Library for your reference, it is recommended that you acquire your own copy of each text for close study. Shorter texts may be photocopied; others may be available in the library's circulating collection, and all are readily available for purchase from the usual sources.
Secondary Texts John M. Clum, “’The Work of Culture’: Cloud Nine and Sex/gender Theory,” Caryl Churchill: A Casebook, ed. Phyllis R. Randall (NY: Garland, 1988), pp. 91-116. Rosalie Colie, “My Ecchoing Song”: Andrew Marvell’s Poetry of Criticism (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1970). Mark Conroy, “From Tombstone to Tabloid: Authority Figured in White Noise,” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction 35.2 (Winter 1994): 97-110. Richard Dellamora, “Homosexual Scandal and Compulsory Heterosexuality in the 1890s,” chapter 10 of Masculine Desire: The Sexual Politics of Victorian Aestheticism (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 1990), pp. 193-217. (recommended) Jonathan Dollimore, “Dr. Faustus: Subversion Through Transgression,” chapter 6 of Radical Tragedy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 109-119. (Chapter 5 also recommended) Leslie A. Fiedler, Love and Death in the American Novel (New York: Stein and Day, 1966), pp. 217-239. Simon Joyce, “Sexual Politics and the Aesthetics of Crime: Oscar Wilde in the Nineties,” ELH 69.2 (Summer 2002): 501-24. C.A. Patrides, ed. Approaches to Marvell (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978). (recommended) Jason Shinder, “From The Poem That Changed America: ‘Howl’ Fifty Years Later,” American Poetry Review 35.2 (March-April 2006): 3-10. Peter W. Travis, “White,” Studies in the Age of Chaucer 22 (2000): 1-66. David F. Venturo, Johnson the Poet: The Poetic Career of Samuel Johnson (Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1999).
Sample Questions For a list of sample questions, click here. (Note: These are not the actual questions that will be on the exam. Rather, they are intended to help you gauge how prepared you'll need to be.) Contact Information For more information about the comprehensive exam, contact Dr. Cohen, chair of the department's graduate committee. |