MAE Comprehensive Exam

Each fall, the MA in English exam committee chooses 4-6 literary texts drawn from a variety of literary periods, genres, and traditions, along with a single critical essay that introduces a topic or theme developed prominently in these literary works. Some literary texts that have appeared on the exam in the past include King Lear, Song of Solomon, Villette, The Beaux Strategem, and Pride and Prejudice. Some recent topics have included: “the carnivalesque,” love and knowledge, romantic comedy, and language and power. To take the exam, students must have completed their coursework or be taking their final courses in the quarter in which the exam is offered.

The exam takes place in the computer lab in SAC on a Saturday in March/April and in September of each calendar year. Students may bring to the exam only the works on the reading list. These texts may be annotated, but no secondary material or other sources will be allowed, except for a dictionary or thesaurus. The exam is divided into two periods--three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon, usually 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00.

In the morning half of the exam, students write two short essays (from a choice of four topics) which demonstrate their ability to perform close and meticulous readings of the formal and thematic features of individual passages drawn from the literary texts.

The afternoon question asks students to draw sustained and supportable connections among all of the texts on the exam, both literary and critical. The afternoon question will be sent one week in advance to students by e-mail. The committee encourages them to prepare diligently to write this question, but not to bring in actual drafts or notes.

In advance of each exam, the program director in English will hold at least one orientation session to assist students in their preparations for the test.

The MAE exam committee will evaluate the exams and deliver the results to the MA program director about a month after the exam date. The Director will notify students via e-mail. The exam grades are Distinction, Pass, and Fail.

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Texts for the Exam

The first session of the final exam for the MA in English will take place on Saturday, April, 4, 2009. The works on the reading list are as follows, in the following editions:

Bellow, Saul, Henderson the Rain King, any edition

Dove, Rita, Mother Love, any edition

Eliot, George, Middlemarch, Norton edition

Eliot, T.S., The Four Quartets, any edition

Shakespeare, William, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Folger edition

The theme for this year's MAE exam will be Order/Disorder. Students are invited to read the above texts, as well as the supplementary materials which will be provided, and as they do so, to think about how such texts represent the tension between order and disorder at many levels (cosmic, social, individual, aesthetic) and from many perspectives (mythic, religious, non- or post-religious; pre- and post-romantic, modernist, postmodern). Students should remember that questions will ask them to think through this theme both in relation to individual texts and among the textual groupings.

Additional Resources

A more explicit set of instructions, along with a list of secondary readings and subtopics for you to focus on, will be coming.

Rules and Format of the Exam

You may bring to the exam only the five works on the reading list. Your texts can be annotated, but no secondary material or other sources will be allowed, except for a dictionary. While you are not expected to write a polished, “take-home” essay, your writing has to be correct and clear, and you have to respond to the questions posed with pointed, specifically supported discussions. Students fail this exam when their writing is consistently incorrect, when they ignore or misunderstand the questions posed, or when they do not respond to the required number of questions. Pace yourself. Leave time to revise and edit what you write.

Your exams will be downloaded onto a flashdrive at the end of each time period. In case of a computer malfunction, another computer will be provided, but it is your responsibility to save your work. The exam is divided into two periods--three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon, usually 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00. These time limits will be strictly enforced; you must stop writing when the end of each period is announced. After each period is over, you may print out your discussion for that period.

****Important Note****

Copies of the texts have been ordered and should be available through the DePaul Lincoln Park Campus Bookstore. You may also order them on Amazon as long as you get the editions listed above.

Copies of the Additional Resources should be available for a small fee in the English Department Office, McGaw 255, during the first week of the Winter Quarter. Please see Mrs. Cathy Clarke, the English Department Secretary, for the copies. In addition, we will scan copies into the MA in English Blackboard site for the benefit of those students who are unable to make it to campus before the English Department Office closes.