Humanities 304
Dr. Michael Delahoyde
Washington State University — Spring 2019
END-OF-SEMESTER EXAM
Questions will be drawn from the material after the first exam: that’s Kitchen Sink Art, Jealousy, Minimalist Music, on through to the end of all other materials since. To study effectively in supplement to your own class notes, check the online updated syllabus for an index, and Blackboard for all art movements and images, music tracks, and links to literature notes and quotations.
I. IDENTIFICATIONS. [Total 26 points.]
Maybe identify who is A… or the composer of the music of Koyaanisqatsi — that kind of question. These questions will be inflicted individually during the first part of the exam: that’s Wednesday, April 17th.
II. QUOTATIONS. [Total 50 points.]
A combination of identification and significance questions will follow quotations from the literature, art images, music excerpts, film clips, and the other relevant materials selected for their representativeness of our discussions on key points ever since the previous exam.
III. TAKE-HOME ESSAY. [Total 24 points.]
Answer the following question with brilliant critical thinking, originality, and superb writing skills. The essay should be a virtuoso piece of glory manifested in impressive eloquence, with facile reference to specifics from the materials, properly documented, to the tune of about three to four (3-4) pages or more, double-spaced. This take-home component of the exam must be submitted as hard-copy in class on the exam day.
- One of the objectives of this course has been “To increase intellectual maturation and clarification of our own values through examination of ideas and attitudes in literary/cultural contexts and through articulation of these.” So what have you learned about yourself in relation to the arts and humanities of the last century? In a minimally three-to-four-page double-spaced essay, identify what content in this class has made a lasting impression on you and explain why.
I would prefer, but will not require, a multi-arts-and-humanities perspective from the second half of the semester: that is, inclusion of literature, music, fine arts, film, and others, since the midterm. If you like, however, you may focus more strictly, and you may include materials from throughout the entire semester. Take note, though, that an essay sounding like a “report” on a single art movement written for a Fine Arts class will disappoint, all around. Instead, consider describing your take on how the humanities manifested some particular anxiety of the era that interested you, or why you think minimalism in several of the arts took hold, or the increasing role of the reader/observer in “creating” the works, or some other theme. This is not an exercise in recounting what you “liked” or not: rather, what prompted the most important advance in your education as a reader, listener, observer, and participant in the world of ideas?
BIG EXAM DAY:
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17th, 2019; 1:10 PM.