The midterm will consist of two parts.
Part 1 (67 points)
The following essay question will appear on the exam:
| Only two Roman novels have survived, The Satyricon
and The Golden Ass. Write an essay comparing the two books.
In what ways are they similar? In what ways are they different?
Issues you may wish to discuss (but you’re not limited to these) are plot,
characterization, themes, and narrative technique. Which book did
you like better and why?
Two things to leave out of your essay: 1) realism; 2) the fact that we only have part of the Satyricon but all of The Golden Ass. |
Don’t forget the specific examples!!!
You won’t be allowed to use any notes during the exam, but it would be a good idea to make an outline of what you plan to say so that you’ll really be ready to write when you get here.
Part 2 (33 points)
There will be six passages from the reading that we’ve
done in the second half of the semester (Juvenal, Petronius, Apuleius).
The six passages will be divided into three groups, and you must do one
from each group. Identify the work that the passage is from (for
Juvenal, put Satires) and the author; describe briefly what is going
on in the passage, and then explain why the passage is important to the
work of literature that it comes from or the themes of this course.
Please bring two or three small blue books to the exam.