African American Literature: 1580

Mid-term exam
March 2020

INSTRUCTIONS

i) Respond to all three questions.

ii) For questions 1 and 2 write around 800 words.

iii) For question 3 write 300-500 words.

HOW TO SUPPORT AND CITE YOUR IDEAS IN THE MIDTERM EXAM

TYPES OF SUPPORT: You will need to provide examples from the assigned readings to
develop your ideas. There are three ways to refer to the texts as support:

Summary: condensing a large amount of material into a shorter passage written in your
own words. Summary is a good technique when you don’t have space to discuss every
detail of a larger section of text (several sentences or a few paragraphs). Avoid
summarizing too much, though, because it can distract from your own points. Page or
line numbers must be cited parenthetically, but you do not need quotation marks.

Paraphrase: referencing material from the text in your own words. These are useful
when you want to refer to a more specific passage (a sentence or two), but using your
own words helps make the passage more understandable to readers. Page or line
numbers must be cited parenthetically, but you do not need quotation marks

Quotations: quotations are exact words from the text, and they are useful when you are
analyzing the specific language and details of a passage. Keep quotations short: you can
integrate quoted phrases into your own sentences (using quotation marks), or quote a
few sentences at most. In addition to parenthetically citing page or line numbers, you
need quotation marks (“”) for all quoted material.

PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS: citations will appear in parentheses ( ) at the end of the

sentence in which the summarized, paraphrased, or quoted material appears. ALL of these
forms
of support need parenthetical citations. How you cite material will depend on whether the text
is
poetry or prose:

Prose: For prose (short stories, novels, essays, autobiography, etc), you site the page
number on which the quoted or paraphrased material appears. The page number should
go in parentheses at the end of the quoted or paraphrased material. For example:
The idea that “all men are created equal” sounds simple, but for Jefferson, it embodied
many contradictions of his time (61).

Poetry: For poetry, you cite the line numbers rather than the page numbers. Line breaks
should be indicated by a / mark. For example, if you are quoting from Anne Bradstreet’s
“The Prologue,” it would look like this:

Bradstreet challenges the idea that women are not supposed to write poetry when she
says that “I am obnoxious to each carping tongue / Who says my hand a needle better
fits” (25-26).

ITALICS OR QUOTATION MARKS?

• Titles of long works, such as novels or plays, use Italics
• Titles of shorter works, such as poems, short stories, or essays, use “Quotation Marks.”

Midterm exam Formatting: (follow the following example to format your essays)

Your Name
Professor Shodona Orissa Kettle
African American Literature
DATE
Midterm Exam: Awesome Title

The first line of every paragraph should be indented, using the TAB key. Double-space the
entire essay as well. Please o not add additional spaces between paragraphs. If your computer
automatically adds additional spaces, change the settings in the “Line Spacing Options”
function in Microsoft Word.

At the end of your essay, all cited texts should be listed in the Works Cited list. Do not call it
“Bibliography” or “References.” Label the list “Works Cited,” as in the following example.
The information in Bold is the information you need to provide for the sources you cite in
each essay.

Works Cited
Author’s last name, Author’s first name. Title of the work. African American Literature
Compendium. Ed. Scott Gibson. Quito: Universidad San Francisco de Quito, 2019: 144-150.
Note: (the numbers at the end are the inclusive pages of the work you are citing).

African American Literature: 1580

Mid-term exam
March 2020

1. “Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” she said. “She’d probably be backwards
enough to put them to everyday use.”
“I reckon she would,” I said. “God knows I been saving ‘em for long enough with
nobody using ‘em. I hope she will!” I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee
(Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were
old-fashioned, out of style.

Discuss the significance of this passage in the context of Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
and how it links to celebrating heritage.

2. “So for generations in the mind of America, the Negro has been more of a formula
than a human being ⎯a something to be argued about, condemned or defended, to be
“kept down,” or “in his place,” or “helped up,” to be worried with or worried over,
harassed or patronized, a social bogey or a social burden.”

In light of this excerpt examine the ways in which the The New Negro Movement and
the Harlem Renaissance sought to challenge these views of African Americans.

3. Respond to the following passage. First, identify the author (first and last names) and
the complete title of the work. Then provide a brief interpretation of the passage as it
relates to the broader themes, issues, or rhetoric of the work as a whole.

“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over
ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or
over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place!”

Author: _________________________

Title: _________________________________________

Interpretation: