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Essay Exam

 Essay questions. Answer four of the questions below. Use complete sentences and good grammar.

 
1. Historiography is your theory of how history works. Every historian has a historiography that's either explicit or implicit, as does any author who is dealing with the past. In our first period, we saw Bienville refracted through two prisms — Bienville as pius Aeneas, and Bienville as insane Kurtz. Choose one of the characters (historical or fictional) we've studied this quarter, and analyze that character in terms of two other characters (any characters, whether from this course or elsewhere) that will present your protagonist in contrasting lights. Your answer should take a couple of well-written paragraphs.
2. Discuss the impact on Louisiana (and its literature) of the three great revolutions of the period — The American Revolution, the French Revolution, and The Saint-Domingue (Hatian) Revolution. Bring in quotes from our material.
3. Discuss The Tragic Mulatto in Louisiana literature. Be sure to define and use the various terms traditionally used and list several examples from our reading this quarter. You can bring in examples not in our reading if you like.
4. Compare and contrast the various versions of the Tar Baby story. What do those stories say about the cultures who told them?
5. After witnessing the brutalities not only of white masters against enslaved blacks, but also white brutality against other whites, Northup observed, “It is not the fault of the slaveholder that he is cruel, so much as it is the fault of the system under which he lives” (p. 135). Do you think this observation is accurate? Does it seem accurate to state that both whites and enslaved blacks that lived in the South were mutually affected by the system of slavery?
6. Write a letter to somebody out of state about experiencing part of Louisiana culture and what that means for the people who engage in it.
7. Compare & contrast 2 heroes from two different works. What makes them significant? What are their strengths, weaknesses, virtues, & vices? Could a shift in perspective make the hero into a villain? How do they fit into Louisiana as a whole?
8. But Katrina had foresight and long term goals. Louisianans have had a complicated relationship with our environment (hurricanes, heat, humidity, epidemics, insects, coastal erosion, pollution, etc.). Select 3 works that address that relationship, and compare and contrast how they treat it.
   
    

 

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