You are required to write ONE essay, as described below.
Choose one of the questions on the second page of this document and write an essay that uses the question to discuss THREE of the plays we read this semester.
Remember that this is not a term paper; it is a final exam. Hence, it will be graded as such. If you choose to spend time brainstorming, making notes, and preparing an outline prior to writing, that is your choice. When you decide to write (type) the exam, I suggest you give yourself 3 hours to complete it. Do not make this more difficult than it needs to be.
Direct quotations from the plays will be very helpful to your success. Secondary sources are not required. A Works Cited list is not required. As for the length of your answers, it is a 3-hour exam, so write the best answer you can in the time you have. As always, answers will be evaluated on quality, rather than quantity.
Finally, you are welcomed to include in your essays some personal reflection and engagement, but the focus must remain on the plays themselves. Whatever you have to say, relate it to the plays—their themes, scenes, symbolism, characters, etc.—in ways that demonstrate your understandings of the texts.
from Why Indigenous Literatures Matter, Daniel Heath Justice (2018), Wilfred Laurier University Press:
1) How do we learn to be human? What are the experiences, customs, traditions, and ceremonies that define our humanity? How do we realize the full potential of our physical and imaginative human embodiment with healthy bodies, hearts, and minds?
2) How do we behave as good relatives? What are our relational rights and responsibilities to one another and to the other-than-human world? How do our literatures help us realize these relations in meaningful ways?
3) How do we become good ancestors? How do we create the kind of world and relationships that will nurture those who come after, and give them cause to thank us rather than curse or grieve our destructive selfishness? And what does literature do to help guide this work?
4) How do we learn to live together? What are the social and intellectual structures, conventions, and considerations that reduce or manage conflicts and encourage harmonious relations across our varied categories of difference? How do our stories offer helpful models for those efforts?
