GENG 260 Midterm Study Guide The first exam will consist of 50 multiple choice questions You will need to bring your student ID and pencils You may not use any notes or other materials during the exam The exam will be broken into two sections Section 1 General Questions 20 questions 2 points each You are responsible for knowing the following general information Folklore Difference between myth and legend Myth traditional story typically involving supernatural beings or or forces which embodies and provides an explanation or justification for something as the early history of a society a religious belief or a ritual or a natural phenomenon Legend a traditional story especially one handed down and regarded popularly as a true historical occurrence Pros and cons of printing oral traditions Pros preserves a communal tradition that otherwise might be lost gives historical insight into the past experiences of slaves committing that tradition to paper conveys the sense that its real art Cons difficult to recreate sounds voices noises etc on the page loss of rapid fire sometimes competitive storytelling experiences phonetic spelling and dialect Definition and examples of a trickster figure animals characters who may seem weak but manage to get what they what by tricking others amoral humorous and serious commentary on equality that offered indirect attacks on white society Brer Rabbit Joel Chandler Harris Slave narratives Four phases 1 Loss of innocence dehumanization 2 Resolve to free oneself 3 Pivotal moment moment of escape 4 Success join cause for abolition Role of prefaces which texts use them who wrote them what purpose they serve gives credential to the author used to give proof that an African American wrote a story and that it is a good story worth reading Reconstruction writing Major differences between Du Bois and Washington Pros and cons of using dialect Pro authenticity Con hard to read could be demeaning or offensive Wells Barnett s 3 excuses for violence against African Americans rebuttals Harlem Renaissance writing Historical contexts Jim Crow 1876 1965 establishes separate but equal status GENG 260 Midterm Study Guide Dyer Bill Bill intended to classify lynching as a federal felony Was rejected and an apology for this rejection was not given until 2005 Great Migration Lynchings in the south led to a great migration of black people from South to the North beginning the Harlem Renaissance Alain Locke s arguments about outer and inner objectives Outer objective becoming equal Americans an equal part of American political culture None other than the ideals of American institutions and democracy the negro mind reaches out as yet to do nothing but American wants American ideals Inner objective instilling pride back into what has become a self loathing community An attempt to repair a damaged group psychology and reshape a warped social perspective rise from social disillusionment to race pride Ethnic Notions film Definitions of Caricatures Jim Crow Sambo Zip Coon Mammy Jezebel Pickaninny Noble Savage CARICATURE grotesque or ludicrous representation of persons or things by exaggeration of their most characteristic and striking features consesquences African Americans being portrayed as dumb dangerous and scary looking people which made whites even more wary of them JIM CROW whites imitating African Americans in blackface SAMBO perpetual child not capable of living on ones own ZIP COON lazy easily frighted ex slave attempting to be white and flourish in white society but ultimately failing MAMMY emerged as a defense to slavery these women are characterized as happy docile loyal protective and stripped of sexual allure so as not to be a threat to the mistress of the house Madonna loyal domestic asexual nurturing deeply religious strong fat think of Linda Brent in comparison to this caricature JEZEBEL whore disloyal promiscuous seductive untrustworthy animal like sexuality opposite of a mammy either you re one or the other PICKANINNY dominant racial characteristics of African American children child coons had bulging eyes unkempt hair and wide mouths NOBLE SAVAGE close to nature powerful yet still more animal than human Double representation of African Americans in the Reconstruction Period they were presented as either black or American Blackface minstrelsy and minstrel shows 3 major stereotypes promoted by racial caricatures 1 blacks are ugly 2 blacks are savage GENG 260 Midterm Study Guide 3 blacks are happy servents Literary and Other Terminology Intersectionality the interaction of multiple systems of oppression discrimination developed by Kim Crenshaw in 1989 imagine identity as the intersection of many streets each street is part of one s identity female white middle class able bodied etc if an accident oppression should occur in the middle of the intersection the source of the accident could come from any direction and be amplified by the traffic on any of the streets Speaker narrator author Caesura enjambment and end stopped lines enjambment no punctuated pause at the end of the line author is saying I can t rest I m eager to express myself end stop some sort of punctuation denotes a stop at the end of the line makes reader reflect caesura pause in the middle of a line of poetry via punctuation creates suspense lets you know what s coming next is really important Anaphora Tragic mulatto stereotypical mixed race character burdened by a lack of knowledge of one s identity inability to fit in black or white worlds forces a choice characterized by pathologies self hatred depression perversion suicide represents the oedipal drama of slavery Marlene Daut Controlling metaphor metaphors that are not singular to one phrase but controls the whole story and is repeated throughout text becomes a refrain symbolic story where the whole poem may be a metaphor for something else Double consciousness a feeling as though you have multiple identities making it difficult to develop a sense of self Shakespearean sonnet iambic pentameter stressed unstressed five 14 lines volta rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFE GG Melodrama plot controls characters sensational exaggerated characters exciting events intended to appeal to emotions often features good but not clever hero vs scheming villain with eyes on damsel in distress fate intervenes good typically triumphed Tragedy characters control plot evokes pity and fear from audience tragic hero essentially good and admirable hero s demise comes as the