Students will write a total of FOUR short essays for the exam.
Each short essay will be worth 60 points. Feel free to contact me with any questions about your responses or the format for the exam.
Write a 3-5 paragraph response to EACH of the prompts below. Include specific references to relevant texts from our syllabus and make sure you support whatever you claim. You do not need citations or a Works Cited page:
1). Imagine you were introducing a friend to The Quran. Your friend is no more familiar with the text than the typical Motlow student. Why would Sura 5: The Feast be a good introduction to The Quran and Islamic beliefs?
2). Even though the book has a long history of being one of the most widely banned around the world, how might a modern reader construct a moral defense of The Thousand and One Nights?
3). Explain how a modern reader might be confused over some of the events in Eliduc and how knowledge of the Art of Courtly Love might clear up that confusion.
4). Using at least two texts from our syllabus (including Hamlet), explain how Shakespeare’s commentary on the limits of certainty in Hamlet is unlike certainty as it appears in other texts from our syllabus. Why is certainty suddenly harder to reach by the Renaissance?
