IMPORTANT WEDNESDAY UPDATE

There is some significantly new information in this post that I intended to alert 2nd period to today.  Could the "Social Network" that most of you live by get the word out that there's some important finals-related info in this post?  Thanks!

OK, here's what I've been saying for several days about the final. Essentially, it covers everything we've done EXCEPT for the short stories.

Anglo-Saxon Unit:  Start reviewing by skimming back through the text book. 
Historical Background
Literary terms
The short poems
Beowulf

Medieval Unit:
Historical section in the book AND on the hand-out
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight--excerpts in the book and on the hand-outs
Canterbury Tales--
Material on the background structure
Main points of Chaucer's life
General Prologue--"frame" to the story.  Know setting, structural details, basics of the pilgrims, etc.
The two tales in the book:  "The Pardoner's Tale," and "The Nun's Priest's Tale"--Know details of the soties as well as the literary terms associated with them (all clearly identified in the intros to each story):  exemplum, parody, mock-epic

FORMAT OF THE TEST
This test will contain a fairly long objective section (80-90 questions) that ranges across the material.  There will be a written section containing perhaps 2-3 "short" responses of several sentences each and then a couple of longer responses (extended paragraph or multi-paragraph).  These questions will focus on the medieval units

You should think about some of the following possibilities as some of the "big picture" connections for this section.

• Medieval views of knighthood as seen through Sir Gawain and in Canterbury Tales (think about some differences with the Anglo-Saxon warriors, but such a question wouldn't really focus on the Anglo-Saxons--the emphasis would be on how chivalry CHANGED the warrior code).
• Consider the major pilgrims--the ones with the longest descriptions.  Who among them seems the best?  Why?  What about the worst? Why? Which are similar in some ways but very different in others?  What aspects of human nature does Chaucer (NOT the narrator) seem to be satirizing?
• Although it should be easy to see that "The Pardoner's Tale" is an exemplum, according to the definition in your book, it might be harder to see "The Nun's Priest's Tale" as having elements of parody and the mock-epic.  Try to think through what some of these features might be.