Sample Midterm Exam

The Midterm Exam will be divided into four sections: Identifications, Quotations, Short Answers, and Essay questions:

• The identifications should take a few minutes to respond to and are usually worth only a few points each. The identifications are meant to get you settled into the exam and build confidence that your hard studying has paid off in secure knowledge about the basic material of the class.
• The quotations also should only take a few minutes each. You will be given a quote, and your job will be to identify from which article the passage is taken. The quotation questions allow you to demonstrate that you have carefully done the reading for the course.
• The short answer questions should take about 10 minutes to respond to and comprise the bulk of the exam. Generally, they have two parts: 1) which allows you the opportunity to explore a theoretical/historical/critical concept examined in lecture or the reading, and 2) which allows you to apply this concept to a film or clip screened in class.
• The essay questions afford you the opportunity to synthesize the material of the class, to pull together material from various locations in the development of the course. Your response should try to make connections between different films, readings, and lectures in order to make your point. The essay should be around 2 or 3 blue book pages, have a thesis, and be divided into support-oriented paragraphs.

Sample Identification Questions

• 5 questions for 3 points each = 15 points
• Suggested time: 3 minutes each = 15 minutes

1. Liberal feminism
2. signified
3. Symbolic
4. Liliana Cavani
5. The Night Porter
6. Lois Weber
7. True Woman
8. authorial fantasmatic
9. Essentialism
10. Deconstruction
11. Pre-Oedipal
12. Ideological State Apparatus
13. Mary Daly
14. ecriture feminine
15. Andrew Sarris

Sample Quotation Questions

• 5 questions for 5 points each=25 points
• Suggested time: 5 minutes each=25 minutes

1. "This complex interaction of looks is specific to film. The first blow against the monolithic accumulation of traditional film conventions (already undertaken by radical film-makers) is to free the look of the camera into its materiality in time and space and the look of the audience into dialectics and passionate detachment"

2. "Men’s relationship to feminism is an impossible one. This is not said sadly or angrily (though sadness and anger are both known and common reactions) but politically. Men have a necessary relation to feminism–the point after all is that it should change them, too, that it involves learning new ways of being women and men against and as an end to the reality of women’s oppression–and that relation is also necessarily one of a certain exclusion–the point after all is that this is a matter for women, that it is their voices and actions that must determine the change and redefinition."

Sample Short Answer Questions

• 4 questions for 10 points each = 40 points
• Suggested time: 10 minutes each = 40 minutes

1. We began the course and will end it with a consideration of the ways in which feminist theories can help us analyze the popular culture that constitutes a part of our everyday lives. Select one piece of feminist theory that you find particularly compelling and use this essay as your critical methodology for analyzing the gender politics of Kramer vs. Kramer.

2. In exploring the cinema of Dorothy Arzner, we read a dossier of essays by a number of feminist film theorists. Each of these essayists, because they emerged from a different moment of feminism, take a different theoretical approach to the films. Compare and contrast two of these essayists, and explore the significance of their similarities and differences with respect to Dance, Girl, Dance.

3. Many social historians have contrasted sharply the 1st wave of feminism (suffragettism) from the 2nd wave (the Women's Liberation Movement). Each of these movements, as a cultural phenomenon, influenced the representations within films of their periods. Compare and contrast a film discussed in this class from each period. Are there ideological similarities between your chosen films that are worth discussing?

4. What is the thesis of Stephen Heath's essay, "Male Feminism?" Describe some of the theoretical gestures he makes in order to support this thesis.

5. What is the relationship between Judith Mayne's essay, "Lesbian Looks," and the feminist essays on Dorothy Arzner that preceded it? What sorts of contributions does Mayne make to Arzner studies that the previous essays left undertheorized? Use a specific example from Dance, Girl, Dance to support your argument.

6. What is deconstruction? What is a deconstructionist film? Is Julie Dash's Illusions a deconstructive film?

Sample Essay Questions

• The essay question is worth 20 points
• Suggested time: 30 minutes

1. It has often been claimed that the European art cinema is much closer than the Hollywood cinema to the ideal of the feminist counter-cinema as theorized by such feminist critics as Laura Mulvey and Claire Johnston. Given the breadth of films we have explored in this class, agree or disagree with this assertion. Obviously, you will have to begin by defining the counter-cinema. Then, try to incorporate as many films and/or clips from the class as you can muster to support your thesis claim. Also work to grapple with some of the feminist theories we've studied which might prove pertinent to supporting your stance.

2. Chris Weedon argues that feminist poststructuralism is built out of four major theoretical traditions. Briefly explore how these four traditions merge together into a theoretical approach to subject formation. Use this theoretical discussion to perform a poststructural analysis on two of the following films, one of which should be engaged in representational practices sympathetic to the goals of poststructuralism and the other which should not.  Films to choose from:  Father of the Bride II, Kramer vs. Kramer, How Men Propose, The Smiling Madame Beudet, Thriller, or Illusions.

Click here to return to the Syllabus for HUM 301 ("Women, Film, and Feminism")

This page was last updated on June 17, 2001

Questions or Comments?  Please phone me at (406) 994-6403 or send an e-mail to:  metz@montana.edu

Walter Metz, Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Montana State University--Bozeman