Answer both of the questions below. Each is worth 50 points. You need *not* consult outside sources. However, if you choose to do so, document accordingly. Each answer should be approximately three pages in length.

1. Imagine a conversation between Sterne and *at least* two other writers we have read this semester. They are discussing love, marriage, and relations between the sexes. What would they say to each other? Where would they find common ground – if any? Where would they diverge? Would there be any way of reconciling their viewpoints (assuming divergence)?

For the budding playwrights among you, your answer may take the form of a dialogue among your chosen writers. It can also take the more traditional form of an essay.

2. The mind/body dichotomy that plagues many thinkers of the 18th C manifests itself in disparate ways in the novels that we’ve read this semester. Think rationality, sentimentality, charity, religious fervor, reason, emotion, passion, lust. Think bodies – sick bodies, violated bodies, repressed bodies, riotous bodies. Think about the rules that govern those bodies – laws, social conventions, religious strictures. Does either side “win” in the debate?

Use *at least* one text here that is different from the three you used to answer the first question.

Discuss the attitude toward writing and authority (in this case the enterprise of self-authoring) of at least three characters we’ve read this semester. Why do they write? For whose benefit? For whose entertainment? You might (though you do not have to) also consider whether the ambitions of the characters collide with the stated goals of the authors who created them. Are there moments when the characters get away from their authors? Or themselves?

Again, use *at least* one text here that is different from the three you use to answer the first question.

Bonus question: Write your own exam question and then provide a *brief* outline of how you would go about answering it.