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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did the assault on American pastoralism begin, in Marx's account?

2. What part of 'The Tempest' held special interest for Marx?

3. What does pastoral ideology conflict with, in Marx's account?

4. How have liberal thinkers portrayed the sentimental pastoral ideal, in Marx's account?

5. How does Marx characterize Prospero and members of the court?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Jefferson describe the frontier in his Notes on Virginia?

2. What characters does Marx cite as examples of people who have gone through those three stages?

3. What is the consequence of the pastoral ideal?

4. What view typified the opposite of the bountiful-Edenic image of the New World?

5. What ideal does the conclusion to Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' suggest, in Marx's interpretation?

6. Where has the pastoral ideal been apparent in American culture?

7. How did Jefferson separate America and Europe in his Notes on Virginia?

8. How did Robert Beverly describe the New World in his History?

9. How long does Marx say the pastoral ideal has endured?

10. How did colonists see America?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Read the dialogue between Tityrus and Meliboeus in Virgil's Eclogues, and describe what makes American pastoralism uniquely American. Is pastoralism really an eternal theme in civilized culture, or is there a uniquely American strain to it?

Essay Topic 2

What is the value of farming today? What ideological value does the small farm have? What is the reality of farming--is it agribusiness, or are small farms making a comeback? What forces are affecting the shape of farms in America? Is this a result of shifts in American pastoral ideology, or is it driving a new kind of pastoral ideology?

Essay Topic 3

What part of human nature are people like Shakespeare's Gonzalo or Thoreau or Huckleberry Finn trying to escape from in nature? Where in pastoral literature is that trait accounted for?

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