Examination Review
These are the major terms and concepts
I want you to master for the upcoming examinations. This list will evolve as
we progress throughout the course. Please remember that this review is designed
to highlight ideas and concepts that will be found on the test. It is not complete
and will be revised until the day before the examination. The review does not
include every word that will appear on the exam; it merely serves to guide your
study of the texts, notes, web resources, and other materials employed throughout
this course.
Midterm
- Rhetoric (definition and extent)
- Artifacts as semiotic ghosts
(aka phantoms)
- Public life as a constellation
of signs
- William Gibson's Gernsback Continuum,
plot overview
- Gernsback Continuum and political
movements
- Streamlined Moderne
- Utopias of Permanence (goals)
- Utopias of Change
- Dystopias
- Women in Plato's Republic
- Background and setting of Plato's
Republic
- Balance of traits in Plato's Republic
- "Classes" in Plato's Republic
- Waves of Plato's Republic
- Background and setting of More's
Utopia
- Four principles of More's Utopia
- Religion in More's Utopia
- Communism in More's Utopia
- American vs. European Jeremiad
- Three paradoxes in "Model of Christian
Charity"
- Setting for Bellamy's Looking
Backward
- Nationalism in Bellamy's Looking
Backward
- Primary themes of Bellamy's Looking
Backward
- Voting in Bellamy's Looking
Backward
- Critiques of Bellamy's Looking
Backward
Final
- Main features: World's Fairs and
Expositions (1851, 1889, 1893)
- Heterotopia: definition, purpose,
and examples
- Heterotopia: margin vs. center
at the 1893 Exposition
- City Beautiful Movement
- Leo Marx: The Machine and the
Garden
- Metaphor for the Machine
- Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities:
Balance, commerce, and individualism
- Age of Authority
- 1939 and 1940 fair themes
- Major shifts between the 1939
and 1940 fairs
- Democracity
- Futurama
- Planners vs. the People
- The Middleton Family
- African-Americans and the Fair
- Mike Davis Critique
- Three waves of urbanity
- Joel Garreau's definition and
location of an edge city
- Five Components of Edge Cities
- Nostalgia and New Urbanism
- Rhetorical "cornerstones" of Disney's
Celebration
- Robert Putnam's Thesis about social
capital
- Three benefits of social capital
- Four causes of diminishing social
capital
- Counter-trends to Putnam's thesis
Sample Questions
True/False If the statement
is mostly true, place a 'T' in the space provided. If the statement is mostly
false, place a 'F' in the space provided.
1. __ Plato argued that women could
serve at the highest levels of public life.
2. __ The primary nineteenth century
metaphor for the Machine is the locomotive.
Multiple Choice Select the response
that is most correct.
3. According to William Gibson, which
city is most similar to the 1980s-that-wasn't in the Gernsback Continuum?
4. Which of the following is an
example of heterotopia?
a. Motel
b. Amusement park
c. Church
d. All of the above
5. At the 1939 World's Fair, which
exhibit featured Democracity?
a. Trylon
b. Perisphere
c. General Motors Building
d. Unisphere
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