SYLLABUS MA ENGLISH AND MODEL PAPERS

M.A. / M. Sc. Annual Examination (Model Paper 1)

Paper-Il: Introduction to English Literature

TimeAllowed 4 Hours                                                          Maximum Marks: 100

Note: Attempt Question-I, which is compulsory (40 marks), and THREE more (20 marks each), ONE from Section-A and TWO from Section-B.

Q. I. Critically appreciate any ONE of the following poems, paying particular, attention to its theme, imagery, setting, structure and language. However, avoid sub-headings: your appraisal must be a continuous essay.                                                                                                                              

a)         I am old enough to be my own father,

and yet the green tongue of spring

stirs me like a child.

In the first yeast of April.

1 rise to the taut blue of kites,

leaned out over the healing town.

In the young faces of girls,

beauty turns to me

like sudden flowers.

Why must 1 be father and son,

hating and loving across years?

1 want to take my own hand,

and in a still place in the wind,

be what I have become.

b)        Who does not love the Titanic!

If they sold passage tomorrow for that same crossing,

who would not buy?                                                                                 

To go down ... We all go down, mostly

alone. But with crowds of people, friends, servants,

well fed, with music, with lights! Ah!

And the world, shocked, mourns, as it ought to do

and almost never does. There will be the books and movies

to remind our grandchildren who we were

and how we died, and give them a good cry.

Not so bad, after all. The cold

water is anaesthetic and very quick.

The cries on all sides must be a comfort.

We all go: only a few, first-class.

SECTION-A (Poetry)

Q.II.       What is narrative poetry? Illustrate your answer with examples.

Q.III.      What do you understand by the term 'the speaking voice'? Is it always the poet who speaks to us — or not? Illustrate with examples.

Q. IV.     Write short notes on any FOUR of the following:

a) Irony  b) Theme & Subject   c) Metre & Rhythm   d) Extended metaphor

e) Sonnet   f) Consonance & Assonance   g) Allusion   h) Connotation

SECTION-B (Novel & Drama)

Q. V.      What is dramatic plot? Discuss its various structural elements.

Q.VI.      What is characterization? Discuss, giving examples, the type of characters that we find in novels and plays.

Q.VII.    What do we mean by a writer's point of view? Discuss.

Q.VIII.   Write short notes on any FOUR of the following:

a) Romance    b) Morality Play           c) Poetic Justice            d) Greek Theatre

e) Unities       f) Scene and Setting      g) Picaresque Novel      h) Tragedy

1. POETRY

1.1.            WHAT IS LITERATURE?

Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" (from Latin ‘littera’: letter). It is variously defined as: 

1. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field: medical literature.
2. Printed material: collected all the available literature on the subject.
3. The art or occupation of a literary writer.
4. The artistic expression of thought replete with feelings and imagination.
5. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture.
6. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value.
7. Literature is a record of the best thoughts. (Emerson)

The Muslim scholar and philosopher Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (702-765 AD) defined Literature as follows:  Literature s the garment which one puts on what he says or writes so that it may appear more attractive." Illustrated stories, hypertexts, cave paintings and inscribed monuments have all at one time or another pushed the boundaries of "literature."

In the broadest sense, literature includes any type of writings on any subject: the literature of medicine; usually, however, it means the body of artistic writings of a country or period that are characterized by beauty of expression and form and by universality of intellectual and emotional appeal.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as, 'writing which has claim to consideration on the grounds of beauty of form or emotional effect.' However, dictionary definitions are insufficient and will not illuminate this complex question, which has been a major concern of literary theory. It has been answered in diverse and, in some instances, conflicting ways.

For example, the Russian Formalists, a school of thought concerned with the application of linguistics to the study of literature, expressed the view that literature 'transforms and intensifies' ordinary language.

The Formalists were extreme in the view that literary form should be privileged over content.

What counts as literature varies not only over time (diachronically) but also across cultures (synchronically). Readers will often ascribe value to the literature from different cultures using their own literary experience as a benchmark for judging quality and worth.

The elements of literature are:

1. Form
2. Expression
3. Ideas  
4. Widespread and Lasting Interest

Literature is a kind of artist's record of life - a simple portrait presenting in the facts in the perspective of soul and nature, and an author is an architect of that work of art which has its natural appeal to the readers' emotions and imagination rather than his intellect.

A literary creation is called literature when it attains the stage of universality with the widest human interests and simplest human emotions. Pure literature knows no bound of race, land or religion. It supersedes the narrow boundaries of a class in favour of humanity as a whole. It's chiefly occupied with elementary emotions and passions like love and hate, joy and sorrow, fear and faith- the natural expression of human hearts.

Literature, when first created, remains personal, but when expressed, it becomes universal. It has some definite object: to know man in his inner and outer nature, his feelings and expression of life, his good or bad activities. In order to understand a people of an age, it is necessary to study their history that records their deeds, but it is equally important to read their literature that records their dreams which made their deeds possible.

Literature has close connection with life. In fact, literature is the study of life. The subject-matter of literature is the presentation of life. Life provides the raw material by which literature interfuses an artistic pleasure, pattern and form. Thus, literature is the communication of the writer’s novel and unique experiences of life. It involves the objective and subjective outlook of the writer. He observes the humanity and makes the subjective approach to it.

Art is an expression of life in its truth and beauty; and artist looks deeper into life and enjoys that treasure of truth and beauty; and his realization finds expression in his creation in the form of music, dance, painting or literature.

The essential characteristic of literature is that it produces aesthetic pleasure by manner in which the theme is handled. Like all other fine arts it has its own reality. It is the reconstruction of life, or rather the imaginative creation. By means of his imagination the writer arouses the same experience in the imagination of his reader.

The term ‘English literature’ refers to literature written in the English language, or literature composed in English by writers who are not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was Polish, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Edgar Allan Poe was American.

In Western culture the most basic written literary types include poetry, drama and prose.