American Literature — DU B. A. (Hons) English Previous Year Question Papers

6. (a) In Morrison's Beloved, Paul D describes his heart as a "tobacco tin" inside which his emotions aré locked away. How does this metaphor convey the effects of trauma and motional repression, and what is the significance of the opening of the "tobacco tin" later in the novel? (b) How do the shifting narrative perspectives in Morrison's Beloved configure memory, as constituted by trauma and regulated through, repression? 7. (a) To what extent do Morrison's Beloved and Melville's "Bartleby, The Scrivener" depict resistance that expresses agency, while revealing its impossibility within oppressive structures? (b) American literature is marked by polarities : the ideals of liberty and equality on the one hand and the realities of racism and colonial oppression on the other. How do these two contrasting tropes shape the American literary canon? Name of thẹ Course : Bachelor of Arts , (Honours Course) Time: 3 Hours , (C) Candidates have to fuestions in Part-A and any three Juestions in Part-B. (d) Questions in Part-A carry 10 marks each and questions in Part-B carry 20 marks each. "Bartleby. The (b) Write a note on Alcée Arobin in Kate Chopin's The Awakening. 2. Identify; contextualise and critically comment on the following : (a) "The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;" (b) "Buffalo Bill opens a pawn shop on the reservation right across the border from the liquor store and he stays open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." 3. (a) "From Denver's two, thrilled eyes it grew to a feast for ninety people. 124 shook with their voices far into the night. Ninety people who ate sowell, and laughed so much, it made them angry." Comment. (b) Write a note on the "chokecherry tree" on 4. (a) Notwithstanding the stark realism of Wall Street office culture, Melville's "Bartleby, The Scrivener" foregrounds the type of radical individualism that can be seen as part of the romance tradition that marks nineteenth-century American literature. Do you agree? Provide a reasoned answer. (b) Madame Ratignolle says to Robert: "She is not one of us; she is not like us. She might make the mistake of taking you seriously." Comment critically with reference to The Awakening by Kate Chopin. 5. (a) Walt Whitman's poem "Passage to India" seeks to create a poetics of harmony and resolution of the various binaries of time and space-national or global, historical or spiritual, material or cultural. Critically evaluate with examples from the poem. (b) Sherman Alexie's poems "Evolution" and "Crow Testament" represent the crisis of identity and culture for the Native American people in majoritarian, colonial and genocidal white America. Discuss.