Twentieth Century European Fiction — DU B. A. (Hons) English Previous Year Question Papers

European Fiction DSE 3. Answer any three questions from PART A and any three questions from PART B. 4. Each question in PART A carries 10 marks and each question in PART B carries 20 marks. Answer any three questions from this part 1. (a) Comment on the significance of Lotaria's reading machine in If on a Winter's Night a Traveller. (b) "It is only through the confining act of writing that the immensity of the nonwritten becomes legible." Identify the given sentence from the text and comment on its deeper implications. 2. (a) Explain the following passage with reference to context: "One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin." (b) In "The Story of My Dovecote", the narrator's father displays a desperate desire for his son to assimilate and succeed in the Russian system. What does that reveal about the pressures and false hopes of Jewish life in Tsarist Russia? 3. (a) "I said that people never change their lives, that in any case one life was as good as another and that I wasn't dissatisfied with mine here at all." i) What does this remark suggest about ii) How does this reflect Camus's idea of the absurd? (3) ili) Discuss how this attitude isolates Meursault from social and moral norms. (4) (b) Attempt a note on the narratorial point of view in "The Mother". (a) Explain critically with reference to context: "She struggled to her feet. She had blood on her hands and clothes, and suddenly her exhausted body told her that she was old, Old and a murderess, she thought, but she knew that if it were necessary, she would kill again. (b) Comment on the role of the dog of tears in Saramago's Blindness. 5 (a) In what ways can If on a Winter's Night A Traveller be read as a series of critical reflections about the relationship between literature and technology? Give a reasoned answer using arguments illustrated by instances from the text. (b) Critically examine If on a Winter's Night A Traveller as a postmodern anti-novel by discussing its narrative style and themes, with examples from the text. (a) In Kafka's The Metamorphsis, how does Gregor's relation to his family and his immediate environment change alter his transformation and subsequent decline? (b) "The Story of My Dovecote" presents two distinct forms of antisemitism: the "civilized," systemic, institutional discrimination (the school's Jewish quota) and the chaotic, extreme physical violence (the pogrom). Compare and contrast these two forms. How do they work together to trap the Jewish community? (a) Discuss Camus' The Stranger in the light of Meursault's resistance to societal expectations of the appearances he needs to keep up. Why does he reject these expectations? (b) Would you agree that in Ginzburg's "The Mother" the narrative succeeds in creating a powerful portrait of a woman who refuses to be written out of the text despite the negative assessments that frame her representation? Justify your answer.