Gauhati University EnglishPaper-I 2007 Question Paper

University : Gauhati University
Degree : M.A English
Question Paper Subject:English: Paper-I
Question Paper Year : 2007
Question Paper Details : Previous Years Question Papers Types Version

 ENGLISH

FIRST PAPER

Full Marks : 80

Time : 3 hours

The figures in the margin indicate full marks for the questions

New Syllabus

(Literature and Social History)

SECTION-A

1. Critically assess the relationship between medieval life and religion,

and evaluate the role of faith in determining human conduct.

Or

Trace the history of printing and comment on its contribution in democratizing

Renaissance thought and culture.

2. Write a note on the impact of the Scientific Revolution in shaping

Enlightenment thought. 12

Or

Comment on the contribution of the French philosophical tradition in

developing the discourse of the Enlightenment. How did the . British respond

to the intellectual ferment in the continent?

3. What is Darwinism? Write a note on the influence of Darwinian thought on

English literature. 12

4. How did the 'crisis' of Empire speed up the process of decolonization? Give a

reasoned answer. 12

Or

Comment on the rise of English studies in the 20th century and assess the

factors responsible for its development.

5. How has the advent of contemporary Feminist thought affected the contours of

intellectual discourse in the twentieth century? 12

Or

Write a note on the intricate relationships among the media, popular culture

and globalization.

SECTION-B

6. Write short notes on any five of the following: 4×5=20

(a) The English Manor

(b) The Peasant's Revolt

(c) The University Wits

(d) Deism

(e) The Glorious Revolution

(f) Laissez- faire

(g) Cubism

(h) Scrutiny and F. R. Leavis

(i) McLuhan and Media Studies

(j) Orientalism

(Old Syllabus)

Write the answers to the two Halves in separate books

FIRST HALF

(Forms of Literature)

(Marks: 40)

7. Answer any two of the following (in about 500 words each): 14×2=28

(a) What is an allegory? Trace the course of the allegory in English literature

from Langland to Bunyan.

(b) Discuss the origin and development of the English drama in the Middle Ages

with special reference to the Mysteries and the Miracles. How were the

Mysteries and the Miracles staged?

(c) Define Essay as a form of literature and indicate its growth and development

from Bacon to Dr. Johnson.

(d) What is a lyric? Trace the course of the lyric in the Medieval and the

Elizabethan periods.

(e) Discuss the essential features of Shakespearean tragedy.

(f) What is an epic? How does the 'epic of art' differ from the 'epic of growth?

Discuss with reference to Beowulf (epic of growth) and Milton (epic of art).

(g) Answer briefly any two of the following questions: 7×2=14

i) Give a brief account of the achievement of the poets of the First World

War (1914-18).

ii) Write a note on Scott's handling of the Historical Novel.

iii) Evaluate the contribution of the Pre-Raphaelites to Victorian poetry.

iv) What is Poetic Drama? How does it differ from Shavian Drama?

8. Write short notes on any two of the following (in about 100 words each):6×2=12

(a) Heroic Drama

(b) The English Ballad

(c) Sentimental Comedy (of the Eighteenth Century)

(d) The Ode as a Form of Literature

(e) Drama of Ideas

(f) The One-Act Play of the 20th Century.

(g) Stream of Consciousness Novel

(h) The New Biography

SECOND HALF

(History of English Literature and Society)

(Marks: 40)

9. Answer any two of the following (in about 500 words each): 10×2=20

(a) Write an essay on the literature of the Anglo-Saxon period. From what

indicators in the texts can you understand that they are expressions of a

predominantly oral form?

(b) Enumerate some of the characteristic features of Renaissance literature and

account for their emergence in this period.

(c) How has England's history as a seafaring nation found place in literature?

Use relevant examples from authors and texts you are acquainted with, to

support your argument.

(d) Discuss how England's topography is reflected in the writings of the

romantics.

(e) How has the emergence of Freudian psychoanalysis influenced the understanding

and interpretation of modernist literature? Use any texts you are

familiar with to illustrate your argument.

10. Write notes on any four of the following (approximately 100 words each) :

5×4=20

(a) The Peasant's Revolt.

(b) Beowulf

(c) The Elizabethan Sonnet Sequence

(d) Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)

(e) Children in Romantic Poetry

(f) The City in Modernism 

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