Gauhati University 2007 M.A English Previous : : -IV - Question Paper

2007
ENGLISH
FOURTH PAPER
Full Marks: 80
Time: three hours
The figures in the margin indicate full marks for the ques.
(New Syllabus)
(Non-Fictional Prose)
1. ans any 5 ques. from the following: 12×5=60
a) How important are Keats' letters for an understanding of his poetry?
From Keats' letters prescribed" in your syllabus, explain a few of the
philosophical and critical concepts which inform his verse.
b) Critically assess Arnold's views on poetry as explained in his Preface to
Poems (1853).
c) Would you consider Addison's The Spectator essays to be representative
of neo-classical prose writing? Illustrate your ans with suitable
examples from the essays that you have learn.
d) Would you subscri1?,e to the view that Lamb's essays suggest an
indifference to philosophy? Justify your stance from your studying of My
Relations.
e) Consider Virginia Woolf’s essay How it strikes a contemporary as a
modernist text in terms of theme, structure and style.
f) explain Tagore's idea of Nation as expressed in his essay Nationalism in
the West
g) Explore the neo-classical principles that shape Johnson's assessment of
Milton in Life of Milton.
h) How do the Victorian and Modern perspectives get articulated in
Chapter I and Chapter II of Russell's Autobiography?
2. Critically discuss any 3 of the subsequent with reference to the context:
4×3=12
a) "It is from the notebooks of the current that the masterpieces of the future
are made."
b) "I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the Heart's affections and the
truth of the Imagination-what the imagination seizes as Beauty must be
truth-"
c) "But in retrospect, as I have grown older, I have realised more and more
the importance she had in moulding my outlook on life."
d) "They regarded the whole; we regard the parts. With them, the action
predominated over the expression of it; with us, the expression
predominates over the action!"
e) "I hate people who meet Time half way. I am for no compromise with
that inevitable spoiler."
3. Write short notes on any 2 of the following: 4×2=8
(a) Essay and letters as literary forms
(b) Russel's remembrances of his parents in Chapter I of his Autobiography
(c) Autobiography and Biography
(d) Lamb's portrayal of' his aunt in My Relations
(Old Syllabus)
(Non-Fictional Prose and Biography)
Write the answers to the 2 Halves in separate books
FIRST HALF
4. ans any 4 of the subsequent (in approximately 500 words each): l0×4=40
a) Comment on Bacon's style, assessing how it reflects the enlightened thought of
the day.
b) Comment on the significance of the story of Noah's Ark in the Genesis.
c) How well do Addison's essays capture the ethos of his contemporary society?
provide a well-reasoned ans.
d) Comment on the literary merit of any 2 of the biographies of poets by Dr.
Johnson in the Lives
e) How well do you think that. the expression 'Life of the mind' applies to Boswell's
Life of Samuel Johnson? provide a well-balanced ans.
SECOND HALF
5. ans any 2 of the subsequent ques. 14×2=28
a) Characterize Charles Lamb as an essayist with special reference to the essays
prescribed for you.
b) Give, after Hazlitt, a portrait of Coleridge. Do you think that his appraisal of the
poet is just?
c) Evaluate Carlyle's estimate of Shakespeare.
d) "With all his telling irony, irreverent and malicious insight, and a keen eye for
human weakness, Lytton Strachey offered a portrait of Queen Victoria which
was in the main sympathetic"
Assess Strachey's portrait of Queen Victoria in the light 'of the above
remark.
e) Comment on the theme and style of Orwell's England, Your England.
6. discuss any 2 of the subsequent passages with reference to their contexts:
6×2= 12
a) His youth was fiery, glowing, tempestuous-and in age he discovereth
no symptom of cooling. This is that which I admire in him. I hate people
who meet Time half way. I am for no compromise with that inevitable
spoiler.
b) Coleridge remarks very pertinently somewhere, that wherever you obtain a
sentence musically worded, of actual rhythm and melody in the words, there
is something deep and good in the meaning too.
c) His (Wordsworth's) genius was not. a spirit that descended to him through
the air; it sprung out of the ground like a flower; or unfolded itself from a
green spray, on which the gold-finch sang.
d) 1 of the most convincing aspects of the mystic illumination is the
apparent revelation of the oneness of all things, giving rise to pantheism in
religion and to monism in philosophy.

Earning:   Approval pending.