University of Delhi 2005-2nd Year B.A Political Science Nineteenth Century European Realism : - Question Paper

Nineteenth Century European Realism 2005 : IInd Year

Q. 1. (a) “And finally, what I have had to call their remorse tally amounts to a simple organic to a simple organic disorder, a revolt of the nervous system when strained to breaking point. There is a complete absence of soul, I freely admit, since that is show it is meant to be.”

Do you agree with this analysis of “their remorse” ? Is there really a complete absence of the soul ?
What point, in your view, is the author trying to make and how far is it borne out by the novel ?

Or

“I have been told that my mother was the daughter of a tribal chief in Africa. I have often thought about her and realized that I belonged to her by blood and instinct.”

Comment on “belonged to her by biood and instinct.”
Do you think that Zola’s representation of Therese’s story has a touch of racism ? provide a reasoned ans. 11

(b) Emma is a romantic idealist trapped in a mundane mercantile world. Do you agree ?

Or

Compare and contrast the characters of Charles and Leon in Madame Bovary. Are they both equally enmeshed in the patriarchal worlds that they inhabit ? provide a reasoned ans. 11

(C)“When you have learn to the secret sorrows of old Goriot you will dine with unimpaired appetite, blaming the writer for callousness, taxing him with exaggeration, accusing him of having gjVe wings to his imagination.”

What tendency is Balzac criticizing in his learner and what is he defending himself against ? Does your studying of the novel agree with the view expressed in the sentence ? provide a carefully reasoned ans.

Or

“Father and children were accomplices in this little crime. You see the identical sort of thing everywhere. What could this old Goriot have been but a grease-stain in his daughters’ drawing room ?”

What “little crime” are dad and children accomplices in? Why is Old Goriot “but a grease-stain?” What larger critique is Balzac offering through the father-children relationship ? IS


Q. 2. (a) Write brief notes on the subsequent : Examine the representation of the institution of wedding or the family with reference to the 2 French novels in your course.

Or

The representation of radical political ideas in the nineteenth-century Russian novel. 6

(b) discuss Balzac’s idea that a author must not only record social events but “also investigate the reasons or the reason of these social effects.” Support your ans with reference to any incident of any novel from your course.

Or

“The meeting of these 2 great realists is 1 of the outstand¬ing events of literary history.” What, according to Lukacs, are the meeting points ranging from Balzac and Stendhal ?


Q. 3. Assess the significance of Raskolnikov’s essay on “ex¬traordinary persons” in Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

Or

Who in your view is the real protagonist of Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons, Arkady or Bazarov ? Support your argument with (;equate references to the novel. 15


Q. 4. discuss the idea of nihilism as it appears in Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. Can it be applied to Dostoyevsky’s Raskolnikov?
Or

Asses the importance of human relationships as a bulwark against social decadence in the 2 Russian novels in your course, How much faith does every novel place in relationships ? 15

Earning:   Approval pending.