M.A-M.A English 4th Sem Paper - 4.8 : Multicultural Discourse in Immigrant Fiction - II(University of Pune, Pune-2013)
M.A. (Part - II)
ENGLISH
Paper - 4.8 : Multicultural Discourse in Immigrant Fiction - II
(Optional) (Semester - IV) (2008 Pattern)
Time : 3 Hours] [Max. Marks : 80
Instructions to the candidates:
1) All questions are compulsory.
2) Figures to the right indicate full marks.
Q1) Attempt a discourse analysis of any TWO of the following extracts and bring
out their pragmatic features: [16]
I guess I didn’t sound like myself either, because Richard’s mouth opened
in a brief o that made him look astonished and indignant at the same time. I could feel hysterical laughter gathering itself inside me. We were about to have our first fight. I was surprised to find that I was almost looking forward to it.
But of course Richard is too civilized to fight. After a moment he
said, his voice carefully controlled, “I can see you’re too emotional to think clearly. But this can’t go on. For one thing, how long can you keep
him holed up in your apartment”?
Because that’s what everyone suspected, including the husband. Crime.
Otherwise, he said to the investigating policeman (he had called the police that very night), how could a young Indian woman wearing a yellow- flowered kurta and Nike shoes just disappear? She’d been out for her evening walk, she took one every day after he got back from the office. Yes, yes, always alone, she said that was her time for herself. (He didn’t quite understand that, but he was happy to watch his little boy, play ball with him, perhaps, until she returned to serve them dinner).
P.T.O.
I can’t focus too well on his face, but I hear the shock in his voice and
beneath it a surprisingly prim note of disapproval. It makes him sound almost ---- motherly. I want to laugh. But then he sniffs, and his face changes, its features wavering as though seen through water. “What’s
withal the fumes in the garage? Mom, what were you doing”?
His voice shakes a little on the last word. I notice with surprise that
he’s wearing a blue pajama outfit that I bought him sometime back. Along with his tousled hair, it makes him look unexpectedly young. Afraid of what I might say.
Q2) Attempt a discourse analysis of any TWO of the following extracts and bring
out their pragmatic features: [16]
The doors of the subway clamp shut as she realizes her mistake and the
train rolls slowly away. She stands there watching until the rear car disappears into the tunnel, until she and Gogol are the only people remaining on the platform. She pushes the stroller back down Massachusetts Avenue, weeping freely, knowing that she can’t possibly afford to go back and buy it all again. For the rest of the afternoon she is furious with herself, humiliated at the prospect of arriving in Calcutta empty-handed apart from the sweaters and the paint brushes. But when Ashoke comes home he calls the MBTA lost and found; the following day the bags are returned, not a teaspoon missing. Somehow, this small miracle causes Ashima to feel connected to Cambridge in a way she has not previously thought possible, affiliated with its exceptions as well as its rules.
For by now, he’s come to hate questions pertaining to his name, hates
having constantly to explain. He hates having to tell people that it doesn’t mean anything “in Indian”. He hates having to wear a nametag on his sweater at Model United Nations Day at school. He even hates signing his name at the bottom of his drawings in art class. He hates that his name is both absurd and obscure, that it has nothing to do with who he
is, that it is neither Indian nor American but of all things Russian. -----
At times his name, an entity shapeless and weightless, manages nevertheless
to distress him physically, like the scratchy bag of a shirt he has been forced permanently to wear.
[4302]-428 2
c) He is aware that together he and Moushmi are fulfilling a collective, deep-
seated desire-because they’re both Bengali, everyone can let his hair down a bit. At times, looking out at the guests, he can’t help but think that two years ago he might have been sitting in the sea of round tables that now surround him, watching her marry another man. The thought crashes over him like an unexpected wave, but quickly he reminds himself that he is the one sitting beside her. The red Banarasi sari and the gold had been bought two years ago for her wedding to Graham. This time all her parents have had to do is bring down the boxes from a closet shelf, retrieve the jewels from the safety deposit box, find the itemized list for the caterer. The new invitation, designed by Ashima, the English translation lettered by Gogol, is the only thing that isn’t a leftover.
Q3) Answer any TWO of the following: [16]
a) Show how the encounter with the West sometimes impedes, but more
often aids the women protagonists in their search for identity in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s anthology of short stories, Arranged Marriage.
b) Show how the “beauty and the pain” of the East-West encounter are
effectively captured through the story, “Silver pavements, Golden roofs”.
c) Show how the story-within-the-story approach used in “The Maid
Servant’s story” provides a subtle commentary on the “tragic” songs of three women, separated by class, distance, time and values, yet bound by a common fate.
Q4) Answer any TWO of the following: [16]
a) Discuss briefly the process of Ashoke and Ashima’s assimilation into
American culture in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake.
b) Examine the character of Gogol as a divided soul in the novel, The
Namesake.
c) Comment on the journey motif in The Namesake in the context of the
immigrant experience and the search for identity.
Q5) Answer briefly any TWO of the following:
a) Justify the title of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake. b) The irony in the story, “A Perfect Life”. c) The end of the story, “Affair”.
| Earning: ₹ 7.05/- |
