I Semester Optional English Q Paper - Mid Sem 2008

Christ University, Bangalore
I Semester BA Optional English

Paper I: British Literature: Anglo-Saxon to the Present

Note: You are encouraged to keep the answers as brief and concise as possible. Answers exceeding the prescribed word limit may be penalized.

I. Answer any six of the following in not more than 200 words each. 30 marks
1. Locate Chaucer, Shakespeare, Bacon, Defoe and Goldsmith within the ‘Print culture and Rise of Nation-States’ framework through the texts you have studied.
2. How is the world that comes across in the Prologue of the Wife of Bathe different from that of Shakespeare’s sonnets?
3. Critically examine the concept of courtly love as exhibited in Shakespeare’s sonnets.
4. What problems do we encounter in making a comparative study of the description of Wife of Bathe and ‘the young man’?
5. What does the essay “The Man in Black” tell us about the socio-political situation of England?
6. Trace the imperial rhetoric in Robinson Crusoe.
7. Write a note on the Greek concepts of Drama.
8. Differentiate the style and content of the two essays you have studied.

II. Answer any two of the following in not more than 250-300 words each. 20 marks
1. Write a note on rise of English Drama with reference to the Miracle Moralities.
2. What is the central argument in the sonnet ‘Let me not to the marriage of true minds’? Discuss.
3. Write a note on the concept of the Metaphysical conceit.
4. Write a note on the rise of the genre – novel.
5. Explore the ideas of ‘God’ as they come across in Robinson Crusoe, keeping in mind Defoe’s own religious inclination.