2015 (May)
ENGLISH
(Major)
(General)
Course: 602
(Literature of the USA)
Full Marks: 80
Pass Marks: 32
Time: 3 hours
The figures in the margin indicate full marks for the questions.
UNIT – I
1. Answer any one of the following: 12
- What do you understand by the term ‘New England Renaissance’? Discuss Emerson’s contribution to the American Renaissance.
- Write a note on realism in modern American novels.
- Write a note on twentieth century American drama with special reference to Arthur Miller.
UNIT – II
2. Answer any one of the following: 14
- Evaluate Huckleberry Finn as a novel in the bildungsroman tradition.
- Comment critically on the ending of Huckleberry Finn.
- Critically comment on the form and style of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn.
UNIT – III
3. Answer any one of the following: 14
- Attempt a critical analysis of the character of Ephraim Cabot in the play, Desire Under the Elms.
- Discuss the symbolism of the Elm trees as in Desire Under the Elms.
- “The isolated, lonely world of the farm is for Cabot a kind of promised land in which God blesses His faithful with prosperity but demands unconditional sacrifice.” Analyze the statement critically.
UNIT – IV
4. Answer any one of the following: 14
- Examine the first four sections of Whitman’s Song of Myself as an exordium for a spiritual journey.
- Evaluate Robert Frost as a nature poet referring to the poem, After Apple Picking.
- Give a critical appreciation of the poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes.
UNIT – V
5. Answer any three of the following: 4x3=12
- Write briefly on the character of Huckleberry Finn.
- Write briefly on the character of Abbie Putnam as portrayed in Desire Under the Elms.
- Write a brief note on American ‘Transcendentalism’.
- Comment briefly on the theme of paternity in Huckleberry Finn.
- Comment on the significance of the title, Desire Under the Elms.
UNIT – VI
6. Explain, with reference to the context, any one of the following: 6
- “I’m Nobody : Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell they’d banish us – you know!”
- “Thus am I Dante for a space and am
One Francois Villon, ballad-lord and thief
Or am such holy ones I may not write,
Lest blasphemy be writ against my name.”
- “I’ve known rivers :
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world
And order than the flow of human
Bold in human veins.”
UNIT – VII
7. Answer any eight of the following: 1x8=8
- Name one poet related to American transcendentalism.
- Name one work by Mark Twain.
- In which year was Desire Under the Elms published?
- When was Eugene O’Neill born?
- Where was Whitman born?
- Who is called the bard of America?
- How many poems and fragments did Emily Dickinson write?
- When was Emily Dickinson born?
- Name the collection from which Frost’s After Apple Picking has been extracted.
- Write the full name of Ezra Pound.
- Name one Chinese poet whose works Pound read.
- Name one poet associated with Harlem Renaissance.