World Literatures in English
Final Exam, Fall 2002

Part I:
Answer 2 questions, each in three paragraphs.

I. Themes, Cultures & Styles: (Mapping I.  Engage yourself in a dialogue with the questions raised by some texts in their specific cultural contexts. )

1. The role of obeah woman in "The prophetess" and Wide Sargasso Sea.
2. How is caste system and marriage treated in one of the following Indian texts (e.g. "Flute Music," The God of Small Things[chap 2], "Gainda"). 
3. The Limitations on Indian women by purdah or gender hierarchy in "Honour" and "Her Mother."
4. Discuss the use of a Caribbean custom (e.g. voodoo, or obiah, or Krik? Krak!) in one of the following texts (Sugar Cane Alley, "Children of the Sea," Wide Sargasso Sea).
5. Political Upheavals, Trauma and their Consequences in two of the following texts: The God of Small Things, "Management of Grief" and "Children of the Sea."
6. The sense of Imprisonment and Bodily Harm in "The Prison of Who Glasses" and "The Body is the Country of Pain" during the period of Apartheid.
7. The issue of "English" education (both literature and language) and identity in two of the following texts: The God of Small Things, Foe, "Dan is the Man in the Van."
   

or the ways they raise the questions artistically. . .
B. Artistic Techniques

8. Compare and contrast the different spatial imagery in "Bright Thursdays," Wide Sargasso Sea, and "Children of the Sea."  (e.g. the protagonists' senses of the houses, the garden, the mountain and the sea and how they reflect their senses of identity.)

9. Nature: Choose one text.  Discuss the symbolic meanings of Paparachi's moth in The God of Small Things, mongoose and the pig in Abeng, or butterflies, banyan tree and the sea in "Children of the Sea".

10. The narrative skills of Foe, Wide Sargasso Sea or "Children of the Sea."

Good luck!