World Literatures in English
Final Exam, Spring 2005

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. How is marriage determined and influenced by class differences in one of the following Indian texts (e.g. "Flute Music," "Gainda," Monsoon Wedding and Fire). 
  2. The limitations and/or protection of Indian women by purdah in "Purdah 1" or "Honour."
  1. The issue of illiteracy and letter writing in either Saloom Bombay or "Annamalai."
  2. Discuss the use of a Caribbean custom (e.g. abeng, hunting, Krik? Krak!) in one of the following texts (Sugar Cane Alley, "Children of the Sea," Abeng).
  1. Political Upheavals, Racial Conflicts and their Consequences in one of the following texts: The God of Small Things, Earth, "The Day of the Riot," and "Children of the Sea."
  2. The issue of Land in during the period of Apartheid in one of the following texts: "Six Feet of My Country," "Amnesty," Cry, the Beloved Country.
  3. The issue of "English" education (both literature and language) and identity in one of the following texts: The God of Small Things, Foe, "Dan is the Man in the Van."
  1. The role of obeah woman and obeah in one or two of the following texts: "The Prophetess," Wide Sargasso Sea, Annie John, Abeng .  
        


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

 

9. 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.)

10. Nature: Choose one text.  Discuss the way nature is treated; for instance, 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".

11. The use of different narrators in Foe, Wide Sargasso Sea or "Children of the Sea."

 Enjoy!