Second Semester MA Degree Examination, November 2021

EL 221: From Modernism to Present

Time: 90 minutes Max Marks: 40 marks

I Answer any two of the following, each in about 50 words: (2.5 x 2 = 5 marks)
1. What is the dramatic purpose of introducing new characters in Act II of Cloud
Nine?
2. What happens after Jeeves comes to know about Spode’s shameful secret?
3. What does the ´rough beast´ in The Second Coming refer to?
4. Why does Woolf criticize H G Wells, Arnold Bennet and John Galsworthy in
´Modern Fiction?´
5. The metaphor of catalyst aided chemical reaction in Eliot’s ´Tradition and
Individual Talent´
II Comment critically on any one of the following. (5 x 1 = 5 marks)
6. Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over the London Bridge; so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many
7. If I’ve killed one man, I’ve killed two——
The vampire who said he was you   
And drank my blood for a year,
Seven years, if you want to know.
Daddy, you can lie back now.
8. The past should be altered by the present as much as the present is directed by
the past. And the poet who is aware of this will be aware of great difficulties and
responsibilities.
III Write short notes on any three of the following in about 150 words each. (5 x 3 = 15)
9. Autobiographical elements in Plathś ¨Daddy¨
10. Discuss the closing lines of ¨The Sense of an Ending¨: ¨There is accumulation.
There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest.¨
11. Confessional poetry
12. Discuss the significance of the¨Unreal City¨ in ¨The Waste Land.¨
13. ¨The Second Coming¨ as a prophetic poem
14. Irish Literary revival and its impact on Celtic drama
IV Write essays on any one of the following in about 500 words each, choosing one
from each section. (15 x1 =15 marks)
15. Discuss sexual and spiritual as major themes in Eliot´s ¨The Waste Land.¨
16. The Celtic revival and the role played by Irish writers in Modernism.
17. Virginia Woolf´s ¨Modern fiction¨ has been described as a guide for writers of
modern fiction. Discuss.
18. Elaborate on T S Eliot´s critical tenets in ¨Traditional and the Individual Talent.¨