Suggestion for 5th Semester C-12 Bankura University English Honours

B.A. 5th SEMESTER (HONOURS) EXAMINATION,

ENGLISH

Course ID: 50312

Course Code: AH/ENG/502/C-12

Course Title: Women’s Writing

Suggestion for 5th Semester C-12

Bankura University

English Honours


1.Answer any one of the following questions: 10×1=10 

 (a) Comment on Emily Dickinson treatment of the theme of death in “Because I could not stop for Death.” 

 (b) Attempt a study of Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy’ as a specimen of confessional poetry.

c).Discuss Emily Dickinson’s “I Cannot Live With you” as an unconventional love poem.

d).How did Plath treat and improvise the biblical narrative of Lazarus in her poem “Lady Lazarus”? Critically discuss.

 2. Answer any one of the following questions: 10×1=10 

 (a) Discuss the significance of the title “The Yellow Wallpaper.” 

 (b) ‘The Yellow Wallpaper is a women’s cry for her creative freedom.’—Discuss.

c) Explore critically the symbols employed by Charlotte Perkins Stetson in her short story “The Yellow Wallpaper”.

d) “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a serious critique of society’s attitude towards mental illness. Elaborate critically.

 3. Answer any one of the following questions: 10×1=10 

 (a) ‘Bertha is a women who is herself unaware of her true self or desires.’ Attempt a critical study of Bertha in this light. 

 (b) How far is Mahasweta Devi’s Dopdi (in her story “Draupadi”), a revision of the role, character and temperament of Draupadi in the original epic?

c) How far is the title of Katherine Mansfield’s “Bliss” justified? Discuss.

d) How does Mahashweta Devi rewrite myth and history in her story “Draupadi”? Discuss.


Unit-II

 3.. Answer any five of the following questions: 2×5=10 

 (a) Mention one gentlemen like behaviour of Death from Dickinson’s Poem ‘Because I Could 

not stop for Death’. 

 (b) “I could not die—with you’—What reasons did the poet give for the same? 

 (c) “…will teach you/to die alone”—What is the implication of the underlined expression?

(d) Why was the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper so obsessed with the wallpaper of her bedroom?

 (e) Where does the narrator take up residence for summer in “The Yellow Wallpaper”? Which

room, in that novel would the narrator prefer to live in?

 (f) Why was the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper struck by remorse? Answer briefly.

 (g) What are the restrictions imposed by the narrator on her husband?

 (h) What ailment is the narrator suffering from? What is the narrator’s own opinion about the ailment?

 (i) Why does the poet persona in ‘Daddy’ no more fear the ‘black shoe’?

 (j) What does Sylvia Plath mean by the phrase “dying is an art”?

C.Answer any five of the following questions: 5x2= 10

a) What do the “recess” and the “ring” signify in Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not

Stop for Death”?

b) “An engine, an engine/ Chuffing me off like a Jew”— Comment briefly.

c) In what context did the speaker-poet refer to the expression “peanut crunching crowd”?

d) “Cats return to their litter trays/ when they need to”— Comment briefly.

e) “Don’t cuss out of the window/ at their enemies”— Briefly contextualize.

f) “You see he does not believe I am sick”— Who is referred to as “he”? Which

sickness is being talked about?

g) Why did the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” prefer the room downstairs initially?

h) “Behind that outside pattern the dim shape gets clearer every day”— Comment on

the “shape”.

i) How can you interpret the postures of the “creeping”, “crawling” woman?

j) “It makes me think of English places that you read about…”— Why did the narrator

in “The Yellow Wallpaper” say so?

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