In the robust world of the Age of Johnson, where novel
writing was not considered a suitable occupation for a lady, Fanny Burney
succeeded like no other woman. Small in stature, shy, and entirely
selfeducated, she had neither family money nor social status. Yet she carved
out a respectable place for herself in society with her popular novels and
secured her place in history with her richly detailed diary, first published a
few years after her death. Critics today tend to view her as Jane Austen’s
predecessor and not exactly her literary equal, but Burney’s novels outsold
Austen’s in their day, and Burney herself had a much more worldly and varied
life. She counted Samuel Johnson and other members of his influential Literary
Club among her friends. She also knew the king and queen of England personally,
once chatted with the French king Louis XVIII, and even got a glimpse of
Napoleon himself.
Out of Her Father’s Shadow
She was born Frances Burney, the middle child in a large,
close family. Both of her parents were musicians, and her father had a
doctorate in music from Oxford. After the death of her mother, she devoted
herself to her father’s career, acting as his secretary and helping him write
his ambitious history of music. Dr. Burney’s growing reputation first brought
her into contact with leading artists and intellectuals. With the spotlight on her
father, Burney wrote for herself in secret and published all four of her novels
anonymously. Even her father didn’t know she was writing until after the
runaway success of her first novel, Evelina (1778).
Literary Celebrity
The popularity of Fanny Burney’s novels didn’t make her
rich, but it did enhance her social standing. She became a fixture in literary
circles and gained an appointment at the court of George III. In 1793, she met
a group of liberal French émigrés, among them a handsome officer named D’Arblay
(därPblAQ) who won her heart. The couple had only a modest income, but the
marriage was a happy one and produced a son. D’Arblay supported his wife’s
career by serving as her secretary, sometimes even copying manuscript pages for
her. Burney lived 87 years, an unusually long life for the time. She survived
cancer, exile in France during the Napoleonic Wars, and the deaths of both her
husband and her son.
Apophthegm or Apothegm is an aphorism or maxim, especially one of the pithiest
kind. Boswell refers to Johnson's famous saying, 'Patriotism is the last refuge
of a scoundrel', as an apophthegm. A person who composes apophthegms is an
apophthegmatist.
തിയേറ്ററുകളിലെ ദേശീയഗാനം: ഒരു ബിഗ്‌ബ്രദ ര്‍ കോംപ്ലസ്
Patriotism is the
last refuge of a scoundrel.
[In James Boswell ‘The Life of
Samuel Johnson’]
“whoever intentionally prevents the
singing of the Indian National Anthem or causes disturbances to any assembly
engaged in such singing shall be punished with imprisonment for a term, which
may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”
[Section 3 of the Prevention of Insults to National
Honour Act, 1971.]
“Whenever the National Anthem is sung or
played, the audience shall stand to attention."
[The General Provision of the orders issued by the
Government of India on January 5, 2015]
Big brother is watching you.
[‘1984’ by George Orwell]
You’ll never have
a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.
[O’Flaherty V.C.]
വര്‍ഷം 2014. അഹമ്മദാബാദിലെ
നിര്‍മ്മ യുനിവേര്‍സിറ്റിയില്‍ അധ്യാപകനായിരിക്കുമ്പോള്‍ നടന്ന ഒരു
സംഭവമാണ്.
ബിടെക്
വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥികള്‍ക്ക്‌'കമ്മ്യൂണിക്കേഷന്‍ സ്കില്‍സ്' പഠനത്തിന്‍റെ ഭാഗമായി 'പ്രസന്‍റേഷന്‍' ചെയ്യേണ്ടതുണ്ട്. അവതരണത്തിന് മാര്‍ക്കിടണം. ഇന്ത്യന്‍ ആര്‍മിയെക്കുറിച്ചായിരുന്നു ഒരു വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥിയുടെ
അവതരണം.
എല്ലാവരും ഗൌരവത്തോടെ ശ്രദ്ധിച്ചു.
ഏറ്റവുമൊടുവില്‍
വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥി പറഞ്ഞു: "ഇനി ദേശീയഗാനമാണ്.
എല്ലാവരും എഴുന്നേല്‍ക്ക്."
എല്ലാവരും
എഴുന്നേറ്റു. ഞാനും.
ലാപ്‌ടോപ്പില്‍ പ്രശസ്തര്‍ ദേശീയഗാനം ആലപിച്ചു കഴിഞ്ഞപ്പോള്‍ എല്ലാവരും ഇരുന്നു. ഫീഡ്ബാക്ക് നല്‍കേണ്ടതുള്ളതുകൊണ്ട് ഞാനിരുന്നില്ല.
'എല്ലാവരും
എഴുന്നേല്‍ക്ക്' എന്ന് എന്തുകാരണത്താലാണ് പറഞ്ഞതെന്ന് ഞാന്‍ വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥിയോട്
ചോദിച്ചു. ദേശീയഗാനം കേട്ടാല്‍ എഴുന്നേല്‍ക്കണമെന്ന്
അവിടെയുള്ളവര്‍ക്കറിയില്ലെന്ന മുന്‍വിധി, അധ്യാപകനടക്കമുള്ള ക്ലാസ്സിനോട്
ആജ്ഞാപിക്കാന്‍ അര്‍ഹതയുണ്ടെന്ന തോന്നല്‍, 'പ്രസന്‍റേഷനെ'ന്ന പരീക്ഷയില്‍ നിന്ന്
രാജ്യസ്നേഹത്തിന്‍റെ സുരക്ഷയിലേക്കുള്ള ഒളിച്ചോട്ടം എന്നിങ്ങനെ ഞാന്‍ നിരീക്ഷിച്ച
കാര്യങ്ങള്‍ പറഞ്ഞു. ഇക്കാരണങ്ങള്‍
കൊണ്ടുതന്നെ മാര്‍ക്ക് കുറച്ചു
നല്കുകകയാണെന്നും അറിയിച്ചു. വെളുക്കാന്‍
തേച്ചത് പാണ്ടായെന്ന മട്ടില്‍ വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥി ഇരുന്നു.
ദേശസ്നേഹം
എന്ന വൈകാരികത കല ര്‍ത്തുന്നതോടെ ആശയവിനിമയ പരീക്ഷയില്‍ തനിക്കുണ്ടാകുന്ന കുറവുകള്‍
അവഗണിക്കപ്പെടുമെന്നു തന്നെയാണ് വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥി പ്രതീക്ഷിച്ചത്. ഒരു കഴിവുകെട്ട ഭരണാധികാരിയും ഇതുതന്നെ
ചെയ്യും. വിമര്‍ശിക്കപ്പെടാതിരിക്കാനും
തെറ്റുകള്‍ മറച്ചുവെക്കുന്നതിനും ദേശസ്നേഹമെന്ന മറ ഇവരുപയോഗിക്കുന്നു.
സുപ്രീം കോടതിവിധി
ദേശീയഗാനം
കേള്‍പ്പിക്കുമ്പോള്‍ ത്രിവര്‍ണ്ണ പതാക വെള്ളിത്തിരയില്‍ പ്രദര്‍ശിപ്പിക്കുകയും
തിയേറ്ററിനുള്ളിലെ ആളുകള്‍ എണീറ്റുനില്‍ക്കുകയും ആളുകള്‍ കയറിയിറങ്ങി ശല്യമുണ്ടാക്കാതിരിക്കാന്‍ ഈ സമയം വാതിലുകള്‍ അടച്ചിടുകയും വേണമെന്നാണ് കോടതി ഇപ്പോള്‍ ഉത്തരവിട്ടിരിക്കുന്നത്.
രാജ്യത്തെ
പരമോന്നത കോടതി നമ്മുടെ ഭരണഘടനയുടെ കാവലാ ള്‍ ആണ്. നീതിന്യായം ഉറപ്പുവരുത്തുന്നതിലെ അവസാന വാക്കും. ഭരണകൂടം പൌരന്‍റെ സ്വകാര്യജീവിതത്തിലും
സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തിലും അമിതമായി കൈ കടത്തുമ്പോള്‍ അതിനു തടയിടേണ്ടത്
കോടതിയാണ്. തിയേറ്ററുകളില്‍ ദേശീയഗാനം
പാടിക്കണമെന്ന കോടതിവിധി പൌരന്‍റെ സ്വകാര്യജീവിതത്തിലേക്കുള്ള ഭരണകൂടത്തിന്‍റെ
കടന്നുകയറ്റമായി വ്യഖ്യാനിക്കപ്പെടുന്നെങ്കില്‍ തെറ്റുപറ്റിയത് ആര്‍ക്കാണ്? ദേശീയഗാനത്തെ അനുചിത സാഹചര്യങ്ങളിലേക്ക്
വലിച്ചിഴച്ച് അപമാനിക്കപെടാനുള്ള സാഹചര്യം സൃഷ്ടിക്കുന്നതല്ലേ കൂടുതല്‍ ഉത്തരവാദിത്വമില്ലായ്മ. നാം ഒരു ജനാധിപത്യ രാജ്യത്താണ്; സ്റ്റാലിന്‍റെ
റഷ്യയിലല്ല. ദേശദ്രോഹികളെന്നു മുദ്രകുത്തി
സ്റ്റാലിന്‍ വധിച്ചവരുടെ എണ്ണം ദശലക്ഷം കടക്കും. ഒരു ഭരണകൂടം ഫാഷിസത്തിലേക്ക് വഴുതുമ്പോള്‍, ഭരണഘടനയുടെ ശരിയായ നിര്‍വചനത്തിലൂടെ അതിനു തടയിടേണ്ടത് കോടതിയാണ്.
ഫാഷിസം
'എല്ലാവരും
എഴുന്നേല്‍ക്ക്' എന്ന നിര്‍ദ്ദേശത്തെ ഫാഷിസം എന്ന് മൊഴിമാറ്റം ചെയ്യാം. ഹിറ്റ്ലര്‍, സ്റ്റാലിന്‍ എന്നിവരാണ് ലോകം കണ്ട
ഏറ്റവും വലിയ രാജ്യസ്നേഹികള്‍. വ്യവസായം
കൊണ്ടുവരുന്നതിനായി സ്റ്റാലിന്‍ കുടിയൊഴിപ്പിച്ച പതിനായിരങ്ങ ള്‍ അതിശൈത്യത്തിലും
പട്ടിണിയിലും നരകിച്ചു മരിച്ചു.
രാജ്യസ്നേഹത്തിന്‍റെ പ്രതീകങ്ങളായി ഫാക്ടറികള്‍ ഉയര്‍ന്നുവന്നു. ജൂതന്മാരെയും സ്റ്റാലിന്‍ വെറുതെ വിട്ടില്ല. ഹിറ്റ്ലറാകട്ടെ ഒന്നാംലോകയുദ്ധത്തില്‍ ജര്‍മ്മനി തോറ്റത് ജൂതന്മാര്‍, കമ്മ്യൂണിസ്റ്റുകള്‍ തുടങ്ങിയ ജര്‍മ്മന്‍കാരായ രാജ്യദ്രോഹിക ള്‍ കാരണമാണെന്ന്
പ്രസംഗിച്ചു. ഹിറ്റ്ലറിന്‍റെ വാക്കുകള്‍ നിയമങ്ങളായി. ജര്‍മ്മനി കണ്ട ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ദേശസ്നേഹി ഹിറ്റ്ലറാണെന്ന
കാര്യത്തില്‍ ആര്‍ക്കെങ്കിലും രണ്ടഭിപ്രായമുണ്ടാകുമെന്നു തോനുന്നില്ല. ജര്‍മ്മനിയുടെ
സുവര്‍ണ്ണ കാലഘട്ടവും മനുഷ്യത്വത്തിന്‍റെ ഇരുണ്ട കാലഘട്ടവും ഹിറ്റ്ലറിനു കീഴിലായിരുന്നു. ലോകംകണ്ട ഏറ്റവും വലിയ ഈ രണ്ടു ക്രിമിനലുകളും രാജ്യസ്നേഹം
എന്ന തുറുപ്പുചീട്ട് എടുത്ത് കളിച്ചവരായിരുന്നു.
പ്രേതമാണോയെന്നറിയാ
ന്‍ കുരിശുകാട്ടിയാ ല്‍ മതിയെന്നുണ്ട്.
ദേശവിരുദ്ധരെയും മതതീവ്രവാദികളെയും കണ്ടുപിടിക്കാനുള്ള ഒരു പരീക്ഷണം എന്ന
നിലയ്ക്കാണ് ചില ര്‍ തിയേറ്ററുകളിലേക്ക് ഉറ്റുനോക്കുന്നത്. ഏറ്റവും ഗൗരവകരമെന്ന് നാം കരുതുന്ന കോടതിനടപടി
ക്രമങ്ങ ള്‍ തുടങ്ങുന്നതിനു മുന്‍പില്ലാത്ത ദേശീയഗാനം എന്തിനാണ് ഒരു വിനോദമായ
സിനിമയ്ക്ക് മുന്‍പ്. എല്ലാ
ആരാധനാലയങ്ങളിലും ദേശീയഗാനം നിര്‍ബന്ധമാക്കാ ന്‍ കോടതി എന്തുകൊണ്ട്
ഉത്തരവിടുന്നില്ല. കോടതിക്കും
ആരാധനാലയങ്ങള്‍ക്കും ഉള്ള ഗൗരവം അശ്ലീല സിനിമ പ്രദ ര്‍ശിപ്പിക്കുന്ന ഒരു തിയേറ്ററിനുണ്ടോ?
ദേശീയതയുടെ പുരോഹിതന്മാര്‍
ജനത്തിനുംദൈവത്തിനും മധ്യത്തില്‍ നില്‍ക്കുന്നവരാണ്
പുരോഹിതന്മാര്‍. ബ്രാഹ്മണര്‍ വേദം
വ്യാഖ്യാനിച്ചപ്പോള്‍ ദൈവത്തിന്‍റെ അധികാരം ജനം അവര്‍ക്കു നല്‍കി. ശൂദ്രന്‍ സംസ്കൃതം പഠിച്ച് വേദം
വായിക്കാതിരിക്കാന്‍ അവ ര്‍ സംസ്കൃതം പഠിക്കുന്ന ശൂദ്രന്‍റെ ചെവിയില്‍ ഈയം ഉരുക്കിയൊഴിക്കുക
എന്ന നിയമം കൊണ്ടുവന്നു. ദൈവനാമത്തില്‍,
ആത്മാക്കളെ രക്ഷിക്കാന്‍ ക്രിസ്ത്യന്‍ പുരോഹിതര്‍ മധ്യകാലഘട്ടത്തില്‍ മന്ത്രവാദിനികളെന്നു
സംശയിക്കുന്നവരെ ചുട്ടുകൊന്നു. ശരീയത്ത്
നിയമങ്ങ ള്‍ നിര്‍വചിച്ച് മുസ്ലിം പുരോഹിതര്‍ സ്വവര്‍ഗ്ഗരതിക്കരുടെയും മതപരിവര്‍ത്തനം
നടത്തിയവരുടെയും മരണ വിധി കല്‍പ്പിച്ചു പോരുന്നു.
ഇക്കൂട്ടര്‍ക്കെല്ലാം അധികാരം കിട്ടുന്നത് ഉന്നതങ്ങളില്‍ നിന്നത്രെ. ഇവര്‍ക്കൊപ്പമാണ്
ദേശീയതയുടെപുരോഹിതന്മാര്ക്ക് സ്ഥാനം.
ദേശസ്നേഹം നിര്‍വചിക്കുന്നതും വ്യാഖ്യാനിക്കുന്നതും ഇവരത്രെ. ദേശസ്നേഹത്തിന്‍റെ പേരില്‍ ഇക്കൂട്ട ര്‍ നാളെ
നിങ്ങളോട് എന്തും ആവശ്യപ്പെടാം.
ജോര്‍ജ്ജ് ഓര്‍വെ ല്‍
സ്റ്റേറ്റിന്‍റെ
ഫാഷിസ്റ്റ്‌ ക്രൂരതയ്ക്കിരയാകുന്ന വ്യക്തിജീവിതത്തെ കുറിച്ച് ജോര്‍ജ്ജ് ഓര്‍വെല്‍ 1984 എന്ന തന്‍റെ നോവലില്‍
എഴുതിയിട്ടുണ്ട്. ഒരു വ്യക്തിയുടെ
സ്വകാര്യജീവിതത്തിലേക്കുള്ള ഭരണകൂടത്തിന്‍റെ കടന്നുകയറ്റം ഫാഷിസം എന്ന മഹാരോഗത്തിന്‍റെ
ആരംഭലക്ഷണമാണ്. ഒരു പ്രഭാതത്തില്‍ നിങ്ങള്‍
റസ്റ്റ്‌റന്റില്‍ പത്രവായനയ്ക്കൊപ്പം കാപ്പി കുടിച്ചുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുമ്പോള്‍ അറിയാതെ
കൈതട്ടി കാപ്പി പത്രത്താളിലെ കിംഗ്‌ ജോങ്ങ് ഉന്‍-ന്‍റെ ഫോട്ടോയില്‍ തൂവിയാല്‍
പിന്നെ വര്‍ഷങ്ങളോളം നിങ്ങള്‍ ജയിലിലായിരിക്കും. ഈ ഏകാധിപതിയുടെ നിലനില്പ്
ദേശഭക്തി, അമേരിക്കന്‍ വിരോധം എന്നിവയിലൂന്നിയാണ്. 'ഭയം' എന്ന വികാരം ഇവിടെ ദേശഭക്തിയുടെ
പര്യായപദമാകുന്നു.
ജയ്‌ ഹേ!
ബ്രിട്ടീഷുകാരന്‍റെ
ചവിട്ടേറ്റ ഒരു ഭാരതീയനെ ഓര്‍ത്താല്‍മതി ദേശീയഗാനത്തെ കുമ്പിട്ടുവണങ്ങാന്‍. എന്നാല്‍ ഈ വികാരത്തെ, ആരാധനാലയങ്ങളില്‍
വിശ്വാസികളെ കൊള്ളയടിക്കുന്നതുപോലെ ചൂഷണം ചെയ്യാനും ഇലക്ഷനു വിറ്റു വോട്ടാക്കാനും തുനിയുന്നത്
ഏറ്റവും പഴക്കംചെന്ന തൊഴിലിനേക്കാള്‍ മോശമായ പ്രവര്‍ത്തിയാണ്. ദേശവിരുദ്ധരും തീവ്രവാദ ആശയങ്ങളുള്ളവരും
നമ്മുടെ നാട്ടിലുണ്ട്. അവരെ അതിന്‍റെ
രീതിയില്‍ നേരിടുക. അല്ലാതെ ദേശസ്നേഹം
കൊണ്ട് പാവം പൗരന്മാരെ പൊറുതിമുട്ടിക്കരുത്. കെട്ടിക്കിടക്കുന്ന കേസുകള്‍
നശിപ്പിച്ച ജീവിതങ്ങള്‍ ഒരുപാടുണ്ട്.
ആദ്യം അതു തീര്‍ക്കൂ. സമൂഹത്തെ
സേവിക്കുന്നതും സ്വന്തം ജോലി പൂര്‍ത്തിയാക്കുന്നതുമാണ് യഥാര്‍ത്ഥ ദേശസ്നേഹം.
മരുന്നുകൊടുത്തു കൊല്ലുന്നതുപോലെ വിരോധാഭാസമാണ്
ഇന്ത്യന്‍ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തിന്‍റെ പ്രതീകമായ ദേശീയഗാനം ഉപയോഗിച്ചു തന്നെ പൗരന്‍റെ
സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യത്തെ ഹനിക്കുന്നത്. ജനം കോടതിക്കുവേണ്ടിയോ ഭരണകൂടത്തിനു വേണ്ടിയോ
അല്ല. ഇവ രണ്ടും ജനത്തിനു വേണ്ടിയാണ്.
Aleatory or Aleatoric is dependent upon chance. Aleatory writing involves an
element of randomness either in composition, as in automatic writing and the cut-up, or in the reader's selection and ordering of written fragments, as in
B. S. Johnson's novel The Unfortunates (1969), a box of loose leaves which the
reader could shuffle at will.
ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY CHURCHYARD by THOMAS GRAY
Thomas Gray was born in London in 1716.Gray occupies a distinctive place among the transitional poets of England during the 18 century.He stands like a giant between 'the ages of classicism and romanticism'. His thin volumes of poems forge a link between the two ages.
Gray's elegy differs from the elegies written by other poets.He does not mourn the death of a friend but the death of poor people in general.The elegy has 'anonymity'as its main appeal.It is not artificial but sincere in its expression.
Elegy written in a country churchyard is the most popular work of Gray.Dr.Johnson said the poem "abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind,and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo".William Hazlitt considers the elegy as one of the most classical productions that has never been penned "by a refined and thoughtful mind, moralizing on human life".
In the opening stanzas Gray builds up the suitable atmosphere for the poem.The poet is all alone in the churchyard.It is late evening.Darkness engulfs the whole place.The poet gives us a visual picture of the churchyard as he sees it.There are elm and yew trees in the churchyard and the 'rude forefathers of the hamlet'lie buried under the shade of the trees.The description of the late evening and the loneliness of the poet prepare us for the melancholy reflections that follow.
The poet describes the joys of the poor villagers in visual images,the domestic scene with the busy housewife and clustering children and the farm scene with the sickle and the furrow.The villagers have put over the graves simple tombstones to honour the dead in their own way.The "frail monuments"of the poor can in no way compare with the costly monuments of the rich.The costly monuments are of no use over the dead.Once the life is gone,nothing in the world can bring it back.See the poet's lines:
Can storied urn or animated bust
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust
Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death?
Then the poet proceeds to reflect on the emptiness of earthly life.Nobody can escape death.Death lays his icy arms on everybody.Birth,power,beauty and wealth will have to submit to death.
The poet is saddened at the thought that the talents gifted rustics did not flower owing to their poverty and lack of education.Many of them would have become poets,patriots and administrators had they been given opportunities.But he feels in a way consoled.The poor have not performed great achevements but they have committed no crimes.
Gray appends to his "Elegy" an epitaph. Prof.Bateson and Prof.Odell Shepherd consider the epitaph as a serious flaw in this great poem.They believe that the epitaph should have been written as a separate poem.
TITLE: IGNITED MINDS: UNLEASHING THE POWER WITHIN INDIA
AUTHOR: APJ ABDUL KALAM
PUBLISHER:PENGUIN BOOKS
APJ Abdul Kalam's book Ignited Minds is but the reflection of the mind of a great visionary and humanist. The very name of APJ has now become the synonym for optimism and hope. If one looks deeper it is love that makes him dream for us. This book is the manifestation of positive energy, and as you move along with Kalam you realise that the annihilation of negative energy is happening. There is perfect harmony between the author and his work; a great author and a great work. It is said that Johnson the man was greater than Johnson the writer. But Shakespeare's works are great in themselves. Here Kalam's work Ignited minds is great in itself.
In the preface Kalam writes: “This book is all about breaking away from the forces that would prefer us to remain a nation of a billion people selling cheap labour and raw materials and providing a large market for goods and services of other nations.” He continues, “As it is said, Thinking is the capital, Enterprise is the way, Hard work is the solution.”Kalam himself tells us about the style of writing he used in the book and in a way justifies that the message which needs to be conveyed requires such a style. He writes: “ You will find in this book plain speaking: Surge ahead as a developed nation or perish in perpetual poverty, subservient to a few countries that control the world politically and economically.”
The book is divided into nine chapters:
1.The Dream and the Message,
2. Give Us a Role Model,
3. Visionary Teachers and Scientists,
4. Learning from Saints and Seers,
5.Patriotism beyond Politics and Religion,
6. The Knowledge Society,
7. Getting the Forces Together,
8. Building a New State, and,
9. To My Countrymen.
The Dream and the Message
On 30 September 2001, Kalam was on his way to Bokaro from Ranchi in Jharkhand and the helicopter carrying him crashed just before landing, but all the passengers escaped miraculously. Despite the incident Kalam went ahead with his programme. At night he took a tranquillizer as the doctors persuaded him to do so. The drug made him sleep longer though he woke up at night and fell into a dream like thought; a thought that was centred on the humanity. Five great men took part in that thought process and they spoke out their minds. Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Emperor Asoka, Abraham Lincoln and Caliph Omar were these great men. Each of them shared their views on humanity in general and as their importance that spreads beyond their time and social context these views sound universal.
Kalam discusses different stages in one's life:
athlete stage,
warrior stage,
states-person stage, and,
spirit age.
These stages in a man's life is also applicable to a state. Kalam logically describes how a nation passes through these stages. It is amusing that he calls himself a rocket man! Here he narrates his journey as a rocket man living these stages one by one (being in his fourth stage). He would like to converse with the school children for he believes they are tomorrow's India. He ends the chapter saying,”How can we make up for missed opportunities and the failures of the past?”
Give Us a Role Model
India is spiritual and the west is materialistic, Kalam believes that the progress of the developed nations is due to their way of thinking that they must live a good life in a strong and prosperous nation . He emphasises the need for change in India's way of thinking which views wealth and progress as opposite to virtue and spirituality. "I do not think that abundance and spirituality are mutually exclusive or that it is wrong to desire material things." One can lead a life of asceticism but this should be out of choice and not because one is forced to do so. "This was the basis of my decision to contact our young. To know their dreams and tell them that it is perfectly all right to dream of a good life..." Kalam met students in Tripura, and their question was that where do they get a role model from. Father, mother and school teacher are the first role models for an individual, Kalam explains his this notion with examples. 'Why dream?' was another question asked to Kalam referring to his book Wings of Fire. 'Dream transforms into thoughts. Thought result in actions', was his reply. Visionary Leaders and Scientists Kalam shares with us his thoughts about some ancient mathematicians like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta and Bhaskaracharya. Great minds like Srinivasa Ramanujan, Prof. S. Chandrasekhar, C.V. Raman and others are also brought before us. Dr. D.S.Kothari, Dr. Homi.J.Bhaabha and Dr.Vikram Sarabhai are portrayed here as great visionary scientists. They are the founders of three great institutions--DRDO, DAE and ISRO. There is a beautiful incident in the book narrated even more beautifully by Kalam, which describes how Dr. Bhabha met the Bishop and got the consent for acquiring the land where the church building stood as part of establishing the space research station in Thumba. He ends this as follows ; In the Sunday morning service the Bishop told the congregation,"My children I have a famous scientist with me who wants our church and the place I live for the work of space science and research. Science seeks truth that enriches human life.[...] Children can we give them God's abode for a scientific mission?"'There was silence for a while followed by a hearty "Amen" from the congregation which made the whole church reverberate.' Learning from Saints and Seers The fusion of science and spirituality according to Kalam will do good for the humanity. He had a detailed discussion with Pramukh Swami Maharaj of Swaminarayan Sanstha at Ahmedabad regarding this fusion, and the vision we should have as a nation. He made several visits to different spirtual centres of India and sought for solutions. Kalam Summarises this chapter; 'Our spiritual wisdom has been our strength. We survived as a nation the onslaughts of invaders and the numbing effects of colonialism. [...] But in the process of all the adjustment, we also lowered our aims and expectations. We must regain our broad outlook and draw upon our heritage and wisdom to enrich our lives. [...] We need to home-grow our own model of development based on our inherent strengths. Patriotism beyond Politics and Religion "For great men," Kalam writes, "religion is a way of making friends; small people make religion a fighting tool." The answer Kalam gives to a student at Anna University for the question that deals with Dr. Amartya Sen's stance against India's nuclear programme is logical and convncing. Kalam asks, "But after the long independence struggle when we got our freedom and the country got united and has physical boundaries, is it possible to remain with economic prosperity as the only goal?" Patriotism must not be polluted by religion or politics.
Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw said “Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.” I was aware of this definition for a long time, and so when coming across Kalam's remarks on patriotism I paused for a while. Kalam, I believe, thinks not of being superior to any other nations but of being NOT inferior to. Shaw is ideal but Kalam is practical. Shaw wrote books while Kalam made missiles. In fact Kalam has writen books that are being sold well. Hitler too was a patriot. But it is obvious that Kalam is different kind of a patriot. Shaw excluded the good ones though he (Shaw) was a vegetarian.
Kalam observes; "The greatest danger to our sense of unity and our sense of purpose comes from those ideologists who seek to divide the people. [...] It is when we accept India in all its splendid glory that, with a shared past as a base, we can look forward to a shared future of peace and prosperity, of creation and abundance. our past is there with us forever. It has to be nurtured in good faith, not destroyed in excercises of political one-upmanship."
The Knowledge Society In the twenty-first century capital and labour are replaced by knowledge as the primary production resource. For Kalam a very important mission for India is to become a knowledge super power. Ancient India was more than anything else a knowledge society, and naturally it fostered civilization. Today India should regain the lost status of being a nation and civilization founded on knowledge. Getting the Forces Together
Kalam writes; " In India 2020 we have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action." These five areas are; 1. agriculture and food processing, 2. power, 3. education and healthcare, 4. information technology, and, 5. strategic sector. On 15 October 2000 a website was launched for Kalam. He posted three questions; 1) India has been a developing country for more than half a century. What would you as young boys and girls like to do to make it a developed India? 2) When can I sing a song of India? 3) Why do we love anything foreign in spite of our capabilities in many fields, whereas other countries celebrate their own successes? From more than a hundred answers he received he discusses five answers. The fifth answer is what the 30 per cent of the respondents said; 'theneed for greater transparency in various facets of our lives.' This chapter is rich with the narration of incidents Kalam has had in his life. Building a New State Kalam in this chapter shares an incident which shows the power of human mind. He was to submit the design drawings for a project on designing a low-level attack aircraft. But Kalam got delayed by more than two weeks in submitting his drawings. Dr. Srinivasan was the Director of Madras Institute of Technology, and he realizing that Kalam was nowhere near completion of the drawing told Kalam that if he did not complete the work in three days his scholarship would be stopped. Kalam was fully depending upon the scholarship, for the cost of education at MIT was high. For the next three days he went out only for food and at night slept on a bench in the college. Exactly after three days Dr.Srinivasan visited Kalam's drawing board. He spent an hour examining what Kalam had done and said, "This is good. You have performed a few weeks' work in a few days." Kalam writes; Coming from, it was a great compliment. [...] I realized then that if something is at stake, the human mind gets ignited and working capacity gets enhanced manifold. Building a new state must be carried out in a mission mode. To My Countrymen I think it will be appropriate to include this chapter in the syllabuses of all Indian Universities and schools. He ends this chapter as follows:
"And to God the Almighty! Make my people sweat. Let their toil create many more Agnis that can annihilate evil. Let my country prosper in peace. Let my people live in harmony. Let me go to dust as a proud citizen of India, to rise again and rejoice in its glory."
Eighteenth century witnessed a resolute attempt in the direction of moral regeneration. The writers of this period, notably, Pope, Dr. Johnson, etc. followed the rules and models of the classical writers. Hence it is also called neo-classical age. They gave supreme importance to the intellectual aspects rather than the emotional sides of man. The prevailing principles of the time were rationalism and utility. Actually it was a reaction against the moral degeneration of Restoration era. Elegance and correctness were the dominant mania of the time. This supremacy of logic and reason made the age The Age of Reason.
1. Match the right authors
1 The chambers and the stables weren wide
And well we weren easd at the best.
30 And shortly, when the sun was to rest,
So had I spoken with them every one
That I was of their fellowship anon,
And mad forward early for to rise
To take our way there as I you devise.
2 Rather had I, a Jew, be hated thus,
Than pitied in a Christian poverty.
For I can see no fruits in all their faith,
But malice, falsehood, and excessive pride,
Which methinks fits not their profession.
Haply some hapless man hath conscience,
And for his conscience lives in beggary.
3 Right in the midst the goddess' self did stand
Upon an altar of some costly mass,
Whose substance was uneath [difficult] to understand:
For neither precious stone, nor dureful brass,
Nor shining gold, nor mouldering clay it was;
But much more rare and precious to esteem,
Pure in aspect, and like to crystal glass,
Yet glass was not, if one did rightly deem,
But being fair and brickie [brittle], likest glass did
seem.
4 And this, alas, is more than we would do.
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, nay more than married are.
This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;
Though parents grudge, and you, we'are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of jet.
Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to this, self murder added be,
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.
a, Spenser
b, Chaucer
c, Donne
d, Marlowe
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b
B 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
C 1-b, 2-d, 3-a 4-c
D 1-a, 2-c, 3-b 4-d
Answer:…………………..
2. “My great religion is the belief in the blood, the flesh as being wiser than intellect”.
Whose words?
a) Thomas Hardy
b) Charlotte Bronte
c) Emily Bronte
d) D.H Lawrence
Answer:…………………..
3. “Urania, I shall need
Thy guidance, or a greater Man, if such
Descend to earth or dwell in highest heaven!
For I must tread on shadowy ground, must sink
Deep—and, aloft ascending, breathe in worlds
To which the heaven of heavens is but a veil”
The above passage is an instance of epic style invocation. Identify the work and its author.
a) Illiad by Homer
b) Paradise Lost Book 3, Milton
c) Paradise Lost Book 1, Milton
d) Recluse, by Wordsworth
Answer:…………………..
4. “Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen,
And desolation saddens all thy green:
One only master grasps the whole domain,
And half a tillage stints thy smiling plains”
The above lines are from The Deserted Village, written by Oliver Goldsmith. What social movement is referred to in these lines?
a) The Enclosure
b) The Chartist movement
c) Green Revolution
d) Glorious Revolution
Answer:…………………..
5. “Let us swear an oath, and keep it with an equal mind,
In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined
On the hills like Gods together, careless of mankind.”
Identify the poem?
a) Tennyson’s Lotos Eaters
b) Browning’s My Last Dutchess
c) Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot
d) Browning’s Porphyria's Lover"
Answer:…………………..
6. The following are characteristic features of a poetic genre. Identify the genre.
A single person, who is patently not the poet, utters the speech that makes up the whole of the poem, in a specific situation at a critical moment […].
This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people; but we know of the auditors' presence, and what they say and do, only from clues in the discourse of the single speaker.
The main principle controlling the poet's choice and formulation of what the lyric speaker says is to reveal to the reader, in a way that enhances its interest, the speaker's temperament and character.
a) Sonnet
b) Epic
c) Ode
d) Dramatic Monologue
Answer:…………………..
7. “Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in his hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"
Identify the author and work.
a) Tennyson, Lotos eaters
b) Browning, Rabbi Ben Ezra
c) Browning, My Last Dutchess
d) Browning, Andrea del Sarto
Answer:…………………..
8. “If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die. —
That strain again; it had a dying fall:
O, it came oer my ear, like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing, and giving odour! Enough! No more.
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.”
Which of Shakespearen character says so. Identify the play.
a) Hamlet, in Hamlet
b) Lady Macbeth in Macbeth
c) Orsino in Twelfth Night
d) Hermione in the Winter’s Tale
Answer:…………………..
9. He scarce had ceas't when the superiour Fiend
Was moving toward the shoar; his ponderous shield
Ethereal temper, massy, large and round, [ 285 ]
Behind him cast; the broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the Moon, whose Orb
Through Optic Glass the Tuscan Artist views
At Ev'ning from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new Lands, [ 290 ]
Rivers or Mountains in her spotty Globe.
His Spear, to equal which the tallest Pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the Mast
Of some great Ammiral, were but a wand,
He walkt with to support uneasie steps [ 295 ]
Over the burning Marle, not like those steps
On Heavens Azure, and the torrid Clime
Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with Fire;
The fragment is taken from a work by
A, Edmund Spenser
B, John Milton
C, William Shakespeare
D, Geoffrey Chaucer
Answer:…………………..
10. "It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign, the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most miserable most happy. There are two principal and peculiar gifts in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish”.
The above passage is an example of a mannered style of English prose fashionable in the Elizabethan times. Identify the style.
a. Bombast
b. Parallelism
c. Euphuism
d. Baroque
Answer:…………………..
11. “The people who believe most that our greatness and welfare are proved by our being very rich, and who most give their lives and thoughts to becoming rich, are just the very people whom we call the Philistines. Culture says: “Consider these people, then, their way of life, their habits, their manners, the very tones of their voice; look at them attentively; observe the literature they read, the things which give them pleasure, the words which come forth out of their mouths, the thoughts which make the furniture of their minds; would any amount of wealth be worth having with the condition that one was to become just like these people by having it?”
The above passage appears in……
a. Notes Towards the Definition of Culture
b. Culture and Society
c. Popular Culture
d. Culture and Anarchy
Answer:…………………..
12. 1 The existence of a variety of structures of language generated by specific configurations of power, all seeking precedence and the imposition of particular rules and hierarchies.
2 An overarching explanation of a state of affairs, like those offered by Marxism, the enlightenment or Christianity
3 Possessing no overall design or universal plan, resistant to totalisation or universalisation.
4 A self-certifying or absolute structure or foundation which lies beyond the operation of language
a, anti-teleological
b, plurality of power/discourse formation
c, metaphysics of presence
d, metanarrative
A 1-c, 2-b, 3-d, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-d, 2-a, 3-c 4-b
D 1-a, 2-c, 3-b 4-d
Answer:…………………..
13. 1 The way in which linguistic structures or discourses maintain a radical difference from one another
2 The collapse of signification as a set of discernible and discrete units of meaning
3 An identity, consciousness or ego which is deferred,displaced, fragmented or marginalised within a structure.
4 Self conscious incorporation of the process of production, construction or composition
a, reflexivity
b, implosion of meaning
c, incommensurable
d decentring of the subject
A 1-b, 2-c, 3-d, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-d, 2-a, 3-c 4-b
D 1-c, 2-b, 3-d 4-a
Answer:…………………..
14. 1 It is well known that certain periods of highest development
of art stand in no direct connection with the general development
of society, nor with the material basis and the skeleton
structure of its organization. Witness the example of the
Greeks as compared with the modem nations or even
Shakespeare. As regards certain forms of art, as, e.g., the
epos, it is admitted that they can never be produced in the
world-epoch-making form as soon as art as such comes into
existence; in other words, that in the domain of art certain
important forms of it are possible only at a low stage of its
, development. If that be true of the mutual relations of different
forms of art within the domain of art itself, it is far less
surprising that the same is true of the relation of art as a
whole to the general development of society. The difficulty
lies only in the general formulation of these contradictions.
No sooner are they specified than they are explained. Let us
take for instance the relation of Greek art and of that of
Shakespeare's time to our own
2 The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is
at first directly interwoven with the material activity and the
material intercourse of men, the language of real life. The mental intercourse of men, appear at this stage as the direct efflux of their material behaviour. The same applies to mental production as expressed in the language
of the politics, laws, morality, religion, metaphysics of a people. Men are the producers of their conceptions, ideas, etc.-real, active men, as they are conditioned by a definite development of their productive forces and of the intercourse corresponding to these, up to its furthest forms. Consciousness
can never be anything else than conscious existence, and the existence of men is their actual life process
3 ..............All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance
to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Czar, Mettemichand Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a power. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself. To this end, Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London, and sketched the following manifesto to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages.
4 The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of
class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and
serf, guildmaster and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and
oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried
on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a
fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution
of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere complicated arrangement of society into various orders a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.
a, Manifesto of theCommunist Party.
b, Bourgeois and Proletarians1
c, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
d, The German Ideology
A 1-c, 2-b, 3-d, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a 4-b
D 1-a, 2-c, 3-b 4-d
Answer:…………………..
15. 1 J C Ransome a, irony
2 R P Blackmur b, tension
3 R P Warren c, gesture
4 Allen Tate d, texture
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a 4-b
D 1-a, 2-c, 3-b, 4-d
Answer:…………………..
16. 1, satire a, autumn
2, romance b, spring
3, tragedy c, winter
4, comedy d, summer
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b
B 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a 4-b
D 1-a, 2-c, 3-b 4-d
Answer:…………………..
17. 1, Maud Bodkin a, Archetypes in Literature
2, Jessie Weston b, Archetypal Patterns in Poetry
3, Levi Strauss c, From Ritual to Romance
4, Northrope Frye d, Elementary Structures of kinship
A 1-d, 2-b, 3-a, 4-c
B 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
D 1-b, 2-c, 3-d 4-d
Answer:…………………..
18. 1 Among the following, who is/are not belonging to Formalist School?
1, Yury Tynyanove
2 Osip Brick
3 R S Crane
4 Boris Eichenbaum
A, Both 2 and 4
B, Only 2
C, Only 3
D, Both 2 and 3
Answer:…………………..
19. Of his kind of analysis, the privileges of the subject?
Clearly, in undertaking an internal and architectonic analysis
of a work (whether it be a literary text, a philosophical
system, or a scientific work) and in delimiting psychological
and biographical references, suspicions arise concerning
the absolute nature and creative role of the subject. But
the subject should not be entirely abandoned. It should be
reconsidered, not to restore the theme of an originating
subject, but to seize its functions, its intervention in discourse,
and its system of dependencies. We should suspend
the typical questions: how does a free subject penetrate
the density of things and endow them with meaning;
how does it accomplish its design by animating the rules
of discourse from within? Rather, we should ask: under
what conditions and through what forms can an entity like
the subject appear in the order of discourse; what position
does it occupy; what functions does it exhibit; and what
rules does it follow in each type of discourse? In short, the
subject (and its substitutes) must be stripped of its creative
role and analysed as a complex and variable function of
discourse.
The passage implies...
A, that the author is insignificant in the analysis of a work
B, that the author is merely a part of work
C, that the author has a role in the analysis of a work
D, that the author is dead
Answer:…………………..
20. If we attend to the confused cries of the newspaper critics and the susurrus of popular repetition that follows, we shall hear the names of poets in great numbers; if we seek not blue-book knowledge but the enjoyment of poetry, and ask for a poem, we shall seldom find it. I have tried to point out the importance of the relation of the poem to other poems by other authors, and suggested the conception of poetry as a living whole of all the poetry that has ever been written.... And I hinted, by an analogy, that the mind of the mature poet differs from that of the immature one not precisely in any valuation of personality, not being necessarily more interesting, on having 'more to say', but rather by being a more finely perfected medium in which special, or very varied, feelings are at liberty to enter into new combinations.
The passage is taken from a work by:
A, Mathew Arnold
B, William Wordsworth
C, S T Coleridge
D, T S Eliot
Answer:…………………..
21. The importance of the god or hero in the myth lies in the fact that such
characters, who are conceived in human likeness and yet have more power
over nature, gradually build up the vision of an omnipotent personal community
beyond an indifferent nature. It is this community which the hero regularly enters in his apotheosis. The world of this apotheosis thus begins to pull away from the rotary cycle of the quest in which all triumph is temporary. Hence if we look at the quest-myth as a pattern of imagery, we see the hero's quest first of all in terms of its fulfilment.... the vision of innocence which sees the world in terms of total human intelligibility. It corresponds to, and is usually found
in the form of, the vision of the unfallen world or heaven in religion. We may call it the comic vision of life, in contrast to the tragic vision, which sees the quest only in the form of its ordained cycle.
The passage is an example of...
A, formalist criticism
B, archetypal criticism
C, psychoanalytic criticism
D, new criticism
Answer:…………………..
22. 1, New Historicism a, Mikhail Bakhtin
2, Dialogism b, Allen Sinfield
3, Frankfurt School c, Stephen Green
4, Cultural materialism d, Walter Benjamin
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
D 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
Answer:…………………..
23. “There is shadow under this red rock”
The line suggests...
A, the possibility of attaining salvation
B, modern man fails to see each other
C, loss of faith in the modern era
D, modern man’s life is futile
Answer:…………………..
24. 1, Robert Graves a, The Shield of Achilles
2, T S Eliot b, The Cool Web
3, W H Auden c, October Dawn
4, Ted Hughes d, Ash Wednesday
A 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
B 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
C 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b
D 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
Answer:…………………..
25. 1. “My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes makes one sight”
In which Frostean poem do we read these lines?
a) Mending Walls
b) True Tramps in Mud Time
c) A Brook in the City
d) A Servant to Servants
Answer:…………………..
26. “Nature is the incarnation of thought
The world is the mind precipitated”
Which is the philosophical doctrine that holds the above belief?
a) Transcendentalism
b) Romanticism
c) Naturalism
d) Realism
Answer:…………………..
27. “The Tears of the world are a constant quantity. For each one who begins to weep, somewhere else another stops, the same is true of laugh”.
Who says so and in which work appear these lines?
a) Pozzo in Waiting for Godot
b) Camus in The Myth of Sisyphus
c) Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathusthra
d) Kazantzakis in The Report to Greco
Answer:………………….
28. “The peculiar nakedness of Wordsworth’s poetry, its strong sense of being alone with the visible universe, with no myth or figure to meditate between ego and phenomena, is to a surprisingly large extent not so much a result of history as it is of Wordsworth’s personal faith in the reality of the body of nature”.
The above passage is taken from a classical study of Romanticism. Identify the author and work?
a) The Romantic Imagination by Mourice Bowra
b) The Visionary Company by Harold Bloom
c) Natural Supernaturalilsm by M.H Abrams
d) The Mirror and Lamp by M.H Abrams
Answer:…………………..
29. “... the entire history of the concept of structure, before the rupture of which we are speaking, must be thought of as a series of substitutions of centre for centre, as a linked chain of determinations of the centre. Successively, and in a regulated fashion, the centre receives different forms or names. The history of metaphysics, like the history of the West, is the history of these metaphors and metonymies. Its matrix [...] is the determination of being as presence in all senses of this word. It could be shown that all the names related to fundamentals, to principles, or to the centre have always designated an invariable presence (essence, existence, substance, subject, transcendentality, consciousness, God, man, and so forth).”
Who is the author of the above passage?
a) Roman Jakobson
b) Roland Barthes
c) Jacques Derida
d) Jacques Lacan
Answer:…………………..
30. “History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”
Identify the author and work?
a) James Joyce Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
b) James Joyce Ulysses
c) Beckett, Murphy
d) Beckett, Moloy
Answer:…………………..
31. “Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table.”
In which poem by Eliot appear the above lines?
a) The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
b) The Waste Land
c) The Hollow Men
d) Ash-Wednesday
Answer:…………………..
32. It is a narrative form which deals with the artist’s growth to maturity. It means the “artis’s novel”. Wordsworth’s Prelude, Dickens’ David Copperfield, etc. are examples of this narrative form. Name this narrative form.
a) Künstlerroman
b) Bildungsroman
c) Autobiography
d) Historical novel
33. “Incredulity towards meta-narratives” is a definition of postmodernism given by:
a) Lyotard
b) Baudrillard
c) Fredric Jameson
d) Terry Eagleton
Answer:…………………..
34. “With this same key
Shake-speare unlocked his heart' once more!
Did Shakespeare? If so, the less Shake-speare he!”
Identify the author of the above lines.
a. Robert Browning
b. Ben Johnson
c. Dr. Samuel Johnson
d. Coleridge
Answer:…………………..
35. “An ambiguity, in ordinary speech, means something very pronounced, and as a rule witty or deceitful.... any verbal nuance, however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same piece of language”.
Identify the author and Work.
a. I.A Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism
b. Derrida, Speech and Phenomena
c. F.R Leavis, The Common Pursuit
d. William Empson, Seven Types of Ambiguity
Answer:…………………..
36. “Why can a street be completely rebuilt and still be the same? Because it does not constitute a purely material entity; it is based on certain conditions that are distinct from the materials that fit the conditions, i.e. its location with respect to other street”
The passage reminds you of.....
A, Archetypal criticism
B, Structuralism
C, Postmodernism
D, Poststructuralism
Answer:…………………..
37. 1, Barthes a, History
2, Levi Strauss b, Anthropology
3, Foucault c, Philosophy
4, Derrida d, Literature
A 1-d, 2-b, 3-a, 4-c
B 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
D 1-b, 2-c, 3-d 4-d
Answer:…………………..
38. Which is/are not by Foucault...
1, Order of Things
2, Madness and Civilisation
3, A Study of History
4, History of Sexuality
A, Only 1
B, Only 3
C, Both 1 and 2
D, Both 3 and 4
Answer:…………………..
39. Literature was conceived to be primarily an "art"; that is, a set of skills which, though it requires innate talents, must be perfected by long study and practice and consists mainly in the deliberate adaptation of known and tested means to the achievement of foreseen ends upon the audience of readers. It is the craftsman's ideal demanding finish, correction, and attention to detail. Special allowances were often made for the unerring freedom of what were called natural geniuses, and also for happy strokes, available even to some less gifted poets, which occur without premeditation.
The passage refers to...
A, formalist criticism
B, neo-classical criticism
C, new criticism
Answer:…………………..
40. Match the works with their composers
1, Above the antique mantel was displayed
As though a window gave upon the sylvan scene
The change of Philomel, by the barbarous king
So rudely forced; yet there the nightingale
Filled all the desert with inviolable voice
And still she cried, and still the world pursues...
2, From gardens where we feel secure
Look up, and with a sigh endure
The tyrannies of love:
And, gentle, do not care to know,
Where Poland draws her Eastern bow,
What violence is done . . .
3, Now days are dragon-ridden, the nightmare
Rides upon sleep: a drunken soldiery
Can leave the mother, murdered at her door,
To crawl in her own blood, and go scot-free . . .
4, And I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life
And i have something to expiate;
A pettiness
a, W H auden- Look Stranger
b, D H Lawrence- Snake
c, T S Eliot- waste Land
d, W B Yeats- The Tower
A 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
B 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
D 1-b, 2-c, 3-d 4-d
Answer:…………………..
41. Match the following
1, Lacan a, discourse
2, Derrida b, mirror stage
3, Foucault c, scriptible
4, Barthes d, logocentrism
A 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
D 1-b, 2-c, 3-d 4-d
Answer:…………………..
42. 1,Culture and Anarchy a, Walter Pater
2, The Picture of Dorian Gray b, Johnson
3, Studies in the History of the Renaissance c, Mathew Arnold
4, Lives of the English Poets d, Oscar Wilde
A 1-c, 2-d, 3-a, 4-b
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-b, 4-a
D 1-b, 2-c, 3-d 4-d
Answer:…………………..
43. After all, if anyone will ask me whether 'a tragedy cannot be made upon
any other grounds than those of exciting pity and terror in us, Bossu,4 the
best of modern critics, answers thus in general: That all excellent arts, and
particularly that of poetry, have been invented and brought to perfection by
men of a transcendent genius; and that, therefore, they who practise afterwards
the same arts are obliged to tread in their footsteps, and to search in
their writings the foundation of them; for it is not just that new rules should
destroy the authority of the old. But Rapin writes more particularly thus,
that no passions in a story are so proper to move our concernment as fear
and pity; and that it is from our concernment we receive our pleasure is
undoubted; when the soul becomes agitated with fear for one character, or
hope for another, then it, is' that we are pleased 'in ‘Tragedy, by the interest
which we take in their adventures.
This extract is taken from...
A, Pope- Essay on Criticism
B, Dryden- Essay on Dramatic Poesy
C, Johnson- Preface to Shakespeare
D, Sidney- Apology for Poetry
Answer:………………….
44. ‘Considering that it is as subject one comes to voice, then the postmodernist
focus on the critique of identity appears at first glance to threaten and
close down the possibility that this discourse and practice will allow those
who have suffered the crippling effects of colonization and domination to
gain or regain a hearing. Even if this sense of threat and the fear it evokes
are based on a misunderstanding of the postmodernist political project, they
nevertheless shape responses. It never surprises me when black folks respond
to the critique of essentialism, ,especially when it denies the validity of identity
politics by saying, 'Yeah, It s easy to give up identity, when you got one."
Should we not be suspicious of postmodern critiques of the "subject" when
they surface at a historical moment when many subjugated people feel themselves coming to voice for the first time? Though an apt and oftentimes
appropriate comeback, it does not really intervene in the discourse in a way
that alters and transforms.’
The passage highlights...
A, postcolonialism
B, postmodernism
C, racial isues
D, cultural criticism
Answer:…………………..
45. 1, Macbeth a, pride
2, Hamlet b, ambition
3, Othello c, procrastination
4, Lear d, jealousy
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-d, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-d, 3-a 4-b
D 1-a, 2-c, 3-b, 4-d
Answer:…………………..
46. I will not suffer a sense of false modesty to prevent me from asserting, that
I point my Reader's attention to this mark of distinction, far less for the sake
of these particular Poems than from the general importance of the subject.
The subject is indeed important! For the human mind is capable of. Being
excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must
have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know
this, and who does not further know, that one, being is elevated above
another, in proportion as he possesses this capability. It has therefore
appeared to me, that to endeavour, to produce or enlarge this capability is
done of the best services in which, ;at any period, a Writer can• be engaged;
but this service; excellent at all times, is especially so at the present day. For
a multitude of causes, unknown to former ,times, are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it
for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to Ii state of almost savage torpor. The
most effective of these causes rather great national events which are daily
taking place and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the
the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies; To this tendency of life and manners the literature and theatrical exhibitions of the
country have conformed themselves.
The passage is from
A, The Function of Criticism by T S Eliot
B, Biographia Literaria by Coleridge
C, Culture and Ararchy by Arnold
D, Preface to Lyrical ballads by Wordsworth
Answer:…………………..
47. 1, Louis McNiece a, Lost Season
2, Roy Fuller b, Confessions of a Life Artist
3, Basil Bunting c, Homage to Cliches
4, Thom Gunn d, The Spoils
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-d, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
D 1-a, 2-c, 3-b, 4-d
Answer:…………………..
48. Among the following who is/are not from Dickens’ Hard Times?
1, Louisa
2, Gradgrind
3, Sissy Jupe
4, Pip
A, Only 1
B, Only 4
C, Both 1 and 2
D, Both 3 and 4
Answer:…………………..
49. Match the quotations with writers
1, “unconscious is structured like a language”
2, “there is nothing outside text”
3, “life is a fatal sexually transmitted disease”
4, “power is maintained through discursive practices”
a, Freud
b, Derrida
c, Lacan
d, Foucault
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-b, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
D 1-c, 2-b, 3-a, 4-d
Answer:…………………..
50. 1, Dylan Thomas a, Country Sentiments
2, R S Thomas b, Lament and Triumph
3, George Barker c, The Stones of a Field
4, Robert Graves d, Fern Hill
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-b, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-b
D 1-c, 2-b, 3-a, 4-d
Answer:…………………..
51. which critical practice provided equal weightage to history and text?
1, Cultural Materialism
2, Rchetypal Criticism
3, Structuralism
4, New Historicism
A, Only 1
B, Only 4
C, Both 1 and 4
D, Both 3 and 4
Answer:…………………..
52. One important feature of Jane Austen’s style is?
(A) boisterous humour
(B) humour and pathos
(C) subtlety of irony
(D) stream of consciousness
53. The title of the poem ‘The Second Coming’ is taken from?
(A) The Bible
(B) The Irish mythology
(C) The German mythology
(D) The Greek mythology
Answer:…………………..
54. The following lines are an example……… of image.
‘The river sweats
Oil and tar’
(A) visual
(B) kinetic
(C) erotic
(D) musical
Answer:…………………..
55. Who invented the term ‘Sprung rhythm’?
(A)Hopkins
(B)Tennyson
(C)Browning
(D)Wordsworth
Answer:…………………..
56. Which of the following plays of Shakespeare has an epilogue?
(A) The Tempest
(B) Henry IV, Pt I
(C) Hamlet
(D) Twelfth Night
Answer:…………………..
57. Which of the following poems of Coleridge is a ballad?
(A) Work Without Hope
(B) Frost at Midnight
(C) The Rime of the Ancient
(D) Youth and Age
Answer:…………………..
58. The second series of Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb was published in?
(A) 1823
(B) 1826
(C) 1834
(D) 1833
Answer:…………………..
59. Identify the poet, whom Queen Victoria, regarded as the perfect poet of ‘love and loss’—
(A) Tennyson
(B) Browning
(C) Swinburne
(D) D. G. Rossetti
Answer:…………………..
60. A verse form using stanza of eight lines, each with eleven syllables, is known as?
(A) Spenserian Stanza
(B) Ballad
(C) OttavaRima
(D) Rhyme Royal
Answer:…………………..
61. Identify the rhetorical figure used in the following line of Tennyson “Faith un-faithful kept him falsely true.”
(A) Oxymoron
(B) Metaphor
(C) Simile
(D) Synecdoche
Answer:…………………..
62. Match the following
1, Hybridity
2, Ahistorical
3, Transhistorical
4, Phonocentric
a, irrespective of historical era
b, insignificance of historical era
c, priority of speech over writing
d, mixed individual identity
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-b, 4-a
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-d, 2-b, 3-a, 4-c
D 1-c, 2-b, 3-a, 4-d
Answer:…………………..
63, Match the following
1, With its sombre ideology of heroism and baleful destiny; thus also the work
of Eugene Genovese on black religion restores the vitality of these utterances
by reading them, not as the replication of imposed beliefs, but rather as a
process whereby the hegemonic Christianity of the slave-owners is appropriated, secretly emptied of its content and subverted to the transmission of quite different oppositional and coded messages. Moreover, the stress on the dialogical then allows us to reread or rewrite the hegemonic forms themselves; they also can be grasped as a process of the reappropriation and neutralization, the cooptation and class transformation, the cultural universalization, of forms which originally expressed the situation of "popular," subordinate, or dominated groups. So the slave religion of Christianity is transformed into the hegemonic ideological apparatus of the medieval system; while folk music and peasant dance find themselves transmuted into the forms of aristocratic or court festivity and into the cultural visions of the pastoral; and popular narrative from time immemorial romance, adventure story, melodrama, and the like-is ceaselessly drawn on to restore vitality to an enfeebled and asphyxiating "high culture."
2, Chlorinated fluids, for instance, have always been experienced as a sort of
liquid fire, the action of which must be carefully estimated, otherwise the
object itself would be affected, 'burnt'. The implicit legend of this tyt;e of
product rests on the idea of a violent, abrasive modification of matter: the
connotations are of a chemical or mutilating type: the product 'kills' the dirt.
Powders, on the contrary, are separating agents: their ideal role is to litfe'rate
the object from its circumstantial imperfection: dirt is 'forced out' and no
longer killed; in the Omo imagery, dirt is a diminutive enemy, stunted and
black, which takes to its heels from the fine immaculate linen at the sole
threat of the judgment of Omo. Products based on chlorine and ammonia
are without doubt the representatives of a kind of absolute fire, a saviour but
a blind one. Powders, on the contrary, are selective, they push, they drive
dirt through the texture of the object, their function is keeping public order
not making war. This distinction has ethnographic correlatives: the chemical
fluid is an extension of the washerwoman's movements when she beats the
clothes, while powders rather replace those of the housewife pressing and
rolling the washing against a sloping board.
3, To put this more scientifically, I shall say that the reproduction of labour
power requires ,not only a reproduction, of its skills but, also, at the same
time, a reproduction of its submission to the rules of the established order,
i.e. a reproduction of submission to the ruling ideology for the, workers,' and
a reproduction of the ability to manipulate the ruling ideology curtly for
the agents of exploitation and repression; so that they, too, will provide for
the domination of the ruling class. In other words, the school (but also other State institutions like the Church, or 'other apparatuses like the Army) teaches 'know-how', but in forms which ensure subjection to the ruling ideology or the mastery of its 'practice'. All the agents of production, exploitation and repression, not to speak of the 'professionals of ideology' (Marx), must in one way or another be 'steeped' in this ideology in order to perform their tasks 'conscientiously' the tasks of the exploited (the proletarians), of the exploiters (the capitalists), of the exploiters' auxiliaries (the managers), or of the high priests of the ruling ideology .
4, To judge from various recent publications; the spirit of the times is not
blowing in the direction of formalist and intrinsic criticism.• We may no
longer be hearing too much about relevance but we keep hearing a great
deal about reference, about the nonverbal "outside" to which language refers,
by which it is conditioned and upon which it acts. The stress falls not so
much on the fictional status of literature property now perhaps somewhat
too easily taken for granted-but on the interplay between these fictions and
categories that are said to partake of reality, such as the self, man, society,
"the artist, his culture and the human community," as one critic puts it.
Hence the emphasis on hybrid texts considered to be partly literary and partly
referential, on popular fictions deliberately aimed towards social and psychological gratification, on literary autobiography as a key to the understanding of the self, and so on. We speak as if, with the problems of literary form resolved once and forever, and with the techniques of structural analysis refined to near-perfection, we could now move "beyond formalism"2 towards the questions that really interest us and reap, at last, the fruits of the ascetic concentration on techniques that prepared us for this decisive step. With
the internal law and order of literature well policed, we can now confidently
devote ourselves to the foreign affairs, the external politics of literature. Not
only do we feel able to do so, but we owe it to ourselves to take this step:
our moral conscience would not allow us to do otherwise.
a, Althusser-‘ Ideology and Ideological State Apparatus’.
b, Paul de Man- Semiology and Rhetoric’
c, Roland Barthers- Mythologies
d, Friedric Jameson- ‘Political Unconscious’
A 1-d, 2-c, 3-a, 4-b
B 1-b, 2-d, 3-a, 4-c
C 1-d, 2-b, 3-a, 4-c
D 1-c, 2-b, 3-a, 4-d
Answer:…………………..
64. By the time a century or two of exploitation has passed there comes about a
veritable emaciation of the stock of national culture. It becomes a set of
automatic habits some traditions of dress, and a few broken-down institutions.
Little movement can be discerned in such remnants of culture; there
is no real creativity and no overflowing life. The poverty of the people,
national oppression, and the inhibition of culture are one and the same thing.
After a century of colonial domination we find a culture which is rigid in the
extreme, or rather what we find are the dregs of culture, its mineral strata.
The withering away of the reality of the nation and the death pangs of the
national culture are linked to each other in mutual dependence. This is why
it is of capital importance to follow the evolution of these relations during
the struggle for national freedom. The negation of the native's culture, the
contempt. For any manifestation of culture whether active or emotional, and
the placing outside the pale of all specialized branches of organization contribute to breed aggressive patterns of conduct in the native. But these patterns of conduct are of the reflexive type; they are poorly differentiated,
anarchic and ineffective.
The passage implies...
A, Marxism
B, New Historicism
C, Postcolonialism
D, Cultural Materialism
Answer:…………………..
65. It is a peculiarity of our epoch that, at the moment when the phoneticization of writing the historical origin and structural possibility of philosophy as of
science, the condition of the episteme-begins to lay hold on world culture,
science, in its advancements, can no longer be satisfied with it. This inadequacy had always already begun to make its presence felt. It appears as such, allows it a kind of takeover without our being able to translate this novelty into clear cut notions of mutation, explication, accumulation, revolution, or tradition.
By alluding to a science of writing reined ill by metaphor, metaphysics,
and theology, this exergue must not only announce that the science of writing-
grammatology shows signs of liberation all over the world, as a result
of decisive efforts. These efforts are necessarily discreet, dispersed, almost
imperceptible; that is a quality of their meaning and of the milieu within
which they produce their operation. I would like to suggest above all that,
however fecund and necessary the undertaking might be, and even if given
the most favourable hypothesis it did overcome all technical and epistemological obstacles as well as all the theological and metaphysical impediments that have limited it hitherto, such a science of writing runs the risk of never being established as such and with that name, of never being able to define the unity of its project or its object. Of not being able to either write its
discourse on method or to describe the limits of its field.
The extract reminds you of...
A, Judith Butler
B, Harold Bloom
C, Roland Barthes
D, Jacques Derrida
Answer:…………………..
66. Who called ‘The Waste Land ‘a music of ideas’?
(A) Allen Tate
(B) J. C. Ransom
(C) I. A. Richards
(D) F. R Leavis
Answer:…………………..
67. Which book of John Ruskin influenced Mahatma Gandhi?
(A) Sesame and Lilies
(B) The Seven Lamps of Architecture
(C) Unto This Last
(D) Fors Clavigera
Answer:…………………..
68. The twins in Lord of the Flies are?
(A)Ralph and Jack
(B) Simon and Eric
(C) Ralph and Eric
(D) Simon and Jack
Answer:…………………..
69. Which of the following plays of Shakespeare, according to T. S.
Eliot, is ‘artistic failure’?
(A) The Tempest
(B) Hamlet
(C) Henry IV, Pt I
(D) Twelfth Night
Answer:…………………..
70. What does ‘I’ stand for in the following line?
‘To Carthage then I came’
(A) Buddha
(B) Tiresias
(C) Smyrna Merchant
(D) Augustine
