THIS PAPER IS NOT TO BE REMOVED FROM THE EXAMINATION HALLS

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1 THIS PAPER IS NOT TO BE REMOVED FROM THE EXAMINATION HALLS EN1010 (033E010) UNIVERSITY OF LONDON BA/DIPLOMA EXAMINATION 2012 ENGLISH Foundation Unit: Approaches to Text Thursday, 3 May 2012: 10am-1.15pm THREE HOURS AND FIFTEEN MINUTES [Including 15 minutes reading time, during which students may write notes in the answer book but not on the question paper. Any notes in the answer book (s) should be crossed out] Answer THREE questions: QUESTION 1 from Section A and TWO further questions from Section B (all three questions carry equal marks). YOU SHOULD READ INSTRUCTIONS FOR SECTION B BEFORE COMMENCING YOUR ANSWER TO SECTION A. Do NOT present substantially the same material in any two answers, whether on this paper or on any other parts of your examination. Please note that this version of the examination paper has been amended to take into account copyright issues. TURN OVER University of London 2012 Page 1 of 5

2 SECTION A 1. EITHER comment on ONE, OR compare and contrast TWO, of the following examples using terms and concepts you have encountered in studying for this course. You should pay attention to issues of form as well as content. Example A Read the Prologue of L.P. Hartley s The Go-Between (1953) from The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there to I felt, with a bitter blend of self-pity and selfreproach, that had it not been for the diary, or what the diary stood for, everything would be different. Example B Read Sherman Alexie s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, (2008), from I was born with water on the brain to And what s more, our white dentist believed that Indians only felt half as much pain as white people did, so he only gave us half the Novocain. Example C Read Robert Frost s poem, The Most of It (1942). Example D Frost at Midnight The Frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. The owlet s cry Came loud and hark, again! loud as before. The inmates of my cottage, all at rest, Have left me to that solitude, which suits Abstruser musings: save that at my side My cradled infant slumbers peacefully. Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs And vexes meditation with its strange And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood, This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood, With all the numberless goings-on of life, Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not; Only that film, which fluttered on the grate, Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing. Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature Gives it dim sympathies with me who live, Making it a companionable form, Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit By its own moods interprets, every where Page 2 of 5

3 Echo or mirror seeking of itself, And makes a toy of Thought But O! how oft, How oft, at school, with most believing mind, Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars, To watch that fluttering stranger! and as oft With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt Of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower, Whose bells, the poor man s only music, rang From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day, So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear Most like articulate sounds of things to come! So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt, Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams! And so I brooded all the following morn, Awed by the stern preceptor s face, mine eye Fixed with mock study on my swimming book: Save if the door half opened, and I snatched A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up, For still I hoped to see the stranger s face, Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved, My play-mate when we both were clothed alike! Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side, Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm, Fill up the intersperséd vacancies And momentary pauses of the thought! My babe so beautiful! it thrills my heart With tender gladness, thus to look at thee, And think that thou shalt learn far other lore, And in far other scenes! For I was reared In the great city, pent mid cloisters dim, And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars. But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds, Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible Of that eternal language, which thy God Utters, who from eternity doth teach Himself in all, and all things in himself. Great universal Teacher! he shall mould Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask. Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee, Whether the summer clothe the general earth With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing Page 3 of 5

4 70 75 Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall Heard only in the trances of the blast, Or if the secret ministry of frost Shall hang them up in silent icicles, Quietly shining to the quiet Moon. (SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, 1798) Example E: Do an internet search for René Magritte s The Treachery of Images (1929). It is widely available on a number of websites. Example F: Do an internet search for Pieter Bruegel the Elder s The Tower of Babel (1563). It is widely available on a number of websites. SECTION B IS ON NEXT PAGE Page 4 of 5

5 SECTION B You must answer TWO questions from this section. You may use any of the examples from Section A to illustrate your answer, provided you do not use the same examples in your answer to the questions in Section A. 2. If we never write anything save what is already understood, the field of understanding will never be extended. One demands the right, now and again, to write for a few people with special interests and whose curiosity reaches into greater detail (EZRA POUND). With reference to a range of texts, to what extent might poetry be said to extend our understanding? 3. In what ways can literature be described as political? Your answer should make reference to the work of two examples. 4. The performance is an intellectual and artistic game played between actor and spectator (AUGUSTO BOAL). In the light of this statement and with reference to at least one dramatic text, discuss the significance of the relationship between text and performance. 5. With reference to at least two texts, what is the relation between gender and performance? 6. What does an engagement with psychoanalytical concepts contribute to our understanding of literary texts? You should support your answer with reference to at least two examples. 7. With reference to at least two texts, explore the role that storytelling plays in the formation of postcolonial identities. 8. No one text has a single author in any case. The blank page is not blank. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we always write on top of a palimpsest 1 (ROSMARIE WALDROP). Discuss this theory of intertextuality with reference to a range of a texts. 9. With reference to at least two texts, discuss the strategies and techniques employed by authors either to suggest or to undermine the apparent authority of the narrative voice. END OF PAPER 1 Palimpsest: n. a page from a scroll or book from which the text has been erased so it can be used again. Page 5 of 5