GOLDSMITHS
University of London
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH & COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
2010 BA EXAMINATION
EXPLORATIONS IN LITERATURE (EN51001A)
THREE HOURS
DATE:
Answer THREE questions, ONE from EACH section. Do NOT present substantially
the same material in any two answers, whether on this paper or in any other part of
the examination.
SECTION A
1.
What would be the chief characteristics of an epic hero on the basis of a reading of the
Odyssey alone?
2.
Write a response to the claim that in Sophocles’ Antigone the assertion of female will
on behalf of the rites due to a dead brother only superficially challenges patriarchal
control.
3.
Use selected episodes of Ovid’s Metamorphoses to debate whether or not Ovid is
presenting an ‘anarchic’ world.
4.
Explore the suggestion that the imaginative power of Beowulf lies in its alternations
between social ritual and towering violence.
5.
Discuss whether the sinners in Dante’s Inferno constitute distractions from Dantethe-pilgrim’s quest, or are crucial to it.
6.
Assess the idea that the essence of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale is to show
that men can be caricatured, just as they have caricatured women.
7.
KING CLAUDIUS […] now, my Cousin Hamlet, and my son,
HAMLET [Aside] A little more than kin, and less than kind.
Using these lines as a starting point, discuss the significance of ‘kin’ in Hamlet.
1/3
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8.
Discuss the view that in Paradise Lost Books I and II, Milton conceives Satan’s role
in terms of megalomania thinly masked by eloquence.
9.
How is the illusion of rationality foisted upon the unthinkable in A Modest Proposal?
SECTION B
10.
Should The Rime of the Ancient Mariner be treated as a Gothic romp, rather than be
taken seriously? Discuss.
11.
How would you respond to the suggestion that Austen’s Emma presents a
‘suffocating’ society?
12.
How far can the virtues and shortcomings of Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha be
explained in terms of what happens when a culture is represented by an outsider rather
than by an insider?
13.
Discuss the view that Strindberg's Miss Julie is a ‘vicious’ play.
14.
Consider whether the sexual politics of Hardy’s Jude the Obscure are enlightening, or
exasperating.
15.
Defend or rebut the suggestion that Woolf is not really interested in narrative in To the
Lighthouse despite the book’s title.
16.
Discuss whether amidst the apparent nihilism of Waiting for Godot, sheer human
resilience is presented as a saving grace?
17.
How important are gender issues in the surreal adventures of Carrington’s The
Hearing Trumpet?
18.
Consider whether Atwood’s The Penelopiad demonstrates that in the twenty-first
century it is impossible to conceive of an ‘epic heroine’.
SECTION C
Answers to this section should discuss ANY TWO works on the ‘Explorations’
course, on which you are NOT answering elsewhere in this examination.
2/3
19.
Write a comparative essay on reputation as a motivating factor in two course texts.
20.
Locate and analyse two examples from within different course texts where figures
confront each other in argument or debate. Your analysis should concentrate on the
techniques by which writers seek to make such episodes of confrontation powerful.
21.
22.
Analyse two works on this course to explore the proposition that ‘genres leak’.
In which two works on the course would you argue that a historically informed
reading is particularly crucial, and why?
23.
Consider the control of female sexuality as a concern in any two course texts.
24.
Define ‘transgression’ and compare any two course texts in which it plays a key
part.
25.
Several works in this course involve physical journeys undertaken against the odds.
Identify differing advantages of this motif by discussing two relevant course texts.
3/3
TURN OVER