E 6784

B. A. Degree (C B C S S ) Examination, November 2013

First Semester B.A. English Core Course
Scheme of Valuation/Answer Key
2013 admission
Max: 80 marks
Part A
One or two sentences, carrying 1 mark each.. all questions (10)
1.Social sciences are close to humanities in their analysis of human interaction and the subjective world; but the
former apply the scientific method to their subject matter. The social sciences emulated at least in their inception
the methods of natural sciences.
2. Social construction was first used by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann in their book The Social Construction
of Reality (1966).Scientific and theoretical knowledge of reality is only one mode of knowing reality. The central
concept of Social Construction of Reality is that persons and groups interacting in a social system create, over time,
concepts or mental representations of each other's actions, and that these concepts eventually become
habituated into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other. When these roles are made
available to other members of society to enter into and play out, the reciprocal interactions are said to be
institutionalised. In the process of this institutionalisation, meaning is embedded in society. Knowledge and
people's conception (and belief) of what reality is become embedded in the institutional fabric of society.
3. A narrator outside the story is a heterodiegetic narrator.
4 . Metatexuality is the relationship between a text and critical commentaries, biographical commentaries and
other references on the main text.
5. The cultural psychologist Jerome Bruner introduced two main modes of thinking: the logico-scientific and the
narrative. In the former, we look for the if-then cause and effect sequence- as in if x, then y.
6. Institutionalisation refers to the process through which habits, customs and local practices become sources of
knowledge.
7. Humanities are essentially self-reflexive in character. Self-reflection helps develop interpersonal consciousness.
Humanities explain human relationships and answer the fundamental question: what it means to be human.
8. Positivism: The founding father of sociology Auguste Comte advocated positivism. Drawing knowledge away
from spiritual metaphysics, positivism underscored the use of natural science methods in studying social sciences.
It sought progress as well as morality. According to Comte, theology lacked any material basis of knowledge about
the world.
9. History and literature (language) are interrelated in more ways than one. In the past historians were treated as
and they considered themselves literary artists. Haydon White in his Tropics of Discourse: Essays in Cultural
Criticism says that the aim of the novelist must be the same as a historians. To achieve the common end of
providing a verbal image for reality, both historians and novelists tell stories.
10. The narratee is the person "inside" the text to whom the narrator is speaking.
PART B
Any 8 questions..three/ four sentences..Carrying 2 marks each
11. V.Geetha ,the author of Gender from which God Made You Different, Nature Made Us Different is extracted
means to say that basically either sex is equal. God and Nature made women distinct, as their reproductive role is
not the same as that of men. The social construct of gender and the biological construct of sex also play a role in
this.
12. Sociology is included in the discipline of social science, as it applies the scientific method in the analysis of the
subject matter.
13. Intertexuality is the relationship of one text to the others. Hypertexuality refers to texts (hyper)that appear
after the original text (hypotext).
14. Proairetic code is the sequence in which the events of a story unfold.Hermeneutic code informs our
interpretation. It helps us understand the answers to the questions like how, why and by whom.
15. Ngugi says that intellectual independence from colonialism can be achieved by shutting out English and making
use of the vernacular.
16. Culture constructs our subjectivity and identity through language by giving names and meanings and
distinguishing our names and meanings from others. Our perception of the world is rooted in this identity and
subjectivity.
17.Multilingualism is the act of using polyglotism, or using multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by
a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population.
Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of globalization and cultural openness with
the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages is becoming
increasingly frequent thereby promoting a need to acquire additional languages.
18.Marxist critic Terry Eagleton questions the inevitability of the connection between ideology and dominant
power. He proposes a more inclusive definition of ideology, taking into account the kind of intersection between
belief system and political power. Ideology is more than just a ruling belief system.
19.Sanskritisation in Indian society permits caste groups to evade the identity and achieve an upward social
mobility.( from Introduction to Akkarmashi ).It is a form of cultural assimilation found in India. The term was
popularized by M.S. Srinivas , denoting the process by which lower castes seek upward mobility by emulating the
rituals and practices of the upper castes.
20. Instrumental narration has the narrator/s in a difficult situation from which his/their narration saves him/them.
For instance, Sheherezade in Arabian Nights saves herself from peril by her narration. In fact she saves the whole
country.
21.In The Hierarchical Man the authors say that modern society has been affected positively by fathers getting
involved with the children intimately discarding the age long practice of aloofness. The youth expect the same
from their leaders.
22. Peter Barry says that form and content must be fused in an organic way so that one grows from the other.
Literary form should not be like a decoration applied externally to a completed structure.
PART C
Any 6 in small paragraphseach question carries 4 marks
23.Rinner explains cyclic narration as the putting together of relatively independent,single narratives(stories) in a
wider and greater relation. Boccaccios Decaerone is an example.
24.Histoire or story is the set of real actions, events that happened and need to be told. We call it story. Recit or
narrative is the story telling either in oral or written form.
25. Agency is the capacity to perform a particular task, to influence the course of events or influence people.
Agency in language is essentially about discourse.
26. According to Max Weber society is a result of a web of human interaction. Essentially, human beings are
cultural beings. Social sciences are cultural sciences. The very character of social laws would be that of what is
probable. or explain what the tendency of the phenomenon is, rather than what is the phenomenon.
27. I.A.Richards was the founder of a method of studying English which is still the norm today. He pioneered
practical criticism.. the text is isolated from history and context.
28. Most Indians spend the formative years in family settings. Often of the joint types. Even grown ups who
generally live alone frequent the joint family. It is the family and moreover the family obligations in the life of a
person serve as the glue that holds Indian society together.
29. Rinner says a reader can find in such a text as the Arabian Nights, Decamerone, Canterbury Tales, etc. a
correspondence to his own state of mind: he comprehends and grasps what another is telling.
30.V.Geetha..In Hindu scriptures women formerly appeared as sinful creatures..The ancient Greeks believed that
men were perfect while women were fundamentally imperfect. Buddhist texts argue that womans innate nature
is bad. Christianity holds that man is the exemplary human, while women are secondary beings. Islam too looks
down upon women. Men are created to manage the lives of and affairs of women. Virginity of women is adored.
31. In Indian society, caste is a mark of identity. Sanskritisation is an example for this. The varna system
perpetuated casteism.( from Akkarmashi )
PART D
Any 2essay type ..each question carries 15 marks
32. Ten tenets of liberalismattitude to literature-text containing inbuilt meaningstudying the text in
isolationcontinuity more important than innovation in literature individualityenhancement of life
and propagation of human valuesorganic fusion of form and contentsincerity---ideas worthless in
literature until given enactmentmediation between the text and the reader.
33. Dalit literary movement is deeply concerned with social justicecan be better understood if compared with
Russian literature at the turn of the 19
th
century or the Black Literature Movement of Afro-American origin during
the 20
th
century.has made Marathi society think afresh on religion, justice, dignity and social relationships, caste,
etc.the notion about caste and identityemergence of Dalit literature in the 1960s.
34. Language,caste and gender are interconnected-language influences social relationships creating social
identities-language has powerpolitical effectsembodies attitudes to class, gender, caste, race, etc.-caste
names are often used as abuse, insults or pejorativesterms like nigger,blackie are racial-commonplace usages
in language often carry clear gender connotations.
35.Narration in literature consists of the plot, the story and the sequence of events unfolding as action
technically known as diegesisauthor-text-reader-heterodiegetic narrator-heterodiegetic-intradiegetic narrator
homodiegetic narrator-autodigetic narrator-proairetic code, hermeneutic code, cultural code, semic code,
symbolic codehistoire, recit, narrating.
N.K.Vijayan,Chairman
Maharajas College,
Ernakulam - 682 011
Mob 9447294766