UPSC Mains ENGLISH-LITERATURE-PAPER-II 2017

Comment critically on the following in about 150 words each, focusing on the context: And the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

Comment critically on the following in about 150 words each, focusing on the context: Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherised upon a table.

Comment critically on the following in about 150 words each, focusing on the context: A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze pitiless and blank as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.

Comment critically on the following in about 150 words each, focusing on the context: That how we live measures our own nature, And at his age having no more to show Than one hired box should make him pretty sure He warranted no better, I don't know.

Comment critically on the following in about 150 words each, focusing on the context: A beggar once came with a violin to croak out a prostitute song that our voiceless cook sang all the time in our backyard.

Analyze Yeats' use of myth as a means of giving shape and significance to his vision of the world.

Eliot's poetry arises from the focusing of a powerful mind upon a deeply troubled spirit. Discuss with reference to the poems you have studied.

In what way does a post-colonial reading diverge from the earlier approaches to literature?

The saddest heart in the post-war super-market. Is this assessment borne out in the poems of Philip Larkin that you have studied?

How does Auden use the mythical past to illuminate contemporary experiences in Musée des Beaux Arts and The Shield of Achilles?

What are the important points of distinction between Modernism and Post-modernism?

Jimmy Porter is a permanent human type -the self-flagellating solitary in self-inflicted exile from his own misery. Write your views about this description of Jimmy.

Discuss the view that Waiting for Godot is an image of Beckett's intuition that nothing really ever happens in man's existence.

What is your impression about A. K. Ramanujan's depiction of his own personal Indian past in his poetry? Is it nostalgia or rejection?

Explain the civilizing mission of Lord Jim as a heroic adventure.

Discuss Paul Morel's relationship with Clara.

Comment upon the use of symbols in A Passage to India.

Elucidate the theme of communication versus privacy in Mrs Dalloway.

Discuss the narrative technique of Kanthapura as 'Sthalapurana'.

How does Stephen's personality develop through an interaction between religion and awakening sexuality in his mind?

Discuss how the narrative technique of Lord Jim adds to the impact of the theme.

Explain the significance of the title A House for Mr Biswas in the context of the Caribbean Indian community.

If you were to read Sons and Lovers from a Feminist perspective, what would be the position of the three women in relation to Paul?

Examine A Passage to India as a study in the clash of cultures.

Kanthapura explores the impact of the freedom struggle at the microcosmic level of a small village. Discuss.

How does Naipaul bring out the themes of exile and alienation in A House for Mr Biswas?

A Passage to India is a valuable critique of the British rule in India. Analyze the implications of the comment.

Critically appreciate A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a Bildungsroman.