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LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI 600 034
B.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION ENGLISH LITERATURE
FIFTH SEMESTER APRIL 2017
EL 5405 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE-THEORY AND PRACTICE
Date: 05-02-2017 Dept. No. Max. 100 Marks
Time: 01:00-04:00
Part A
I Answer any EIGHT of the following in about 100 words each: x 40)
1. What are the different types of translation?
2. What are the three schools of Comparative Literature?
3. Explain the concepts: Weltliteratur Weltanschauung
4. Discuss the theory of Tinai in Sangam literature.
5. Write a short note on Rosetta stone.
6. What is the difference between an epic and a tragedy according to Aristotle?
7. Define Realism. Give examples.
8. Write a short note on Bible Translation.
9. What are the major themes and motifs in Comparative Literature?
10. Explain the concepts: Hamartia Catharsis
Part B
II Answer any TWO of the following in about 250 words each: x 20=40)
11. Compare Shakespeare's Miranda in 'The Tempest' and Kalidasa's Shakuntala in
'Abijnanashakuntalam'.
12. Compare and contrast the woman protagonist in 'Anna Karenina' and 'Madame Bovary'.
13. Trace the history of translation from the classical times to the 20th century.
Part C
III Answer any ONE of the following in about 250 words: x 20
14. Compare and contrast the two poems in terms of theme and technique.
As I Grew Older Langston Hughes
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky—
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
2
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
When I was Growing Up Nellie Wong
when I was growing up, I felt
dirty. I thought that god
made white people clean
and no matter how much I bathed,
I could not change, I could not shed
my skin in the gray water.
when I was growing up, I swore
I would run away to purple mountains,
houses by the sea with nothing over
my head, with space to breathe,
uncongested with yellow people in an area
called Chinatown, in an area I later
learned was a ghetto, one of many hearts
of Asian America.
I now know that once I longed to be white.
How many more ways? You ask.
Haven't I told you enough?
15. Translate the following proverbs from Tamil to English and discuss the problems in
translating them.