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32 previous year questions for Literature-English from 2 years. Practice with year-wise breakdown.
32
Questions
2
Years
2
Papers
Write short notes on the following. Each should be written in about 150 words:
(a) Major literary developments of the Renaissance [10M]
(b) Representation of the supernatural in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama [10M]
(c) Key characteristics that define Metaphysical poetry [10M]
(d) Function of satire in mock-epic [10M]
(e) Factors that contributed to the emergence of the novel as a literary form in the 18th century [10M]
Critically comment in about 150 words on each of the following:
(a) And may her bridegroom bring her to a house Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious; For arrogance and hatred are the wares Peddled in the thoroughfares. (W.B. Yeats) [10M]
(b) The trilling wire in the blood Sings below inveterate scars Appeasing long forgotten wars. (T.S. Eliot) [10M]
(c) There is no such thing as the State And no one exists alone; Hunger allows no choice To the citizen or the police; We must love one another or die. (W.H. Auden) [10M]
(d) All the unhurried day, Your mind lay open like a drawer of knives. (Philip Larkin) [10M]
(e) A beggar once came with a violin to croak out a prostitute song that our voiceless cook sang all the time in our backyard. (A.K. Ramanujan) [10M]
Answer all the questions:
(a) Examine the theme of freedom with references to Ariel and Caliban characters in the play The Tempest. [20M]
(b) Estimate John Donne as a Metaphysical poet with references to his poems prescribed. [15M]
(c) What is the significance of Satan’s journey through Chaos in Book II of Paradise Lost? Discuss. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” explores the psychological chaos and alienation associated with modernism. Discuss. [15M]
(b) Comment on W.B. Yeats’ apocalyptic and prophetic enunciations contained in the prescribed poems. [15M]
(c) On the basis of your readings of A.K. Ramanujan’s poems, trace the elements of quintessential Indian ethos contained therein. [20M]
Answer all the questions:
(a) Examine how the structure of the play King Lear, with its interwoven plots, contributes to the overall thematic concerns. [20M]
(b) Discuss how the mock-epic style enhances the humour and irony of the narrative in The Rape of the Lock. [15M]
(c) How does Wordsworth represent the impact of childhood and innocence in the poem Ode on Intimations of Immortality? [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Analyse W.H. Auden’s poetry as a blend of ‘historical context with modern critique.’ [15M]
(b) Philip Larkin’s poems of disgust and despair hide a wounded romantic temperament behind a mask of irony. Elucidate. [15M]
(c) Discuss how modernism in literature experimented with language, form and style to represent the complexities of the then contemporary human life. Make use of the prescribed texts to substantiate your answer. [20M]
Answer all the questions:
(a) With reference to the characteristics of Romantic poetry, assess Wordsworth as a Romantic poet. [20M]
(b) How does the poet Tennyson reflect his emotional journey in the poem In Memoriam? Explain. [15M]
(c) Justify your views that the play A Doll’s House challenges traditional views on marriage and family. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) How does Jimmy Porter’s anger function as both a critique of post-war British society and a manifestation of personal inadequacies in John Osborne’s play “Look Back in Anger”? [15M]
(b) How does modernist poetry employ ‘symbolism’ to give an ironic twist to descriptions in order to create meaning? [15M]
(c) In Waiting for Godot, how does Beckett use ‘absence’ to challenge traditional notions of time, purpose and meaning? [20M]
Read the given poem critically and answer all the questions that follow:
(a) What is the main message or moral lesson of the poem? How does the speaker emphasize this throughout the poem? [10M]
(b) How does the speaker define self-respect, and why is it so important to him? [10M]
(c) How does the poet use repetition to emphasize key ideas of the poem? [10M]
(d) Which lines stand out the most to you, and why? How do they contribute to the overall theme of the poem? [10M]
(e) How would you relate the message of this poem to modern society, especially in a world influenced by social media or public image? [10M]
Answer all of the following in about 150 words each:
(a) Discuss how industrialization impacts the characters and their relations in Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. [10M]
(b) The presence of a female narrator underlines the feminized Gandhian approach of submission and non-aggression in Kanthapura. Elucidate. [10M]
(c) Discuss Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a rumination on Irish nationalism. [10M]
(d) Analyse the treatment of Time in the novel Mrs. Dalloway. [10M]
(e) Attempt a postcolonial reading of A Passage to India by E.M. Forster. [10M]
Answer all the questions:
(a) How does Swift use satire in Gulliver’s Travels to critique his contemporary society? Explain with textual references. [20M]
(b) Discuss how Jane Austen uses irony as a narrative technique in Pride and Prejudice to reveal characters. [15M]
(c) Substantiate your understanding of Tom Jones as a bildungsroman and a picaresque novel. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Conrad’s Lord Jim documents the exploitative nature of European colonialism. Discuss. [15M]
(b) Analyse V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas in the light of the following quotation: “They had grown up in the heart of darkness, and at the edge of the world. And beyond was the real world, cold and unexotic, where their fate was written.” [15M]
(c) “Marxist analysis can be used as a tool to reveal the oft-hidden structures in literary texts.” Analyse any two novels prescribed in your syllabus in the light of the above statement. [20M]
Answer all the questions:
(a) Examine the concept of virtue constructed and challenged through the characters of Tom and Sophia in the novel Tom Jones. [20M]
(b) Analyze the novel Hard Times under the statement "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". [15M]
(c) Consider how The Mill on the Floss interrogates the theme of education, particularly in relation to gender and class, through the contrasting experiences of Tom and Maggie. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Examine Mrs. Moore’s character as a bridge between British and Indian cultures in A Passage to India. To what extent does she succeed or fail in this role? [15M]
(b) Mrs. Dalloway merges psychological realism with an evolved aesthetic or poetic self-consciousness. Illustrate with examples from the text. [15M]
(c) Evaluate Raja Rao’s Kanthapura as a critique of British colonial and imperial rule. [20M]
Answer all the questions:
(a) The theme of conflict between personal desire and social expectation manifests in Maggie’s life choices in the novel The Mill on the Floss. Discuss. [20M]
(b) Elaborate the role of social class in Tess’s life in the novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles. [15M]
(c) Interpret how Mark Twain’s portrayal of race and slavery reflects the attitudes of his time in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) How does Joyce portray the artist’s struggle for independence and the role of creativity in Stephen Dedalus’ life? Elaborate. [15M]
(b) Bring out V.S. Naipaul’s vivid portrayal of the decay of Hindu culture and cultural clash in the multi-racial society of Trinidad in reference to A House for Mr. Biswas. [15M]
(c) Critically comment on exploitation and dehumanisation as brutal realities of industrialization with reference to Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. [20M]
Answer the following questions/Comment on the topics in about 150 words each:
(a) What are the prominent features of Metaphysical poetry? [10M]
(b) Discipline in Neo-Classical literature, social and literary both. [10M]
(c) Elaborate the terms 'epic' and 'mock-epic' with suitable examples. [10M]
(d) Much of the writings of the Victorian age reflected the pressing social, economic and religious issues of the period. Comment. [10M]
(e) The major features of Romantic poetry. [10M]
Critically comment in about 150 words each on the following:
(a) Hearts with one purpose alone Through summer and winter seem Enchanted to a stone To trouble the living stream. (Yeats) [10M]
(b) For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall Beneath the music from a farther room. (Eliot) [10M]
(c) He was married and added five children to the population Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education. Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard. (Auden) [10M]
(d) For you would hardly care That you were less deceived, out on that bed, Than he was, stumbling up the breathless stair To burst into fulfilment’s desolate attic. (Larkin) [10M]
(e) Sister-in-law and I were rather blank, cut-outs fitted to our respective slots in a room really nowhere as the two of you got down to the floor to draw blueprints of a house from memory (Ramanujan) [10M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) The Tempest may be classed as dramatic spectacle rather than as drama proper. Comment. [15M]
(b) Paradise Lost is a parable of Milton's day and of ours, the inner but also the outer, history of mankind. Do you agree? [20M]
(c) In Memoriam is the progress from doubt and bitter grief to a sense of certainty and hope. Elaborate. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) “Yeats’ purpose was to ‘write out the heart of the Irish common people’.” Comment on this statement with reference to some of the poems prescribed for your study. [15M]
(b) “To be conscious is not to be in time.” Comment on this line by Eliot from Burnt Norton. [15M]
(c) Discuss Modernism as a literary and cultural movement. [20M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Evaluate King Lear as a work of immense complexity. [20M]
(b) Elaborate the major themes in The Rape of the Lock. [15M]
(c) Discuss the role of money and financial independence in A Doll's House. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Analyse W. H. Auden’s poetry as a fusion of ‘the private and public worlds’. [15M]
(b) Comment on the themes and concerns in Larkin’s poetry. [15M]
(c) “The poets of the thirties expressed that ‘they had no time to be difficult...; the political situation was too urgent’.” Elaborate the statement with examples from the poets of the period. [20M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Critically analyse how John Donne treats the subject of love in his poems. [15M]
(b) Wordsworth, more directly than any other poet, has conditioned our belief in the natural goodness of childhood, the moral value of the simple life and the inspiring powers of nature. Elaborate. [20M]
(c) "The mind is its own place and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven." Explain the lines on the basis of Satan's character in Paradise Lost. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Analyse Jimmy’s relationship with Helena and Alison. What does his relationship with the two women reveal about his personality? [15M]
(b) Write a note on the confessional element in Ramanujan’s poetry. [15M]
(c) “Beckett captures ‘the endless, tedious nature of human experience itself, where actions do not always have a goal or meaning’.” Discuss the statement with reference to the play, Waiting for Godot. [20M]
Study the following poem and answer the questions which follow: The instructor said, Go home and write a page tonight. And let that page come out of you— Then, it will be true. I wonder if it's that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. I went to school there, then Durham, then here to this college on the hill above Harlem. I am the only colored student in my class. The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem, through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas, Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y, the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator up to my room, sit down and write this page: It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page. (I hear New York, too.) Me—who? You are white— yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American. Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me— although you are older—and white— and somewhat more free. This is my page for English B.
(a) “And let that page come out of you— Then, it will be true.” Comment on the teacher’s instruction. [10M]
(b) How does the young man describe himself in the next lines? [10M]
(c) What does the poet mean by "we two—you, me, talk on this page"? [10M]
(d) I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: (I hear New York, too.) Explain. [10M]
(e) Analyse the poem from the perspective of the Harlem Renaissance. [10M]
Answer all of the following in about 150 words each:
(a) “Jim (in the novel, Lord Jim) embodies Conrad’s finest moral vision.” Argue for or against the statement. [10M]
(b) Discuss A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as a Bildungsroman. [10M]
(c) Would you agree that the exegesis of Sons and Lovers as a presentation of Oedipus complex robs the novel of some of its nuances? Answer with illustrative references. [10M]
(d) The gender of the narrator affects the narration at the lexical level in Kanthapura. Discuss. [10M]
(e) “The theme of sexuality, especially interracial sexual attraction, and its possibilities, is coded into the theme of Adela’s ‘molestation’.” Analyse Forster’s A Passage to India in the light of the above statement. [10M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Gulliver's Travels has ever been a very attractive adventure story for children and a pungent critique of humanity addressed to the adult. Analyse. [20M]
(b) Discuss the significance of the title Pride and Prejudice and how far it suits the characters of the novel. [15M]
(c) "Fielding in his novel, Tom Jones does not intend to make any judgments on human nature but rather presents it as a mixture of contradictions." Critically examine the statement. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Discuss Patusan as a psychological landscape in Lord Jim. [15M]
(b) “A House for Mr Biswas depicts the exile’s desire to strike roots and attain an authentic selfhood.” Examine the statement with reference to Naipaul’s novel. [15M]
(c) What are the chief symbols that Joyce has woven into the structure and texture of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? [20M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Mark Twain explores the various aspects of freedom in the novel, Huckleberry Finn. Discuss. [15M]
(b) Discuss the theme of education in Hard Times and how it is portrayed through the various characters and their experiences. [15M]
(c) The Mill on the Floss articulates the tension between circumstances and the spiritual energies of individual characters struggling against those circumstances. Would you agree? [20M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Clarissa Dalloway endeavours “to balance a need for privacy with a need for communication with other people”. Do you agree? Give a reasoned response. [15M]
(b) “Lawrence’s characters illustrate the class contradictions at the heart of modern industrial society.” Discuss the statement with reference to Sons and Lovers. [15M]
(c) Write an essay on the aptness of the title of the novel, A Passage to India. [20M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Discuss the division of the novel, Tess of the d'Urbervilles into seven phases and how each phase signifies Tess's life and destiny. [15M]
(b) The author makes use of regional dialects and colloquial language in the novel, Huckleberry Finn. How does it contribute to the realism of the work? [20M]
(c) Analyse the importance of personal relationships in the novel, Pride and Prejudice. [15M]
Answer all of the following:
(a) Is the ending of Kanthapura symptomatic of the socio-economic predicament of a colonised society? Give reasons. [15M]
(b) What is the significance of the title, A House for Mr Biswas? [15M]
(c) Examine the narrative style used by Virginia Woolf in Mrs Dalloway. [20M]
We have 32 UPSC Mains Literature-English optional subject questions spanning 2 years (2023–2025).
Literature-English has 2 papers in UPSC Mains: Literature-English-I, Literature-English-II. Each paper carries 250 marks.