IGNOU SOLVED ASSIGNMENTS & STUDY NOTES

Monday, July 20, 2020

Black literary expression in nineteenth century America.

MEG – 06: AMERICAN LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

3. Write a note on Black literary expression in nineteenth century America.

Answer.: The presence of slavery cast a major shadow on Black writers and the literary canon of the 1800s. This makes sense because America, itself, was wrestling with the issue that the Framers lacked courage in addressing. As the nation grew from farms to industry with the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, America never quite had a hold of the slavery issue. This topic was explored in the literary expression of Black identity in the 1800's. African-American literature attempts to locate and analyze contribution of the Black writers to it and explores the role of African-Americans within the larger American society. It highlights the themes such as African-American culture, racism, slavery and equality.

African-American literature is the creation of diverse worlds, cross-cultural customs and mixed creeds. It portrays personal experiences and history of African-American culture. It presents experiences and memories of Black people and the brutal treatment of white community against them. It is described as a docu-mentation of the multi-faceted nature of oppression in the multi-racial community. The condition of African-Americans struggling for freedom and equality is the main concern of African-American authors. As a result, they share the experiences of Black women in a racist and sexist community.

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The Scarlet Letter as an open-ended novel.

MEG – 06: AMERICAN LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

2. Examine The Scarlet Letter as an open-ended novel.

Answer.: The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne wrote during the Romantic Period in American literature which lasted from 1830 to 1865. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allen Poe, and Walt Whitman were his literary contemporaries. The Scarlet Letter is considered a piece of American Romantic literature because it is set in a remote past, the Puritan era 200 years prior to Hawthorne's time, and because it deals with the interior psychology of individual characters.

Hawthorne wrote during the Romantic Period in American literature which lasted from 1830 to 1865. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allen Poe, and Walt Whitman were his literary contemporaries. The Scarlet Letter is considered a piece of American Romantic literature because it is set in a remote past, the Puritan era 200 years prior to Hawthorne’s time, and because it deals with the interior psychology of individual characters.

The narrative strategies used by the writer in The Bluest Eye

MEG – 06: AMERICAN LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

1. Discuss the narrative strategies used by the writer in The Bluest Eye.

Answer.: Noble prize winner Toni Morrison has achieved a place in the annals of world literature. One of her best-known novels The Bluest Eye has always surprised the critics. The innovation in terms of narrative using different techniques that can be defined as blended narrative has been the concern for her major critics.

The book “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison has various techniques that make the text rich and a perfect example of a role model for all narrative text to come. A lot of what makes The Bluest eye really exemplary is that is has a large variety of techniques that help capture the audience attention as if it they were flies suck in adhesive paper. This text although structured with an exposition, rising action climax and a conclusion to the climax it jumps around between time frames and character perspective giving the audience bits of info little by little just like jigsaw puzzle. For example like every Greek tragedy The Bluest Eye gives the tragedy away in the very beginning without giving the ending away it’s as if the book where to start in the climax jumping back to the exposition continuedly to all the parts of the story; it also intensifies this effect jumping between character narratives.

Freud’s ideas about the interpretation of dreams.

MEG – 05: Literary Criticism & Theory

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

5. Briefly sum up Freud’s ideas about the interpretation of dreams.

Answer.: Freud's discovery that the dream is the means by which the unconscious can be explored is undoubtedly the most revolutionary step forward in the entire history of psychology. Dreams, according to his theory, represent the hidden fulfilment of our unconscious wishes. The Interpretation of Dreams is the classic text on dream analysis and interpretation. Freud introduces many key concepts that would later become central to the theory of psychoanalysis.

The development of Marxism from Hegel to Althusser.

MEG – 05: Literary Criticism & Theory

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

4. Trace the development of Marxism from Hegel to Althusser.

Answer.: The post-war years in France saw a great swing towards Marxism. After the defeat of Germany the reactionary governments of country after country collapsed and were swept aside. Everywhere socialism was on the ascendant. In Western Europe too the tide of socialist thought flowed strongly and there was a great upsurge of Marxist writings. This was greatly influenced by the philosophical theories of those central-European Marxists who had rediscovered the Hegelian basis of M arx’s thought, notably Lukacs and Korsch. The hitherto unknown texts of the M arx of 1844 which had first appeared in the thirties but were lost sight of during the W ar were being translated and eagerly read and studied. Such works as Sartre’s Existential Marxism became popular with its emphasis on commitment as the realisation of the “authentic” person. M ounier’s “personalism” represented a parallel movement of a humanist kind which found support in the notion of alienation, which Lukacs emphasised as part of the essential Hegelianism of Marx.

New Criticism and the main proponents of New Criticism and their contribution to literary theory.

MEG – 05: Literary Criticism & Theory

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

3. What is New Criticism? Who were the main proponents of New Criticism and what was their contribution to literary theory?

Answer.: New Criticism was a formalist movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self- referential aesthetic object. The movement derived its name from John Crowe Ransom’s 1941 book The New Criticism. Also very influential were the critical essays of T. S. Eliot, such as “Tradition and the Individual Talent” and “Hamlet and His Problems,” in which Eliot developed his notion of the “objective correlative.” Eliot’s evaluative judgments, such as his condemnation of Milton and Shelley, his liking for the so-called metaphysical poets and his insistence that poetry must be impersonal, greatly influenced the formation of the New Critical canon.

A brief analysis of the contributions of Wordsworth (Preface to the Lyrical Ballads), Coleridge (Biographia Literaria) and Shelley (A Defence of Poetry) on English Literature

MEG – 05: Literary Criticism & Theory

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

2. Attempt a brief analysis of the contributions of Wordsworth (Preface to the Lyrical Ballads), Coleridge (Biographia Literaria) and Shelley (A Defence of Poetry) on English Literature?

Answer.: Much before William Wordsworth started writing, the early Romantic poets like James Thomson (1700-48),Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74),Thomas Chatterton (1752-70),Thomas Gray (1716-71),William Collins-59),William Cowper (1731- 1800),George Crabbe (1754- 1832),Robert Burns (1759-95), and William Blake (1757-1827) deviated from the neo-classic insistence on rules. Wordsworth is perhaps the only romantic poet who made his poetic experiences the locus of his critical discourse. Unlike Coleridge, he was not a theorist. Instead he unravelled before us the workings of the mind of the poet, and therefore, Wordsworth’s literary criticism ceases to be criticism in its most literal sense. It comes out as the matrix where the poet’s mind generates emotions and feelings with that much of intensity and passion required for transmitting them into poetic experience which forms the basis of poetic composition. From this perspective, Wordsworth’s Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads in 1800 can be seen as a poetic "manifesto," or “statement of revolutionary aims.”

The six elements of tragedy according to Aristotle and its relevance with regards to a contemporary play

MEG – 05: Literary Criticism & Theory

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

1. Explain the six elements of tragedy according to Aristotle and discuss whether it bears any relevance with regards to a contemporary play you may have read or watched.

Answer.: In the Poetics, Aristotle's famous study of Greek dramatic art, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) compares tragedy to such other metrical forms as comedy and epic. He determines that tragedy, like all poetry, is a kind of imitation (mimesis), but adds that it has a serious purpose and uses direct action rather than narrative to achieve its ends. He says that poetic mimesis is imitation of things as they could be, not as they are — for example, of universals and ideals — thus poetry is a more philosophical and exalted medium than history, which merely records what has actually happened.

Saturday, July 18, 2020

The rise of American English and its chief characteristics

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

5. Historically discuss the rise of American English and its chief characteristics.

Answer.: In many ways, compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. Dialects in North America are most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes, and partly merely because many speech communities on the East Coast have existed in their present locations longer than others. The interior of the country was settled by people who were not closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea. As such, the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech and did not imitate the changes in speech from England.

Four different approaches of looking at language and society (Unit 1, Block 6).

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

4. Discuss in detail four different approaches of looking at language and society (Unit 1, Block 6).

Highlight the differences between all these approaches.

Answer: Language is both a system of communication between individuals and a social phenomenon. The area of language and society – sociolinguistics – is intended to show how our use of language is governed by such factors as class, gender, race, etc. A subsection of this area is anthropological linguistics which is concerned with form and use of language in different cultures and to what extent the development of language has been influenced by cultural environment.

What is Theta theory? Which parts of grammar does it affect?

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

3. What is Theta theory? Which parts of grammar does it affect? Discuss with examples of your own.

Answer.: Thematic theory, or theta theory, is a sub-theory of universal Grammar, which deals with the valency requirements of verbs. As I mentioned in the previous section, it incorporates a set of principles regulating the assignment of thematic roles. In this way, Riemsdijk (1986) defines theta theory as the basic logical notion “argument of”, a notion that any theory of Grammar must account for. He goes on to add that the aim of this theory is to determine which NP can be an argument of a verb. That’s why to designate arguments of a verb, terms as agent, goal, patient ...are commonly used.

Code mixing and code switching

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

2. Write short notes on any four of the following, giving examples as far as possible:

i) Code mixing and code switching

Answer.: “Code” refers to language here. Both code mixing and code switching are only possible in case of bilinguals (or multi-linguals), i.e. people who know at least two (or more than two) languages. Code mixing is simply mixing of two or more languages while communicating. Now, it is common for a speaker who knows two or more languages to take one word or more than one word from one language and introduce it while speaking another language.

If I know French as well as English, for example, there will be times when I will mix some English words in my French sentences. That’s, in fact, very common. Languages have this kind of affect on other languages. It is rare for Bilinguals to utter sentences that belong to purely one language.

Problems in defining a speech community

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

2. Write short notes on any four of the following, giving examples as far as possible:

iii) Problems in defining a speech community

Answer.: Speech community is a term in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology used to describe a group of people who share the same language, speech characteristics, and ways of interpreting communication. Speech communities may be large regions like an urban area with a common, distinct accent (think of Boston with its dropped r's) or small units like families and friends (think of a nickname for a sibling). They help people define themselves as individuals and community members and identify (or misidentify) others.

Langue and Parole

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

2. Write short notes on any four of the following, giving examples as far as possible:

ii) Langue and Parole

Answer.: Langue is a composite of all the traits of a language; think of it as a big container that hosts all the parts of language as we use it, particularly, the images and words that come to mind and the sound-to-symbol connection that occurs when we speak. All of those stored images, words, meanings, and sub-meanings comprise “langue.”

Parole is speaking. "Palabra," its meaning in Spanish, shares a similar meaning: the act of activating langue through the use of speech. Parole is the enabler of the langue. Langue embraces parole.

Changes in the meaning of words from Old to Modern English.

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

2. Write short notes on any four of the following, giving examples as far as possible:

i) Changes in the meaning of words from Old to Modern English.

Answer.: Generation by generation, pronunciations evolve, new words are borrowed or invented, the meaning of old words drifts, and morphology develops or decays. The rate of change varies, but whether the changes are faster or slower, they build up until the "mother tongue" becomes arbitrarily distant and different. After a thousand years, the original and new languages will not be mutually intelligible. After ten thousand years, the relationship will be essentially indistinguishable from chance relationships between historically unrelated languages.

The relationship between language and our perception of reality in terms of linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism

MEG – 04: Aspects of Language

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

Max. Marks: 100

1. Discuss the relationship between language and our perception of reality in terms of linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism

Answer.: When we talk about language, we often dig down to "universal" categories like nouns & verbs, consonants & vowels, phrases & sentences. We end up with these cross-language concepts that individual languages are built on, almost as if the colourful diversity found in the world's languages is just icing on the strong unity of the linguistic cake. And LANGUAGE is grounded in our way of thinking and processing information, which is itself universal among humans. So, languages and cultures are superficial, but language and cognition run deep.

Why do you think Forster shifts the theme of the novel from history to philosophy?

MEG – 03: British Novel

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

(Based on blocks (1-9)

Max. Marks: 100

5. Why do you think Forster shifts the theme of the novel from history to philosophy?

Answer.: A Passage to India, published in 1924, was E. M. Forster's first novel in fourteen years, and the last novel he wrote. Subtle and rich in symbolism, the novel works on several levels. On the surface, it is about India—which at the time was a colonial possession of Britain—and about the relations between British and Indian people in that country. It is also about the necessity of friendship, and about the difficulty of establishing friendship across cultural boundaries.

A detailed note on the three broad movements that defines the structure of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

MEG – 03: British Novel

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

(Based on blocks (1-9)

Max. Marks: 100

4. Give a detailed note on the three broad movements that defines the structure of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man details events which closely correspond with those of Joyce's first twenty years. According to Joyce's celebrated biographer, Richard Ellman, Joyce hoped that his Portrait would be an autobiographical novel, "turning his life into fiction." While scholars disagree on the extent to which Joyce's life affected his fictional narrative in the novel, most of them concur that Stephen Dedalus is both the protagonist of the novel, as well as the persona (Latin, meaning "mask") behind which Joyce paints his fictional "portrait" of the "artist" and of the "young man."

How many women characters are to be found in the Heart of Darkness would you consider Conrad to be a misogynist?

MEG – 03: British Novel

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

(Based on blocks (1-9)

Max. Marks: 100

3. How many women characters are to be found in the Heart of Darkness would you consider Conrad to be a misogynist?

Answer.: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness has since its publishing, fallen under vast scrutiny for its supposed pro- racist, pro- imperialist message, whether it be blatant or implied. Upon closer analysis, and perhaps less obviously, the claim could also be made that Heart of Darkness is also a pro- misogyny piece. Heart of Darkness performs anti-Feminist literary theory- the novella does not uplift the “other sex”, nor is it meant to fortify and empower the female gender.

IGNOU SOLVED ASSIGNMENTS & STUDY NOTES

snow

Monday, July 20, 2020

Black literary expression in nineteenth century America.

The Scarlet Letter as an open-ended novel.

The narrative strategies used by the writer in The Bluest Eye

Freud’s ideas about the interpretation of dreams.

The development of Marxism from Hegel to Althusser.

New Criticism and the main proponents of New Criticism and their contribution to literary theory.

A brief analysis of the contributions of Wordsworth (Preface to the Lyrical Ballads), Coleridge (Biographia Literaria) and Shelley (A Defence of Poetry) on English Literature

The six elements of tragedy according to Aristotle and its relevance with regards to a contemporary play

Saturday, July 18, 2020

The rise of American English and its chief characteristics

Four different approaches of looking at language and society (Unit 1, Block 6).

What is Theta theory? Which parts of grammar does it affect?

Code mixing and code switching

Problems in defining a speech community

Langue and Parole

Changes in the meaning of words from Old to Modern English.

The relationship between language and our perception of reality in terms of linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism

Why do you think Forster shifts the theme of the novel from history to philosophy?

A detailed note on the three broad movements that defines the structure of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

How many women characters are to be found in the Heart of Darkness would you consider Conrad to be a misogynist?

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