The play within the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

  MEG – 02: BRITISH DRAMA

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

1. Discuss the play within the play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Answer.: The Play-within-the Play: This play within a play is therefore used by Shakespeare to make a subtle point about theatre, namely the fact that it is only acting. The Mechanicals like to perform a play at Theseus’ wedding. Theseus is an enlightened ruler, notable for his wise judgement but there is a limit to his abilities: the problem Egeus gives him seems incapable of solution, so he tries to buy time and work on Egeus and Demetrius. But there seems little hope that the “harsh Athenian law” will produce a solution acceptable to all parties.

In this play the apparently anarchic tendencies of the young lovers, of the mechanicals-as-actors, and of Puck are restrained by the “Sharp Athenian Law” and the law of the Palace Wood, by Theseus and Oberon, and their respective consorts. This tension within the world of the play is matched in its construction: in performance it can at times seem riotous and out of control, and yet the structure of the play shows a clear interest in symmetry and patterning. 

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Pre- Raphaelites & critical appreciation of this age/movement and the characteristics of the movement

  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

5. Who were the Pre- Raphaelites? Critically appreciate any one poem of this age/movement and highlight the characteristics of the movement

Answer.: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner who formed a seven-member "Brotherhood" modelled in part on the Nazarene movement. The Brotherhood was only ever a loose association and their principles were shared by other artists of the time, including Ford Madox Brown, Arthur Hughes and Marie Spartali Stillman. Later followers of the principles of the Brotherhood included Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris and John William Waterhouse..

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Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience as precursors of the Romantic Age

  MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

4. Critically examine Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience as precursors of the Romantic Age.

Answer.: Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a collection of illustrated poems by William Blake. It appeared in two phases: a few first copies were printed and illuminated by Blake himself in 1789; five years later he bound these poems with a set of new poems in a volume titled Songs of Innocence and of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Blake was also a painter before the creation of Songs of Innocence and Experience and had painted such subjects as Oberon, Titania, and Puck dancing with fairies.

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Poem by Donne or Herbert or Marvel as an example of metaphysical poetry

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

3. Examine any one poem by Donne or Herbert or Marvel as an example of metaphysical poetry

Answer.: The term metaphysical poets was coined by the critic Samuel Johnson to describe a loose group of 17th-century English poets whose work was characterized by the inventive use of conceits, and by a greater emphasis on the spoken rather than lyrical quality of their verse. These poets were not formally affiliated and few were highly regarded until 20th century attention established their importance. Given the lack of coherence as a movement, and the diversity of style between poets, it has been suggested that calling them Baroque poets after their era might be more useful. Once the Metaphysical style was established, however, it was occasionally adopted by other and especially younger poets to fit appropriate circumstances.

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Spenser’s Prothalamion as an example of both renaissance writing as well as a nuptial song

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

2. What do you understand by the term renaissance? Examine Spenser’s Prothalamion as an example of both renaissance writing as well as a nuptial song.

Answer.: The was a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to Modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It occurred after the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages and was associated with great social change. In addition to the standard periodization, proponents of a long Renaissance put its beginning in the 14th century and its end in the 17th century. The traditional view focuses more on the early modern aspects of the Renaissance and argues that it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue that it was an extension of the Middle Ages.

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Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales within his vast writing career, as a social commentary of the age.

 MEG – 01: BRITISH POETRY

ASSIGNMENT 2020 - 2021

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

1. Locate Chaucer’s Prologue to the Canterbury Tales within his vast writing career, as a social commentary of the age. 

Answer.: The age of Chaucer covers the period from 1340 to 1400. Chaucer is the true representative of his age as Pope is of the eighteenth century and Tennyson is of the Victorian era. His works breathe the political, social, economic and religious tendencies of his time. The middle of the fourteenth century was the transitional period in which Chaucer was born. The elements of Renaissance were breeding. “He stands on the threshold of the new age, but still hedged in a backward gazing world.” The fourteenth century in England was the most important of the mediaeval centuries. It covered the period of the Black Death and the Peasant’s Revolt, the Hundred Years War with France and the great economic and social changes which we associate with the decay of villeinage.

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Anand’s use of imagery in his novel Untouchable.

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

2. Examine Anand’s use of imagery in his novel Untouchable. 

Answer.: Untouchable opens with a shot of the outcaste’s colony. Anand gives us a thick description of the home of Bulashah’s outcastes by describing not only the visual appearance of the colony, but also the types of people that live there and their living conditions. For example, besides the sweepers, the colony is also home to “the scavengers, the leather-workers, the washermen, the barbers,” etc. They live in “mud-walled” houses near a fetid, rank brook filled with the filth of the public latrines.

The smells of the colony are also described in explicit details. The air is polluted by “the odour of the hides and skins of dead carcasses left to dry,” the dung of various livestock “heaped up to be made into fuel cakes,” and human waste. As the reader reads on it's as if the “biting, choking, pungent fumes ooz[ing]” from the colony is constricting their breathing in addition to the characters'.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

Theme of ‘Dawn at Puri’

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

d) Theme of ‘Dawn at Puri’ 

Answer.: Dawn at Puri” is taken from the collection A Rain of Rites . The poem is set in Puri in Orissa which is the holy city of Lord Jagannath. A Rain of Rites is a collection of poems which Jayanta Mahapatra wrote in the middle phase of his poetic career and is shaped by the cultural heritage of Orissa in particular and India in general. The rain, as suggested by the title is the dominant metaphor in this volume of poetry. The rites and rituals here are concerned with priests and temples, widows, cremations, even the fate of Indian women is symbolized here through various images. Jayanta Mahapatra, like Arun Kolatkar in Jejuri, is disappointed with the hollowness of traditional practices and customs. Here in this poem Mahapatra depicts the holy city Puri which is famous as one of the most revered pilgrimage towns for Hindus.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

Narrative techniques in Gajar Halwa

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

c) Narrative techniques in Gajar Halwa 

Answer.: The story ‘gajar halwa’is taken from Gita Hariharan’s collection ‘The Art of Dying.’ It portrays the travails of a sixteen year old village girl. Perumayee , who arrives in Delhi in search of a livelihood. . As she getting accustomed to her life, she reminisces her past wistfully.

Perumayee’s mother who has been working as a construction laborer and providing for her family, suddenly finds herself with no means of living when the bridge construction is complete. Her father a drunkard abandons the family ..

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

Bini Tara relationship

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

b) Bini Tara relationship 

Answer.: Bim and Tara are completely opposite in their thoughts, feelings, and perceptions of the world, and each serves as a foil for the other’s lack of a critically reflexive self-image. The novel chronicles the sisters’ history of competition in a number of ways. Their childhood rivalry for adult attention is surpassed by each woman’s desire to earn Raja’s respect. For Tara, this means playing the role of a competent and gracious diplomat’s wife, wiping out the memory of an emotionally needy and naive child whose marriage conveniently unburdened her family.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

Form of Hind Swaraj

MEG – 07: INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

1. Write short note on: 

a) Form of Hind Swaraj 

Answer.: Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj while on a boat from London to South Africa in 1909. In this tract, written in Gujarati, Gandhi lays out the argument for Indian home rule as a dialogue between an editor and reader. The editor, who is the voice of Gandhi, says that he wants home rule that is not the same as simply adopting an English style of government.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

‘When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloomed’ by Walt Whiteman is as much a poem about life affirmation as it is a poem about death.

MEG – 06: AMERICAN LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

5. ‘When Lilacs Last in the Doorway Bloomed’ by Walt Whiteman is as much a poem about life affirmation as it is a poem about death. Do you agree? Give a reasoned answer. 

Answer.: I definitely agree. If you read this excellent poem lamenting the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln carefully, you will see, apart from the many instances of images and words that convey the poet’s shock and sorrow about the death of the President, many images that also celebrate the rebirth of life and nature’s natural cycle. Note first of all that the poem is set in spring, an obvious time of rebirth and a celebration of the cycle of nature as life emerges. Note the following quote from the first stanza: O ever-returing spring! rinity sure to me you bring; Lilac blooming perennial, and drooping star in the west, And thought of him I love. It is as if the meditation on death that this poem represents places our lives in the scheme of the natural cycle of life. As we read through the poem we see many more such examples that celebrate life and the rebirth inherent in nature. Every leaf of the lilac plant is said to be a “miracle” as it grows and blossoms, just as the poet mourns the death of his friend.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

Death of a Salesman as a realist tragedy.

MEG – 06: AMERICAN LITERATURE

ASSIGNMENT 2019 - 2020

                                                                                                               Max. Marks: 100

4. Critically examine Death of a Salesman as a realist tragedy. 

Answer.: Death of a Salesman is a tragedy play based on middle class salesman called Willy Loman. He lives in an old house middle of developed city with his wife Linda and two sons, Biff and Happy. In a tragedy, the story details the downfall of the protagonist. The character fails as a result of tragic flaw in his/her personality. In Death of a Salesman, tragedy is shown by Willy, who is plagued by his American Dream that is unrealistic and impractical. He is obsessed with glitz and fascination, wanting success through recognition. However, he struggles to fulfil his dream as he makes a mistake of being travelling salesman without realising what is the most important to him. He gets caught in his own spiritual redemption of being salesman.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

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.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

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.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)

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.

(For the complete answer and also the full set of answers of 1st and 2nd year MEG  assignments/study notes mail me : ignousolvedassignmentz@gmail.com, you may also call or WhatsApp me to get instant reply: +91 99 471 471 85)