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LIT811S - LITERARY THEORY - 1ST OPP - JUNE 2024 |
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I"
nAmI BI AunIVE RSITV
OF SCIEnCE Ano TECHnOLOGY
FACULTY OF COMMERCE, HUMAN SCIENCEAND EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGES
QUALIFICATION: BACHELOR OF ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS (HONOURS)
QUALIFICATION CODE: 08BAEN
COURSE CODE: LIT811S
LEVEL: 8
COURSE NAME: LITERARY THEORY
SESSION: JUNE 2024
PAPER: THEORY
DURATION: 3H00
MARKS: 75
FIRST OPPORTUNITY EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER
, _,.
EXAMINER(S) DR. ALETTA MWENENI HAUTEMO
MODERATOR: DR. A. SIMATAA
THIS PAPER CONSISTS OF 4 PAGES (Including this front page)
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I
.,.;~P-
nAmI BI AunIVE Rs ITY
OF SCIEnCE Ano TECHnDLOGY
FACULTY OF COMMERCE, HUMAN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGES
QUALIFICATION: BACHELOR OF ENGLISH AND LINGUISTICS (HONOURS)
QUALIFICATION CODE: 08BAEN
LEVEL: 8
COURSE CODE: LIT811S
COURSE NAME: LITERARY THEORY
SESSION: JUNE 2024
PAPER: THEORY
DURATION: 3H00
MARKS:75'
EXAMINER(S)
FIRST OPPORTUNITY EXAMINATION QUESTION PAPER
DR. ALETTA MWENENI HAUTEMO ·
MODERATOR: DR. A. SIMATAA
THIS PAPER CONSISTS OF 4 PAGES (Including this front page)
fi·~ :·:--
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SECTION A- COMPULSORY
[25 MARKS)
This section is compulsory, and it consists of two sub-questions. You must answer all the
questions.
QUESTION 1
25 MARKS
The following extracts from Adichie Chimamanda's Purple Hibiscus, illustrate how post-
colonial theory can be adequately applied to contemporary African literature. Using the
extracts below to support your ideas, discuss the basic tenets of post-colonialism and show
how these tenets relate to literary texts.
Extract 1
Chapter 1
Papa was staring pointedly at Jaja. "Jaja, have you not shared a drink with us, lgbo? Have you
no words in your mouth?" he asked, entirely in lgbo. A bad sign. He hardly spoke lgbo, and
although Jaja and I spoke it with Mama at home, he did not like us to speak it in public. We
had to sound civilized in public, he told us; we had to speak English. Papa's sister, Aunty
lfeoma, said once that Papa was too much of a colonial product. She had said this about Papa
in a mild, forgiving way as if it were not Papa's fault...
"Mba, there are no words in my mouth," Jaja replied. "What?" There was a shadow clouding
Papa's eyes, a shadow that had been in Jaja's eyes. Fear. It had left Jaja's eyes and entered
Papa's. "I have nothing to say," Jaja said.
Chapter 4
Papa changed his accent when he spoke, sounding British, just as he did when he spoke to
Father Benedict. He was gracious, in the eager-to-please way that he always assumed with
the religious, especially with the white religious.
Extract 2
Chapter 10
"lfeoma, did you call a priest?" Papa asked. "Is that all you can say, eh, Eugene? Have you
nothing else to say, gbo? Our father has died! Has your head turned upside down? Will you
not help me to bury our father?" "I cannot participate in a pagan funeral, but we can discuss
with the parish priest and arrange a Catholic funeral." Aunty lfeoma got up and started to
shout. Her voice was unsteady. "I will put my dead husband's grave up for sale, Eugene, before
I give our father a Catholic funeral. Do you hear me? I said I will sell lfediora's grave first! Was
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our father a Catholic? I ask you, Eugene, was he a Catholic? Uchu gba gi !" Aunty lfeoma
snapped her fingers at Papa; she was throwing a curse at him. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Extract 3
Chapter 1
I lay in bed after Mama left and let my mind rake through the past, through the years when
Jaja and Mama and I spoke more with our spirits than with our lips. Until Nsukka. Nsukka
started it all; Aunty lfeoma's little garden next to the verandah of her flat in Nsukka began to
lift the silence. Jaja's defiance seemed to me now like Aunty lfeoma's experimental purple
hibiscus: rare, fragrant with the undertones of freedom, a different kind of freedom from the
one the crowds waving green leaves chanted at Government Square after the coup. A
freedom to be, to do. "I hear he's very involved in the editorial decisions. The Standard is the
only paper that dares to tell the truth these days." "Yes," Aunty lfeoma said. "And he has a
brilliant editor, Ade Coker, although I wonder how much longer before they lock him up for
good. Even Eugene's money will not buy everything."
"I was reading somewhere that Amnesty World is giving your brother an award," Father
Amadi said. He was nodding slowly, admiringly, and I felt myself go warm all over, with pride,
with a desire to be associated with Papa.
Extract 4
Chapter 10
"Kambili, you are precious." His voice quavered now, like someone speaking at a funeral,
choked with emotion. "You should strive for perfection. You should not see sin and walk right
into it." He lowered the kettle into the tub and tilted it toward my feet. He poured the hot
water on my feet, slowly, as if he were conducting an experiment and wanted to see what
would happen. He was crying now, tears streaming down his face ... I watched the water leave
the kettle, flowing almost in slow motion in an arc to my feet. The pain of contact was so pure,
so scalding, I felt nothing for a second. And then I screamed. "That is what you do to yourself
when you walk into sin. You burn your feet," he said.
Chapter 11
Ade Coker was at breakfast with his family when a courier delivered a package to him. His
daughter, in her primary school uniform, was sitting across the table from him. The baby was
nearby, in a highchair. His wife was spooning Cerelac into the baby's mouth. Ade Coker was
blown up when he opened the package-a package everybody would have known was from
the Head of State even if his wife Yewande had not said that Ade Coker looked at the envelope
and said "It has the State House seal" before he opened it.
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SECTION B ELECTIVE QUESTIONS
[50MARKS)
This section consists of three questions. You are required to select TWO questions to
answer.
QUESTION 2
25 MARKS
Define ecocriticism as an "earth-centered approach to literary studies," and as the study of
the relationship between literature and the physical environment.
Explain this with examples drawn from any of the texts you have studied in this course.
QUESTION 3
25 MARKS
Using literary texts of your choice, critically examine trauma and resilience literary theories.
QUESTION 4
25 MARKS
Using the following poems and any other works of fiction or drama to support your answer,
critically evaluate Marxist literary theory.
It is we who ploughed the prairies,
built the Cities where they trade,
Dug the mines and built the workshops,
Endless miles of railroad laid,
Now we stand outcast and starving.
Mid the wonders we have made ...
(Solidarity by Ralph Chaplin )
Equality?
There's no equality!
You see the tyranny of the heart,
The hands that exploit, the mind that steals, From the hands that make,
From the minds that conceive, The little ones and the old.
All cease
After time capitalised.
(Equality by Muhammad Shahab)
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