Sample Correction of the Final Term Exam in Critical Theory for Master 2 Students (Lit & Civ) 2024-25
Exercise One: MCQ: Tick in the right answer (12 points)
1. Who among the following postcolonial critics worked on Joseph Conrad in his/her early career?
A. Edward Said
B. G. C. Spivak
C. Homi Bhabha
D. Ngugui wa thiang o
B
2. Which of the following works cannot be categorized under postcolonial criticism?
A. Nation of Narration
B. Orientalism
C. Discipline and punish
D. White mythologies
C
3. Edward Said points to two forms of Orientalism. They are
A. Real and fake
B. Voluntary and involuntary
C. Subjective and objective
D. Latent and manifest
D
4. Which of the following is not true of Edward Said’s Orientalism?
A. Makes use of Foucault’s concept of discursive formulation
B. Is one of the founding texts of Postcolonial Theory
C. Makes use of Barthes’ concept of writerly text
D. Utises the Gramscian notion of hegemony.
C
5. In which of his essays does Homi Bhabha discuss “the discovery of English” in colonial India?
A. Signs Taken for Wonders
B. Mimicry
C. Nation and Narration
D. The commitment to Theory
A
6. Combine the statements correctly. According to Homi Bhabha…………
A. Mimicry is not mere copying or emulating the colonizer’s culture, behavior, and manners
B. But it is further aimed at perfection and excess
C. Mimicry is mere copying the colonizer’s culture, behavior, and manners
D. But it is formed by both mockery and certain menace
A&D
7. The author of Black Skin, White Mask is:
A. Homi Bhabha
B. Spivak
C. Ngugui Wa Thiang o
D. Frantz Fanon
D
8. Which novel by Chinua Achebe is considered a seminal work in postcolonial literature?
A. "Things Fall Apart"
B. "Heart of Darkness"
C. "Midnight's Children"
D. "Wide Sargasso Sea"
A
9. The term "hybridity," often discussed in postcolonial literature, refers to:
A. Cultural mixing and the creation of new identities
B. The return to pre-colonial traditions
C. The dominance of colonial culture over Indigenous culture
E. The celebration of colonial rule
A
10. Who authored "Midnight’s Children," an allegorical novel that highlights the interconnectedness of individual experiences with the nation‘s journey towards independence and nation-building?
A. Salman Rushdie
B. Arundhati Roy
C. Homi Bhabha
E. Amitav Ghosh
A
11. What does postcolonial scholar Homi Bhaba mean by ambivalence?
A. The state of having simultaneous conflicting reactions, beliefs, or feelings towards some object. It is the experience of having an attitude towards someone or something that contains both positive and negative valence components.
B. Scholars did not travel to colonies and therefore could not establish an accurate picture of colonized peoples.
C. Post-colonial scholars were too focused on the colonizing power rather than the colonized peoples.
D. The colonized did not make enough effort to have their voices heard.
A
12. In his renowned work Orientalism, Edward Said argues that 'the Orient' as portrayed in Western novels, media, and artwork is what?
A. A place prone to liberal democracy and revolutionary feminism.
B. An accurate depiction of the modern-day Middle East and Asia, meaning that scholars and academics can rely solely on these ancient works.
C. Lost in the past, prone to despotic rule, and plagued by 'odd' cultural traditions.
D. Too focused on historical facts and accurately portraying the experience of life in the region.
D
Exercise Two: Sketch a Marxist literary critic reading William Wordsworth's poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (1815) (10pts)
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Good Luck
A Marxist Analysis of the Poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”
A Marxist analysis of Wordsworth's poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” focuses on the socio-economic context in which the poem was written, its ideological implications, and how it reflects or resists the economic and class structures of its time. Below is a Marxist reading of the poem:
Text Overview:
William Wordsworth's “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” celebrates the speaker’s encounter with a field of daffodils, portraying nature as a source of spiritual solace and emotional rejuvenation. It focuses on individual experience, transcendence, and the beauty of the natural world.
Marxist Analysis:
- Historical context and the Romantic Era:
ü Wordsworth wrote the poem during the early 19th century, a time marked by the Industrial Revolution. The rural landscape was rapidly being transformed as England moved toward urbanization and industrialization.
ü The Romantic Movement, including Wordsworth, reacted against the dehumanizing effects of industrial capitalism by idealizing nature and individual emotional experiences. From a Marxist perspective, this celebration of nature could be interpreted as escapism, offering a way to ignore or obscure the harsh realities of industrialization and class struggle.
- Nature as Commodity and Ideological Function:
ü In the capitalist framework of the Industrial Revolution, land and natural resources were increasingly commodified. However, the poem resists this trend by presenting nature as a source of beauty and emotional wealth rather than material profit.
ü Marxists might argue that this idealization of nature functions ideologically, serving to placate the oppressed classes by offering them an illusory refuge. Instead of critiquing the socio-economic system that alienates people from nature (as industrial capitalism does), the poem romanticizes the pastoral, reinforcing a nostalgic vision of rural life.
- Class Dynamics and the Privileged Perspective
ü The speaker’s ability to wander and contemplate nature suggests leisure, a privilege of the upper or middle class. The working-class individuals of Wordsworth’s time, many of whom labored long hours in factories or on industrial farms, would likely not have had the freedom to engage in such leisurely reflection.
ü The poem subtly erases the presence of laborers who may have been involved in cultivating or maintaining the picturesque landscape. Their absence from the poem reflects an upper-class idealization of nature, detached from the realities of rural labor and exploitation.
- Alienation and the Individual:
ü Karl Marx’s concept of alienation describes how workers in a capitalist system become estranged from their labor, the products they create, and nature itself. Wordsworth’s speaker, while celebrating a profound connection with nature, initially appears alienated (“I wandered lonely as a cloud”), suggesting an estrangement common in capitalist societies. However, this alienation is resolved through the encounter with the daffodils, which offers a reprieve.
ü A Marxist might critique this resolution as superficial. Rather than addressing systemic causes of alienation (e.g., economic inequality or industrial exploitation), the poem retreats into an idealized, individualistic communion with nature.
- The Role of Art in Society
ü Wordsworth’s poetry aligns with the Romantic ideal of art as a source of transcendence and higher truth. From a Marxist perspective, this aesthetic stance can be seen as reinforcing bourgeois values, focusing on individual experience and subjective feeling rather than collective action or systemic critique.
ü The poem’s emotional and spiritual emphasis might also serve as a tool of ideological control, diverting attention from socio-economic struggles by elevating personal, apolitical experiences.
Conclusion:
From a Marxist perspective, “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” embodies the contradictions of its time. While it offers a critique of industrial alienation through its celebration of nature, it does so from a privileged, individualistic standpoint that ignores the systemic roots of that alienation. The poem’s escapism and romanticization of the rural landscape can be seen as complicit in maintaining the status quo, soothing the anxieties of its audience rather than challenging the capitalist structures that shaped their world.