M/ENG4003/SEM2/MAY2019/2
ST MARY’S UNIVERSITY
TWICKENHAM, LONDON
BA/BSc Degree Examination students registered for
Level FOUR
Title: An Introduction to Critical Theory
Code: ENG4003
Semester: TWO
Date: May 13th 2019
Time: 1:30 – 3:30 PM
TIME ALLOWED: TWO HOURS
Answer any TWO questions. You may illustrate your answers with any texts you
wish, except where a particular text is specified.
1. ‘It is impossible to understand a ‘literary’ text without reference to the historical,
social and cultural contexts in which it was written’
Do you agree? You may, if you wish, illustrate your answer with examples from
one or more literary texts.
2. Discuss the postcolonial claim that the European imagination divides the world
into the ‘West’ (Same/Self) and ‘East’ (Other), with reference to Jane Eyre or
any other literary text you have read.
3. Either
a) ‘It isn’t language that has a hole in its ozone layer.’
Examine what eco-criticism can bring to literary texts, using if you wish, this
famous intervention by Kate Soper as a starting point.
Or
b) Discuss eco-criticism’s distinction between ‘nature’ (the real world itself)
and ‘Nature’ (the cultural construct) with reference, if you wish, to any text or
texts of your choosing.
4. ‘The postmodernists were wrong, and the neo-modernists are right: some texts
– and some readings of those texts – are more valuable than others.’
Discuss this comment, in relation to Jane Eyre if you wish.
Page 1 of 2
ST MARY’S UNIVERSITY
TWICKENHAM, LONDON
BA/BSc Degree Examination students registered for
Level FOUR
Title: An Introduction to Critical Theory
Code: ENG4003
Semester: TWO
Date: May 13th 2019
Time: 1:30 – 3:30 PM
TIME ALLOWED: TWO HOURS
Answer any TWO questions. You may illustrate your answers with any texts you
wish, except where a particular text is specified.
1. ‘It is impossible to understand a ‘literary’ text without reference to the historical,
social and cultural contexts in which it was written’
Do you agree? You may, if you wish, illustrate your answer with examples from
one or more literary texts.
2. Discuss the postcolonial claim that the European imagination divides the world
into the ‘West’ (Same/Self) and ‘East’ (Other), with reference to Jane Eyre or
any other literary text you have read.
3. Either
a) ‘It isn’t language that has a hole in its ozone layer.’
Examine what eco-criticism can bring to literary texts, using if you wish, this
famous intervention by Kate Soper as a starting point.
Or
b) Discuss eco-criticism’s distinction between ‘nature’ (the real world itself)
and ‘Nature’ (the cultural construct) with reference, if you wish, to any text or
texts of your choosing.
4. ‘The postmodernists were wrong, and the neo-modernists are right: some texts
– and some readings of those texts – are more valuable than others.’
Discuss this comment, in relation to Jane Eyre if you wish.
Page 1 of 2
