English Literature II.
What is the role of translation in the context of world literature?
Why is "A Room of One´s Own" a reconstruction? Why is it an argument? Explain.
What is the connecting element of “Animal Farm” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four”?
Regarding James Joyce's Ulysses, explain the following thought: "Form is content, content is form."
origin: early Latin prose
style of the 18th-century satire. It can be also found in Dickens' novels.
It reflects the emotions and feelings of the character - tired character = e.g. bored and simple text.
What are the usual subject matters of the social novel? Provide examples of the authors who contributed to this genre.
Provide examples of various portrayals of family in dystopian novels.
“Midwich Cuckoos” is a work written by which author? Explain the literary function of the word “cuckoos” in the title of the novel.
What are the common themes covered in the genre of dystopia? Explain.
Explain the lexical irony in the words such as "love" or "brotherhood" found in the novel 1984.
What are the typical textual features of the Modernist writings? Explain them and provide some examples.
stream of consciousness, fragmentation, parallax, unreliable narrator, puns, intertextuality, parody, dark humor, paradox
Love in the novel "Brideshead Revisited" is rather unusual - it´s about falling in love with what people mean. Such type of love resembles another literary period. Which one?
Middle Ages, courtly love, medievalism.
Comment on the historical context of the Modernist literary movement.
Theatre of the Absurd takes the basis of the existential philosophy. How is it reflected in the works belonging to this movement? Explain.
Is the novella "Animal Farm" descriptive or prescriptive? Explain.
Which elements of the play "Waiting for Godot" allude to existentialism and how?
What are the main differences between Modernism and Postmodernism?
1900-1960 vs. 1960-today, Form vs. Antiform, Purpose vs. Play, Hierarchy vs. Anarchy, Finished work vs. Performance, Inner self vs. Multiple Meaning, Breaking away from earlier styles vs. Mixture of previous styles,
What is a “welfare state” a why did Evelyn Waugh put so much criticism into this concept?
"He began with the argument that we whites (...) must necessarily appear to them in the nature of supernatural beings. We approach them with the might of a deity." In which book can we find this thought? Explain to what the word them refers to and clarify this idea in the context of the work.
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness
them = savages
Comment on the structure, language and characters found in the Absurd drama.
What is an archetype? Provide some examples of archetypes found in the British literature.
Explain the concept of “One of Us” in Joseph Conrad’s “Lord Jim”.
What is the difference between fantasy and science-fiction? Explain.
Where lies the essence of epiphany in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”? Explain.
Evelyn Waugh's view of the world is comparable to that of T. S. Eliot. He saw it as a wasteland and transfigured it into a circus. Explain this concept within Waugh's work.
Like Eliot, Waugh looked out on the world around him and saw it as a wasteland. His temperament and special gifts led him to transfigure the wasteland into a circus, within whose tent we are treated to a riotous harlequinade. But every so often the flap of the tent is blown open; a vista of the wilderness intrudes; and the antics of the clowns suddenly appear, as poor Agatha Runcible would say, "too spirit-crushing."