LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

LO 47

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

SECOND SEMESTER – APRIL 2007

EL 2952 – ECOPOETICS

 

 

 

Date & Time: 26/04/2007 / 1:00 – 4:00      Dept. No.                                       Max. : 100 Marks

 

 

 

 

PART A

 

I Answer any SIX of the following in not less than 150 words each.           (6 x 5 = 30)

1. Explain Ecospirituality.
2. Establish the connection between Ecocriticism and science.
3. Explain the symbiotic relationship between Sakuntala, the protagonist and nature.
4. What is the oikos of Tamil poetry according to Dr. Nirmal Selvamony?

5. Write on the sensitive spirit of  Nature.

1. Discuss modern man’s life style with the touch of  Nature.
2. Do the Eco-critics really understand Wordsworth?

8. Romantic poets have no choice  but Nature. Discuss.

 

 

PART B

 

II Answer the following questions in about 300 words each.                        (2 x 20 = 40)

 

1. According to Ramanujam,  What are the ways by which Tamil cultural landscape

is relate do the life style according to Cangam literature?

(or)

Explain Wordsworth’s concept of Ecology in his poem The Prelude.

 

10. Nature is never dependent on man. Elucidate.

(or)

Eco-critics are not so sensitive as the Romantic Movement Writers.  Illustrate.

 

PART C

III Applied Criticism

Scrutinise the following literary texts within the given parameters

1. Identify the ‘oikoses’ in the text.
2. Establish the relationship of one ‘oikos’ with the other ‘oikoses’.
3. Compare the ‘oikos’ of one txt with the other ‘oikoses of other comparable texts.

 

Text 1                                                                                                              (15 marks)

Fair pledges of a Fruitful tree,

Why do ye fall so fast?

Your date is not so past,

But you may stay yet here awhile

To blush and gently smile,

And  go at last.

What, were you born to be

An hour or half’s delight

‘Twas pity Nature brought ye forth

Merely to show your worth,

And lose you quite.

But you are lovely leaves, where we

May read how soon things have

Their end, though ne’er so brave:

And after they have shown their pride

Like you, awhile, they glide

Into the grave.

 

Text 2                                                                                                  (15 marks)

EVEN as modern medical sciences grow by leaps and bounds and the world awaits a genetic revolution that could give humans the power to play God, traditional diets and medical systems of Asia are making a special niche for themselves – and that, too, in the Mecca of modern medicine, the US.

Ever since Mahesh Yogi decided to divest yoga of its spirituality and give the Americans a taste of his transcendental meditation, medical interest has grown to a point that a new discipline called Mind Body Medicine has emerged (Down To Earth, Vol 3, No 23), which is more jargonistically called PNI, for psychoneuroimmunology. Now even the prestigious Harvard Medical School has a Mind/Body Medical Institute. And it recently organised a conference in which 200 medicos rubbed shoulders with a variety of healers from the Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and other traditions. Yoga and spiritual healing are placebos no longer. Now, controlled scientific studies have shown that techniques like meditation can help in curing depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, cardiac pain, insomnia, diabetes, ulcers, cold, fever, asthma, arthritis and alcoholism.

And, of course, quick to latch on to prayer, meditation and relaxation techniques are the cost-conscious, new health insurance agencies, called Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOS), which try to keep medical costs down. They are readily pushing patients to these techniques. One clinical study showed that when patients supplemented their high blood pressure drugs with relaxation techniques, they were able to reduce or eliminate their use of drugs while significantly reducing their blood pressure. The HMOs saved US $1,300 per patient over the five-year course of treatment.

And now, that Vatican of medical research, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which, with its us $12 billion annual budget, funds almost all medical research in USA, has also spoken in favour of all this erstwhile mumbo-jumbo. One of its independent panels recently concluded: “Integrating behaviour and relaxation therapies with conventional medical treatment is imperative for successfully managing these conditions.” The human touch of the healer, meditation or prayer may not do much to mend broken bones or control infection but, the NIH panel said, they do seem to affect diseases that have a psychological component or those that can be helped by changes in the heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and so on.

 

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