LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034
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M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE
SECOND SEMESTER – April 2009
EL 2954 / EL 2952 – ECOPOETICS
Date & Time: 27/04/2009 / 1:00 – 4:00 Dept. No. Max. : 100 Marks
PART A
I.Answer any SIX of the following questions in about 150 words each: (6 x 5 = 30 Marks)
- Comment on the following:
“Forty hectares of rainforest are cleared every minute…Fifty species
become extinct every day due to land clearing.”
-From Leonie Norrington’s “Leaving Barrumbi”
- What are the basic tenets of deep ecology? Distinguish between “Deep
Ecology” and “Shallow Ecology.”
- Explain ‘Gaia’ hypothesis.
- Is ecocriticism “soft” criticism? Is it merely hug-the- trees-stuff?
- Explicate Thoreau’s journey of life in ‘Walden’ as an example of Integrated Oikos.
- “You cannot develop in a country where there is no peace. You cannot
develop a country that does not respect democratic principles. And you
cannot develop in a country where resources are being mismanaged, are
being stolen, are being put in the hands of a few at the expense of many”.
Justify Wangari Maathai’s statement in the light of global peace and
sustainable development.
- “Shakti comes to us from these forests and grasslands, we watch them
grow, year in and year out through their internal shakti and we derive our
strength from it…Our power is nature’s power”- Discuss Ecofeminist
belief in women’s power with reference to the words of Chamundeyi,
local leader of Chipko movement.
- Explain a) Vasudeiva Kudumbakam
- b) Sanatana Dharma
PART B
- Answer the following questions in about 300 words each:
(2×20=40)
- Jane Austen stands for a lost world of elegance and Hardy represents nostalgia for a
simple honest rustic way of life. Critically examine the statement in the light of
Philip Larkin’s poem, “Going, Going.”
(or)
Relate Lynn White’s essay,”The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” to Kalidasa’s
epic poem,“Sakuntala” and say how the past is telescoped through the present.
- Identify themes and techniques in Thoreau’s ‘Walden’.
(or)
Attempt an eco-critical reading of a novel/play you have read in the recent times.
PART C
III. Applied criticism
- Scrutinise the following literary text within the given parameters. (15marks)
- Identify the ‘oikoses’ in the text.
- Establish the relation of one ‘oikos’ with the other ‘oikoses’.
- Compare the ‘oikos’of one text with the ‘oikoses’of other comparable texts.
“As is Banadevi, born in a forest and named after it. A lone mother gathering firewood in the forest discovered new life sprouting out of her. She separated it from her body with a sickle, brought it home, and found it was a girl. She named her Banadevi,… spirit of the forest…Today she is among a mass of women in the Himalayan hills, hugging trees, stopping them from being chopped down… Her’s and other women’s non-violent resistance to save “their trees” by hugging them is today hailed as the Chipko movement, a revolutionary weapon
in the name of conservation. Ban jagey, Ban wasi jaagey is their cry. The forest is awake. And the women in the forest are awake. Each one now has a name. Also an identity realized and shared. Despite isolation and dire poverty these women have acquired a collective power that stems from a felt need. Their voices have soared above the hills, finding echoes in distant corners of the country – Anees Jung ‘Unveiling India’.
- Apply Green Density Measurement to the following poem:
(15 marks)
On Killing a Tree
It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.
So hack and chop
But this alone won’t do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.
No,
The root is to be pulled out-
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed,
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.
Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,
And then it is done.
-Gieve Patel
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