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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LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

DM 32

SECOND SEMESTER – APRIL 2008

EL 2952 – ECOPOETICS

 

 

 

Date : 29-04-08                  Dept. No.                                        Max. : 100 Marks

Time : 1:00 – 4:00

 

PART A

I Answer any SIX of the following questions in about 150 words each       (6×5=30 marks)

1. “This we know.

All things are connected

Like the blood

Which unites one family …

Whatever befalls the earth,

Befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.

Man did not weave the web of life;

He is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web,

He does to himself.”

-Chief Seattle

Comment on the lines.

1. Explain Gaia Theory.
2. What is ecosensitivity?
3. What is Chaos Theory or The Butterfly Effect? Do establish a connect between this and Tsunami that ravaged  the South Asian shores in 2004.
4. Differentiate between Shallow Ecology and Deep Ecology.
5. Establish the connection between Environment and Ecology.
6. Define ecocriticism after Cheryll Glotfelty.
7. How is ecocriticism interdisciplinary?

 

PART B

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

9. Explain the reasons for violence against nature.

(OR)

Why are Jane Austen and Thomas Hardy popular even today among the English readers?

10. Explain the ecovision of William Wordsworth citing examples from any one of his poems.

(OR)

How does Emerson deal with nature in a transcendental manner?

 

PART C

III Applied Criticism

11. Scrutinise the following literary text within the given parameters. (15 marks)

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

 

 

 

 

Song of Quarry Workers

 

We brought gravel for the highway And ballast for the railway track. Our hands are free this holiday, No load we bear on head or back.   We sing a song of joy with pride, For all our tools are laid aside. We sing a song of joy with pride, For all our tools are laid aside.   The hills we broke, now plains are they; The plains we mined are now a vale. Our hands are free this holiday We hammer neither stone nor nail.

We sing a song of joy with pride, For all our tools are laid aside. We sing a song of joy with pride, For all our tools are laid aside.   Talk not to us of work, we pray; Tomorrow we do what you bid. Our hands are free this holiday, Our hearts are not in what we did.   We sing a song of joy with pride, For all our tools are laid aside. We sing a song of joy with pride, For all our tools are laid aside. -Nirmaldasan

 

 

12. Apply Green Density Measurement to the following poem.             (15 marks)

 

The Tree

 

It rained, it poured,

It thundered, but people snored.

The night was violent

The city was silent.

 

Every one was happy

Enjoying their dreams.

They did not hear

The trees screaming.

 

The tree lay down,

Fallen on its leaves.

It looked like a broken crown.

 

It lay down still,

It lay down weak.

No one heard

The tree screaming.

• Deepak Kudapa

 

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    LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

NM 37

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)

1. 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”

2. What are the basic tenets of deep ecology? Distinguish between “Deep

Ecology” and “Shallow Ecology.”

3. Explain ‘Gaia’ hypothesis.
4. Is ecocriticism “soft” criticism? Is it merely hug-the- trees-stuff?
5. Explicate Thoreau’s journey of life in ‘Walden’ as an example of Integrated Oikos.
6. “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.

7. “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.

8. Explain a) Vasudeiva Kudumbakam
9. b) Sanatana Dharma

 

PART B

1. Answer the following questions in about 300 words each:

                                                                       (2×20=40)  

9. 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.

 

10. 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

 

11. Scrutinise the following literary text within the given parameters.                                                                                                 (15marks)
12. Identify the ‘oikoses’ in the text.
13. Establish the relation of one ‘oikos’ with the other ‘oikoses’.
14. 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’.

 

12. 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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LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

SECOND SEMESTER – APRIL 2011

EL 2954 – ECOPOETICS

 

 

Date : 07-04-2011             Dept. No.                                        Max. : 100 Marks

Time : 1:00 – 4:00

 

                                      SECTION –A

 

I           Answer ANY FOUR of the following questions in about 50-75 words each:                                                                                                                                         (4 x 5 = 20)

1. Trace eco-spirituality in the lines,

“I asked the tree

Speak to me about God

And it bloomed” – Tagore

2. What are the basic tenets of deep ecology?
3. Explain the inter-disciplinary nature of the subject, ‘Ecopoetics’.
4. There is a symbiotic relationship between women and nature. Comment.
5. How eco-sensitive will you be, when there is all-round development in the country?
6. Define Eco-criticism.

 

 

SECTION-B

II         Answer ANY FOUR of the following questions in about 150-200 words each:

                                                                                                                        (4 x 10 = 40)

7. What are the five bioregions according to Tamil Sangam poetry?
8. Make an eco-critical reading of Kalidasa’s ‘Sakuntala’.
9. “Simplify, simplify” and “In the wilderness is our future”. How do you connect these pithy sayings by Thoreau with our modern life style?
10. Discuss ‘Chaos Theory’ (‘The Butterfly Effect’). Give illustrations.
11. What are the three ‘oikoses’ and explain atleast one oikos in detail?
12. Back project ecocriticism into some of the poems of William Wordsworth.

 

 

 

 

SECTION-C

III        Find the Oikos in the given poem:                                                   (1 x 20 = 20)

A Bird came down the Walk—
He did not know I saw—
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,

And then he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass—

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad—
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought—
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home—

Than Oars divide the Ocean,
Too silver for a seam—
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.            – Emily Dickinson

IV        Apply Green Density Measurement to the following poem:       (1 x 20 = 20)

 

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.     – Robert Frost

 

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LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034

M.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE

SECOND SEMESTER – APRIL 2012

EL 2954 – ECOPOETICS

 

 

Date : 26-04-2012             Dept. No.                                        Max. : 100 Marks

Time : 9:00 – 12:00

 

SECTION -A

I           Answer ANY FOUR of the following questions in about 50-75 words each:           (4 x 5 = 20)

 

1. Define Deep Ecology. Give an example.
2. What do you mean by Chaos Theory?
3. Mention any two writers who propagated Nature-centeredness in their works.
4. Explain the concept of Vasutheiva Kutumbakam.
5. Distinguish romanticism and eco-criticism.
6. Comment on the idea of Green Spirituality.

 

SECTION-B

II         Answer ANY FOUR of the following questions in about 150-200 words each:                  (4 x 10 = 40)

 

7. Write a poem on the topic, ‘Gaia’s Promise’.
8. What are the challenges of environmental crisis in the 21^st century?
9. What are the benefits of sustainable living?
10. Explain Thinai in Sangam poetry.
11. Analyze Kalidasa’s ‘Shakuntala’ as a Green Text.
12. Explain the symbolic significance of Walden Pond.

 

SECTION-C

III        Find the Oikos in the given poem:                                                                             (1 x 20 = 20)

 

    There is a singer everyone has heard,

Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,

Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.

He says that leaves are old and that for flowers

Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.

He says the early petal-fall is past

When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers

On sunny days a moment overcast;

And comes that other fall we name the fall.

He says the highway dust is over all.

The bird would cease and be as other birds

But that he knows in singing not to sing.

The question that he frames in all but words

Is what to make of a diminished thing.

            There is a singer everyone has heard,
Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird
Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.
He says that leaves are old and that for flowers,
Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.
He says the early petal-fall is past
When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers
On sunny days a moment overcast;
And comes that other fall we name the fall.
He says the highway dust is over all.
The bird would cease and be as other birds
But that he knows in singing not to sing.
The question that he frames in all but words
Is what to make of a diminished thing.          – Robert Frost

There is a singer everyone has heard,

Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,

Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.

He says that leaves are old and that for flowers

Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.

He says the early petal-fall is past

When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers

On sunny days a moment overcast;

And comes that other fall we name the fall.

He says the highway dust is over all.

The bird would cease and be as other birds

But that he knows in singing not to sing.

The question that he frames in all but words

Is what to make of a diminished thing.

There is a singer everyone has heard,

Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,

Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.

He says that leaves are old and that for flowers

Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.

He says the early petal-fall is past

When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers

On sunny days a moment overcast;

And comes that other fall we name the fall.

He says the highway dust is over all.

The bird would cease and be as other birds

But that he knows in singing not to sing.

The question that he frames in all but words

Is what to make of a diminished thing.

 

IV        Apply Green Density Measurement to the following poem:         (1 x 20 = 20)

 

            Rain

 

When clouds clash in the skies,

There’s lightning, thunder and rain.

Some may not see the lightning,

Some may not hear the thunder.

But when clouds clash in the skies,

There’s lightning, thunder and rain.

 

I missed the morning rain.

Never slept like this before.

The grass is wet and I bend

And steal a drop of rain.

How it glistens on fingertip!

I missed the morning rain.

 

I have always loved the Neem,

A green sky beneath the blue.

Two squirrels chase each other

And shake the leafy boughs.

The rain I missed this morning,

The Neem had saved for me.

• Nirmaldasan (Watson Solomon)

 

 

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