COMENTARIO DE TEXTOS LITERARIOS EN LENGUA INGLESA

PEC 2015-(UNITS 1-3)

PART A: choose the correct answer in each case. You must have 7 correct answers
out of 12 in order to pass and have PART B marked as well. MAX: 6 POINTS (0.5
point each).

1. A use of words that expresses a comparison or an analogy that one

object is another one, figuratively speaking. This is a definition of:
a. allegory
b. metaphor
c. anaphora
d. verse
2. According to Barthes, the author is a modern figure derived, among other

things, from:
a. art history.
b. Cultural Studies.
c. capitalist ideology
d. politics
3. Derrida said that there is nothing outside
a. the world
b. the word
c. the context
d. the text
4. Dylan Thomass poem A refusal to mourn the death was published:
a. after the First World War
b. just before the Second World War
c. between-the-wars period
d. after the Second World War
5. Hayden White considers historical narratives as:
a. historical facts
b. verbal data
c. verbal fictions
d. imaginary events
6. The definition of .. is the pattern of events and situations in a narrative

or dramatic work.
a. comedy
b. tragedy
c. plot
d. romance

7. What of the following is something feminist critics dont do?

a. rethink the canon
b. they show disunity rather than unity in the text
c. revalue womens experiences
d. examine power relations
8. What novel do Gilbert and Gubar think is a female version of a

Bildungsroman?
a. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
b. Frankenstein
c. The Bell Jar
d. Wuthering Heights
9. What feminist critic suggests the term criture feminine?

a. Cixous
b. Kristeva
c. Showalter
d. Gallop
10. What two geographical locations are reflected in In the Waiting Room?
This question does not need to be answered
a. Australia and London
b. Europe and California
c. Asia and New York
d. Africa and Massachusetts
11. What was Simone de Beauvoirs famous feminist treatise?
a. Sexual Politics
b. The Madwoman in the Attic
c. The Second Sex
d. On Sexuality
12. Lacans Imaginary relates to

a. a post-linguistic stage
b. a Oedipal stage
c. the Law of the Father
d. a pre-Oedipal stage

PART B: this part of the exam must be written in full paragraphs in correct English.
Make sure that you discuss all the aspects indicated. Write your answers on this
page (front and back).You may use draft paper but you should not hand it in.
MAX.: 4 POINTS.

TEXT FRAGMENT FOR THE COMMENTARY

envelopes

In this small, backward country, one of the most

backward left in the world today, communications
are crude and industralizations and its products
almost non-existent. Strange to say, however, signboards are on a truly gigantic scale.

I) CONTEXT (MAX. 100 WORDS). Indicate the author and the title of the fragment and
explain their historical, literary and cultural contexts. (Up to 0.5 point).
The author of this fragment is Elizabeth Bishop. Envelopes belongs to her poem 12 OClock
News. The historical context of this text takes us to the years of the Vietnam War, the movement
against he participation of the U.S. in this war was gaining national support. This fragment is part of
a long poem in prose, which was published in the collection Geography III. Regarding the cultural
context, the speeches of Luther King in civil rights were gaining audience, as well as feminism and
minority activism. The arrival of a counterculture could be felt amongst the population.
II) FORM and CONTENT (MAX. 200 WORDS). Explain the following aspects of the fragment:
the visual poetic elements (Up to 1.5 points)
In terms of shape, the fragment of this poem shows us two columns: the one on the left is just a
single word in italics, which suggest a title for the fragment on the right. The fragment on the right is a
paragraph written with small lines, this looks like a fragment from a newspaper column article. With
regards to other visual elements we can highlight, we can see quotation marks in the word
industrializations; it is not common to see this word in its plural form. She actually refers to
industrializations as non-existent, so this might be a way to highlight the word as oppose to the nonexisting nature she gives to it. We can also notice there are two adjectives regarding size that oppose
each other: small country and gigantic sign-boards. The fact that she describes the country as small
makes the gigantic sign-boards stand out even more in our imagination while reading the extract.
.
III) THEORY & CRITICISM (MAX. 250 WORDS). Consider the fragment above from the
perspective of new historicism (Up to 2 points).
If we consider the fragment above from the perspective of New Historicism, we need to look at a
co-text, which in this case, it will be Mary McCarthys Report from Vietnam II: The Problems of
Success. I could find some inter-connections between both texts:
Both have the war as theme.
Both texts mention the adjective small referring to the country.
Bishops text mentions the gigantic sign-boards, which bring to mind the war propaganda. The cotext talks about the Psy-war planes dropping leaflets.
Bishops text tells us about a backward country with bad communications and an almost nonexistent industry. We can get a similar idea from McCarthys text, as she mentions the Saigonese not
being aware of the magnitude of the war, the high rate of destruction or the image of a lone
Vietnamese firing with a rifle at a FAC plane. Also worth noting, there is a big contrast to the lack of
industrialization, and that is the mention in McCarthys text, of the superior instrument of terror which
is an air force aircraft, used by the American forces.