MODERN  AND  MEDIEVAL  LANGUAGES  TRIPOS    Part IB

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            Friday 2 June 2000     1.30 to 4.30

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                Paper Sp. 5

 

            TOPICS IN SPANISH-AMERICAN CULTURE AND HISTORY

 

            Answer THREE questions.

 

            DO NOT draw substantially on the same material for more than ONE

            answer.

           

1          Answer ONE of the following:

 

(a) ‘Se ha dicho frecuentemente que las naciones y sus instituciones, tanto como los individuos, están apresadas en gran medida, por su propio pasado.’  Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE writers or essayists.

 

(b) ‘Para el escritor hispanoamericano, nominar es crear.  América es un continente atestado de objetos que esperan su designación para empezar a ser en el mundo de la cultura.  Su obra cobra sentido en esa ordenación del caos natural.’  Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE authors.

 

(c) ‘En las obras de la primera generación de escritores hispanoamericanos, la provincia es lo más entrañable de la nación.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers or essayists.

 

            (d) ‘Authors and statesmen of the new Spanish‑American Republics regarded their primary task as the “reconquest” of a colonised terrain.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers or essayists.

 

2          Answer ONE of the following:

 

(a) ‘De pronto me sentí una especie de héroe al revés, héroe negro y repugnante, pero héroe’ (Informe sobre ciegos).  In the light of this quotation, discuss the theme of the anti‑hero in ANY TWO OR MORE urban texts or films.

 

(b) ‘In the Latin-American context, the modern city is conceived as predatory, contaminating and anarchic.’  Discuss with reference to TWO OR MORE urban texts or films.

 

(c) Discuss the representation of marginality in ANY TWO OR MORE urban texts and/or films.

 

            (d) ‘La realidad económica del subdesarrollo mantiene la dimensión rural como objeto vivo, aunque sea cada vez más actuante la dimensión urbana.’  Discuss in relation to the development of ONE OR TWO Latin-American cities in the twentieth century.

 

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3          Answer ONE of the following:

 

(a) Consider the interplay of history and fiction in the representation of the Mexican revolution in TWO OR MORE texts and/or in the visual arts.

 

(b) ‘The literary legacy of revolutionary conflict is narrative discontinuity and cultural dislocation.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE authors.

 

(c) ‘The Mexican Revolution arguably unleashed the forces of vernacular language and popular culture on literary production.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

            (d) Give an account of the causes of the Mexican Revolution.

 

4          Answer ONE of the following:

           

(a) ‘In most modern literature on ethnic identities, the concept of “otherness” transcends gender.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

(b) ‘The pursuit of cultural differentiation in literature leads, in practice, to formulaic dichotomies.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

(c) ‘La escritura indigenista quisiera señalar el carácter de las cosas arquetípicas, de cosas no sujetas a las contingencias del tiempo.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

            (d) ‘The subaltern status of the “other” is inevitably confirmed by the process of literary representation.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

5          Answer ONE of the following:

 

(a) ‘La representación de la dictadura en estas obras afirma (o parece afirmar), una forma del eterno retorno.  Son mundos sin futuro, sin esperanza, congelados en un asincrónico repetirse sin salida.’  Discuss with reference to the representation of dictatorship in TWO OR MORE texts.

 

(b) ‘¿Cuál puede ser la actitud de un escritor de ficciones en una situación en que la monstruosidad de la realidad desborda toda imaginación?’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE works on dictatorship.

 

            (c) ‘In Spanish-American fiction, authoritarianism is gender specific.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

            (d) Give a comparative account of the causes of dictatorship in TWO OR MORE Spanish-American countries.

 

 

6          Answer ONE of the following:

 

            (a) ‘La circularidad del tiempo es la expresión de una negación de la temporalidad.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

(b) ‘Arturo Schopenhauer escribió que los sueños y la vigilia eran hojas de un mismo libro y que leerlas en orden era vivir, y hojearlas, soñar.  Cuadros dentro de cuadros, libros que se desdoblan en otros libros, nos ayudan a intuir esa identidad’ (Jorge Luis Borges).  In the light of this quotation, discuss the metafictional writing of TWO OR MORE authors.

 

(c) ‘The dominance of elements such as intertextuality and self‑referentiality divests fictional prose of all social relevance.’  Discuss with reference to the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

            (d) Consider the notion of ‘laberintos verbales’ in the work of TWO OR MORE writers.

 

 

END OF PAPER