literature Past Questions And Answers

1831

This question is based on Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge.

Mrs. Newson refuses to reward the furmity seller for disclosing the whereabout of Henchard because she

A. has little money for her
B. condisers the trade in furmity unscrupulous
C. thinks it is not respectable to talk to the old women
D. has learned what she wanted from the old woman

View Discussion (0)JAMB 1998

1832

A play that moves the audience to pity and fear is a ____________

A. Comedy
B. Farce
C. Pantomime
D. Tragedy

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2018 OBJ

1833

A travelogue is

A. a record of the writer's experience during a journey
B. the account of the experiences of an individual during his lifeline
C. the account of the travails of a character in a novel
D. a variant of a novel written in a free style on a writer's journey

View Discussion (0)JAMB 2022

1834

This question is based on selected poems from R. Johnson and D. Ker et al (eds.): New poetry from Africa;Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa; K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African poetry; M. Umukoro and A Sani et al (eds.): Exam Focus: Literature in English; A.E. Eruvbetine and M. Jibril et al (eds.): Longman Examination Guides: Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.

The pervasive mood of the speaker in Mtshali's 'Nightfall in Soweto' is that of

A. elation and joy
B. terror and insecurity
C. darkness and threat
D. celebration and freedom

View Discussion (0)JAMB 2000

1835

This question is based on Literary Principles.

'So Children,

If per chance you see a here that roars

Or an ape perched in a palanquin,

Look on in silence..'

'Africa by David Diop

This excerpt exemplifies

A. poetic climax
B. rhetorics
C. paradox
D. conflict

View Discussion (0)JAMB 1992

1836

This question is based on Literary Principles.

The branch of knowledge that places emphasis on beauty is

A. censure
B. aesthetics
C. philosophy
D. philology

View Discussion (0)JAMB 1995

1837

William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream Read the extract below and answer the following questions Go, Philostrate, Sir up the Athenian youth to merriments; Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth; Turn melancholy forth to funerals: The pale companion is not our pomp Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, And won thy love doing thee injuries; But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp with triumph, and with reveling ( Act 1, Scene One, Lines 12-20)

The speaker's attitude towards melancholy is

A. adoration
B. dislike
C. intolerance
D. tolerance

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2022 OBJ

1838

Read the poem below and answer the question

Dillgent foot-worker

legs lithe, foot loose

to frantic drums

and frenetic flutes

Acrobat strokes swift in the air

wrought masterly like

a frenzied antelope

Gyrating to the April music

of the lush Savannah

The poem describes

A. dancing
B. wrestling
C. hunting
D. drumming

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2004 OBJ

1839

AFRICAN PROSE

BUCHI EMECHETA: The Joys of Motherhood

Discuss Emecheta's narrative technique in the novel

Explanation

Emecheta uses the third person (omniscient) narrative technique. The story is told by a narrator who is not within the story, but the novelist is able to bridge the gap between the narrator and the reader which sometimes occurs ir these circumstances.

She does this by allowing the story to flow almost from the consciousness of her characters. The reader is thus able to empathize with the main character Nnu Ego, understand the motives for her actions and see the story from he perspective. Her aims and aspirations, her frustrations at her inability to bear a child, and her disappointment at thE treatment she receives from her male children are vividly captured through this narrative style. Nnu Ego's story does not begin in Lagos; nor is it a story that begins in child-bearing for Nnu Ego. Her initial painful experiences in life are not to do with her losing a child; rather she has been a childless woman.

Buchi Emecheta adopt: the style 'in media res', that is, she starts the story from a point later in time according to the chronology of events. This technique of narration has the effect of surprising the reader when the earlier events begin to unfold. It also gives thE narrator room to shuttle between later and earlier events and roam in time. In starting the narrative from a certain point inside the order of the story, the narrator does not cut the story short The earlier events will be recalled and integrated in the course by means of flashback. In The Joys of Motherhood Emecheta uses flashback very successfully.

The novelist tells the earlier experiences of Nnu Ego in Ibuza in late chapters after opening the novel in Lagos. Indeed, Nnu Ego is not even born until towards the end of the second chapter which largely narrates her parentage. The real events that culminate in the Lagos episode are found in Chapter Four Mama Abby's story is not told and if we were to insist on being told how her daughter came to disgrace the family, oil medium would be a flashback.

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2008 THEORY

1840

Read the poem and answer the question

At dawn must I rise to till the rock

That our land has turned into

The land where on we'd gleefully harvested paddy

Planted and nurtured and tended on plots marshy

Our woes are bloody woes of accursed revenges

Of the land spirits aggrieved and by his fellow

Kindred blood has counted for less than no value

Brother's wife has been wife to other brother's brother

Communal loot has emptied our country silos

The earth has stooped breathing and sighed

Soldered tears has the moon shed

The earth was scorched at noon-day night

And our land has turned to hoeing rock.

There is a predominance of words associated with

A. celebration
B. nature
C. governance
D. nurture

View Discussion (0)WAEC 2014 OBJ