LOYOLA COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS), CHENNAI – 600 034
B.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION – ENGLISH LITERATURE
THIRD SEMESTER – April 2009
NM 06
EL 3501 - GENDER STUDIES
Date & Time: 06/05/2009 / 9:00 - 12:00 Dept. No.
Max. : 100 Marks
PART – A
I. Answer any six of the following in about 250 words each: (6 x 10 = 60)
1. What are the achievements of the first and second wave feminism?
2. Discuss the traditional views on women.
3. What are the salient features of Marxist feminism?
4. What are the features of the Liberal Feminist Movement?
5. Discuss the pros and cons of Cyberfeminism.
6. Write a note on the Indian Women’s Movement.
7. How were Indian women propelled into the freedom struggle?
8. What are the challenges faced by women in the Post Feminist era?
PART – B
II. Answer any two of the following in about 250 words each.
(2 x 10 = 20)
9. Write an essay tracing the deterioration of the daughter-in-law in Adrienne Rich’s
poem highlighting the causes.
10. How does Nikki Giovanni’s poem highlight the ego-tripping that the women indulges in ?
11. Kamala Das’s “Introduction” and deals with her search for identity in an oppressive and
overbearing situation. Discuss with apt examples from the poem.
PART – C
III. Answer any one of the following in about 400 to 500 words.
(1 x 20 = 20)
12. What is the present position of women in society? How has the women’s movement helped
women and identify the areas where women need to forge ahead.
13. Discuss the various ways in which women’s self esteem is destroyed and women are
constrained as seen in the poems prescribed for study.
14. Examine the gender concerns in Rita Dove’s poem “Daystar”
She wanted a little room for thinking:
but she saw diapers steaming on the line,
a doll slumped behind the door.
So she lugged a chair behind the garage
to sit out the children’s naps
Sometimes there were things to watch-the pinched armor of a vanished cricket,
a floating maple leaf. Other days
she stared until she was assured
when she closed her eyes
she’d only see her own vivid blood.
She had an hour, at best, before Liza appeared
pouting from the top of the stairs.
And just what was mother doing
out back with the field mice? Why,
building a palace. Later
that night when Thomas rolled over and
lurched into her, she would open her eyes
and think of the place that was hers
for an hour—where
she was nothing,
pure nothing, in the middle of the day
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