Get premium membership and access revision papers, questions with answers as well as video lessons.
Got a question or eager to learn? Discover limitless learning on WhatsApp now -
Start Now!
African Literature Question Paper
African Literature
Course:Bachelor Of Arts In Literature
Institution: Kenyatta University question papers
Exam Year:2008
KENY ATTA UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS 2008/2009
FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF
ARTS AND BACHELOR OF EDUCATION
ALT 401:
AFRICAN LITERATURE
DATE: Thursday, 4th December, 2008
TIME: 11.00 a.m. - 1.00 p.m.
-----~------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTRUCTIONS:
Based on your Course Outline, answer ONE question in Section A, and any TWO from
Section B. Avoid duplication of material.
SECTION A
1. "[The novelist's work] is often an attempt to come to terms with 'the thing that
has been', a struggle, as it were, to sensitively register his encounter with history,
his people's history". Ngugi wa Thiong'o
Illustrate the truth of this statement with adequate examples. (26 marks)
SECTIONB
2. Assess the impact of British Imperialism on the Community in Chinua Achebe's
Arrow of God.
3. ' ... Unless we grasp the huge significance that the (re)attainment of nationhood
carried for African intellectuals in these years of decolonisation, it is almost
impossible for us to understand the subsequent trajectory of African Literature.'
-Neil Lazarus
Respond to this assertion with close reference to Ayi Kwei Armah's The Beautyful
Ones Are Not Yet Born.
4. Like most African writers, Okri's quest for indigenous resources by which to
organise his narratives came after his experiments with Western forms of realism.
Analyse the form his work has taken, illustrating your answer with examples from his
writing.
5. In Half of a Yellow Sun, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of Biafra as
seen through the lives of the twins, Olanna and Kainene.
Discuss the significance ofBiafra, read against the idea of the Nation in the
development of Nigerian writing.
6. ?Alex la Guma's title "In the Fog of the Season's End" is optimistic in spite of
the apartheid context in which it is situated.' Do you agree? Illustrate, with close
reference to the novel.
'1. Illustrate with examples from Ike Oguine's A Squatter's Tale how the themes of
success and failure at home and in exile are portrayed.
8. 'The various poets in Margaret Dickinson's When Bullets Begin to Flower
illustrate the necessity of political struggle to gain freedom and hope.'
Demonstrate the truth of this statement with reference to any TWO poems.
9.
Nadine Gordimer has been criticized for writing from a position of privilege.
With close reference to 'Amnesty' , analyse the strategies she uses to assert her
'right to be a literary witness to her country's tragedies'.
More Question Papers
Popular Exams
Return to Question Papers