Extradiegetic Narrator AND Bowen

Answer two of the following five pairs of terms. Each answer is worth five marks.
For each pair of terms you should a) identify the text and author, b) define the term or concept and c)
discuss the relation between the two terms (eg explain how the terms are connected).

1. Extradiegetic Narrator AND Bowen
2. Focalization AND “Teaching the Cat to Yawn”
3. Analepsis AND The Importance of Being Earnest
4. Helper AND Bunbury
5. Mimesis AND Tyler
   Section B: Passage Analysis (40 marks)
   Pick two of the following passages and answer the specific question of that passage. Each passage
   discussion is worth 20 marks.
   Option 1. Analyze the gothic features in the following passage:
   She heard nothing – but while she was hearing nothing the passé
   air of the staircase was disturbed by a draft that traveled up to her
   face. It emanated from the basement. Down there a door or window was
   being opened by someone who chose this moment to leave the house.
   The rain had stopped; the pavements steamily shone as Mrs.
   Drover let herself out by inches from her own front door into the
   empty street. The unoccupied houses opposite continued to meet her
   look with their damaged stare.
   Option 2. Analyze the farcical elements of the following passage:
   [Noises heard overhead as if someone was throwing trunks about.
   Everyone looks up.]
   CECILY. Uncle Jack seems strangely agitated.
   CHASUBLE. Your guardian has a very emotional nature.
   LADY BRACKNELL. The noise is extremely unpleasant. It sounds as if he
   was having an argument. I dislike arguments of any kind. They are
   always vulgar, and often convincing.
   CHASUBLE. [Looking up.] It has stopped now. [The noise is redoubled.]
   LADY BRACKNELL. I wish he would arrive at some conclusion.
   GWENDOLEN. This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
   [Enter JACK with a hand-bag of black leather in his hand.]
   JACK. [Rushing over to MISS PRISM.] Is this the hand-bag, Miss Prism?
   Examine it carefully before you speak. The happiness of more than one
   life depends on your answer.
   MISS PRISM. [Calmly.] It seems to be mine. Yes, here is the injury it
   received through the upsetting of a Gower Street omnibus in younger
   and happier days. Here is the stain on the lining caused by the
   explosion of a temperance beverage, an incident that occurred at
   Leamington. And here, on the lock, are my initials. I had forgotten
   that in an extravagant mood I had had them placed there. The bag is
   undoubtedly mine. I am delighted to have it so unexpectedly restored
   to me. It has been a great inconvenience being without it all these
   years.
   JACK. [In a pathetic voice.] Miss Prism, more is restored to you than
   this hand-bag. I was the baby you placed in it.
   MISS PRISM. [Amazed.] You?
   JACK. [Embracing her.] Yes…mother!
   MISS PRISM. [Recoiling in indignant astonishment.] Mr. Worthing! I am
   unmarried!
   Option 3. Analyze the structure of time in the following passage.
   He works steadily, doggedly. She looks up once and sees how the sweat
   has made an eagle-shaped stain across his back. There are other
   cardboard squares on other panes, broken earlier. In a few more
   seasons, it occurs to her, they'll be working in the dark. It's as if
   they're sealing themselves in, windowpane by windowpane.
   When Cody came back with Ruth, after the honeymoon, he was
   better-looking than ever, sleek and dark and well dressed, but Ruth
   was her same homely self: a little muskrat of a girl with wickety red
   hair and freckles, her skin that tissue-thin kind subject to lip
   sores and pink splotches, her twiggish body awkward in a matronly
   brown suit that must have been bought especially for this occasion.
   (Though Pearl was to find, in later years, that all Ruth's clothes
   struck her that way; nothing ever seemed as natural as those littleboy dungarees she used to wear with Ezra.) Pearl watched the two
   sharply, closely, anxious to come to some conclusion about their
   marriage, but they gave away no secrets. Ruth sat pressing her palms
   together; Cody kept his arm across the back of the couch, not
   touching her but claiming her, at least.
   Section C: Essay (50 marks)
   Pick one of the following questions and write a persuasive essay addressing the question.
6. Colm Toibin writes, “A novel is a pattern and it is our job to notice how the textures were
   woven and the tones put in place.” How does narratology help you achieve this? Make an
   argument for or against the value of narratology by discussing the use of one narratological
   device (eg analepsis, prolepsis, extradiegetic narrator, actantial role, stock character) in two of
   “The Demon Lover,” Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant or The Importance of Being Earnest.
7. Does a novel allow the complexity of characters to be developed in ways that a short story or a
   play does not? Discuss the way form impacts content in two of “The Demon Lover,” Dinner at
   the Homesick Restaurant or The Importance of Being Earnest.
8. Women play key roles in all three of our narrative texts. Consider how the genre of the text
   impacts the depiction of women in two of “The Demon Lover,” Dinner at the Homesick
   Restaurant or The Importance of Being Earnest.
9. How does the position of the narrator, or the absence of a narrator, impact the development of
   the plot? Discuss in relation to two of “The Demon Lover,” Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
   or The Importance of Being Earnest.