Question TSLB3123 - OBT - JUN 2022

CONFIDENTIAL
INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU MALAYSIA

KEMENTERIAN PENDIDIKAN MALAYSIA
PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN DENGAN KEPUJIAN

Semester III Tahun 3
OPEN BOOK TEST-OBT : JUNE 2022
CAMPUS : IPOH
INDEX NUMBER :
COURSE CODE : TSLB3123

COURSE : LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
DURATION : 2 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES
TOTAL MARKS : 60
INSTRUCTIONS TO CANDIDATES
1. This paper consists of 2 sections:

Section A : 2 compulsory questions (40 marks)
Section B : 2 essay questions (20 marks)
2. Answer the TWO compulsory questions in Section A and ONE question

ONLY in Section B.
3. Answers must be typed in Microsoft word document using Arial font, 12 size and
1.5 spacing.
4. Candidates must indicate their index number on the top left corner and the
course code on the top right corner of every answer sheet.
5. Candidates are reminded not to plagiarise and must adhere to the code of
academic writing stipulated by the Institute of Teacher Education.
THIS QUESTION BOOKLET CONSISTS OF 6 PRINTED PAGES
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© 2022 Copyright Government of Malaysia
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SECTION A
( 40 marks )
TWO (2) Compulsory Questions*
1. According to Bressler (1999), reader-response criticism shifts the critical focus from a text to
a reader and it diverts the emphasis from the text as the sole determiner of meaning to the
significance of the reader as an essential participant in the reading process and the creation
of meaning.
In response to the abovementioned notion of reader-response criticism, evaluate the role as

an active audience of a reader, and with reference made to a piece of literary work you
have read during the duration of this course.
The length of your essay should be between 500 and 550 words.
(20 marks)
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2. A ballad is a type of poem that tells a story and was traditionally set to music. Edna St.
Vincent Millay has clearly described the notion as below:
The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver
“Son,” said my mother, When the winter came,

When I was knee-high, I’d not a pair of breeches
“You’ve need of clothes to cover you, Nor a shirt to my name.
And not a rag have I.
I couldn’t go to school,
“There’s nothing in the house Or out of doors to play.
To make a boy breeches, And all the other little boys
Nor shears to cut a cloth with Passed our way.
Nor thread to take stitches.
“Son,” said my mother,
“There’s nothing in the house “Come, climb into my lap,
But a loaf-end of rye, And I’ll chafe your little bones
And a harp with a woman’s head While you take a nap.”
Nobody will buy,”
And she began to cry.
And, oh, but we were silly
That was in the early fall. For half an hour or more,
When came the late fall, Me with my long legs
“Son,” she said, “the sight of you Dragging on the floor,
Makes your mother’s blood crawl,—
A-rock-rock-rocking
“Little skinny shoulder-blades To a mother-goose rhyme!
Sticking through your clothes! Oh, but we were happy
And where you’ll get a jacket from For half an hour’s time!
God above knows.
But there was I, a great boy,
“It’s lucky for me, lad, And what would folks say
Your daddy’s in the ground, To hear my mother singing me
And can’t see the way I let To sleep all day,
His son go around!” In such a daft way?
And she made a queer sound.
That was in the late fall.
3
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Men say the winter Her thin fingers, moving

Was bad that year; In the thin, tall strings,
Fuel was scarce, Were weav-weav-weaving
And food was dear. Wonderful things.
A wind with a wolf’s head Many bright threads,

Howled about our door, From where I couldn’t see,
And we burned up the chairs Were running through the harp-strings
And sat on the floor. Rapidly,
All that was left us And gold threads whistling

Was a chair we couldn’t break, Through my mother’s hand.
And the harp with a woman’s head I saw the web grow,
Nobody would take, And the pattern expand.
For song or pity’s sake.
She wove a child’s jacket,
The night before Christmas And when it was done
I cried with the cold, She laid it on the floor
I cried myself to sleep And wove another one.
Like a two-year-old.
She wove a red cloak
And in the deep night So regal to see,
I felt my mother rise, “She’s made it for a king’s son,”
And stare down upon me I said, “and not for me.”
With love in her eyes. But I knew it was for me.
I saw my mother sitting She wove a pair of breeches

On the one good chair, Quicker than that!
A light falling on her She wove a pair of boots
From I couldn’t tell where, And a little cocked hat.
Looking nineteen, She wove a pair of mittens,

And not a day older, She wove a little blouse,
And the harp with a woman’s head She wove all night
Leaned against her shoulder. In the still, cold house.
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She sang as she worked, A smile about her lips,

And the harp-strings spoke; And a light about her head,
Her voice never faltered, And her hands in the harp-strings
And the thread never broke. Frozen dead.
And when I awoke,—
And piled up beside her
There sat my mother And toppling to the skies,
With the harp against her shoulder Were the clothes of a king’s son,
Looking nineteen Just my size.
And not a day older,
This ballad features a tragic story of a poor, helpless mother and her son, the mother’s struggle
to provide for the fatherless son, and her urge to do something within her abilities. She herself
is unfed and not fully prepared to fight winter, yet she concentrates on the condition of her only
son. In the end, she dies quite heroically, with her cold hands on the harp strings and a room
full of clothes for her son, which is what makes the ending both tragic and emotional.
Evaluate on the poet’s use of repetition, symbolism and personification to arouse the readers’
sympathy towards the mother and son.
(20 marks)
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SECTION B
( 20 marks )
Answer ONE (1) Question Only*

1. According to Tyson (2014), feminist criticism is concerned with “the ways in which literature
(and other cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and
psychological oppression of women”. This school of theory looks at how aspects of our
culture are inherently patriarchal (male dominated) and aims to expose misogyny in writing
about women, which can take explicit and implicit forms.
By selecting any ONE short story written by a Malaysian/ American/ British/ Australian/
African/ Asian writer, which you have read during the duration of this course, evaluate the
short story using feminist criticism.
(20 marks)
2. Post-colonial critics are concerned with literature produced by colonial powers and works
produced by those who were/are colonised. Post-colonial theory looks at issues of power,
economics, politics, religion and culture and how these elements work in relation to colonial
hegemony (Western colonisers controlling the colonised) (Tyson, 2014).
Select any ONE short novel/play written by a Malaysian/ Asian/ American/ British writer, in
which you have read during the duration of this course. By combining the textual evidences
from the selected novel/play, write on how the postcolonial identity is expressed by the
author in the novel/play.
(20 marks)
END OF QUESTION PAPER
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CONFIDENTIAL

INSTITUT PENDIDIKAN GURU MALAYSIA

PROGRAM IJAZAH SARJANA MUDA PERGURUAN DENGAN KEPUJIAN

OPEN BOOK TEST-OBT : JUNE 2022

COURSE CODE : TSLB3123

1. This paper consists of 2 sections:

2. Answer the TWO compulsory questions in Section A and ONE question

THIS QUESTION BOOKLET CONSISTS OF 6 PRINTED PAGES

TWO (2) Compulsory Questions*

In response to the abovementioned notion of reader-response criticism, evaluate the role as

The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver

“Son,” said my mother, When the winter came,

Men say the winter Her thin fingers, moving

A wind with a wolf’s head Many bright threads,

All that was left us And gold threads whistling

I saw my mother sitting She wove a pair of breeches

Looking nineteen, She wove a pair of mittens,

She sang as she worked, A smile about her lips,

Answer ONE (1) Question Only*

END OF QUESTION PAPER

© 2022 Copyright Government of Malaysia CONFIDENTIAL

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