Q1. What is Postcolonialism?

a) The literature produced by a country after its independence from a colonial power
b) Sum total of all the various social, political, economic and cultural changes brought
about by the impact of colonialism
c) Impact of colonialism on the colonising country, e.g. Britain
d) All of the above

Q2. What is Commonwealth Literature?

a) Study of literature written in English of all those nation states which were once British
colonies
b) Study of native literature of all those nation states which were once British colonies
c) Study of literature written in English of most nation states which were once
British colonies with the notable exception of USA
d) Study of British Literature and its affluent colonies

Q3. The literature of which of the following country is not part of the Commonwealth
Literature?

a) Britain

b) India

c) West Indies

d) Africa

Q4. Commonwealth Literature is a problematic category because _____________.

a) It does not include the literature of metropolitan Britain, or of some erstwhile colonies
like America etc.
b) It involves a nostalgic glorification and memorialisation of the legacies of colonialism
c) It does not take into account the native languages, cultural influences and territorial
differences of the ex-colonies
d) All of the above

Q5. Which of the following concerns were raised by Salman Rushdie regarding
Commonwealth Literature?

a) Commonwealth Literature was too similar to realism and therefore serves no function
 b) Commonwealth Literature identifies, marginalizes and segregates literatures
coming from ex-colonies as inferior, and limits the process of creativity of the
authors by forcing them to write only about their experiences in their native land
c) That the field focuses so heavily on identity and language that it ignores the urgent
question of whether those in the global south can eat, leaving this problem up to
Western agencies to sort out
d) That the literature entered international relations too recently to be considered an
academic theory

Q6. What are the 3 ways in which discourses are limited or regulated?

a) Censure by publishing industry, Banning of books by political parties, Prohibition by

government
b) A subject is considered taboo by the society, the author is considered mad/
insane, institutional ratification
c) Economic limitations, violence, physical bondage (prison)
d) Societal pressures, Science, Religion

Q7. How was English education promoted in India following the suggestions of Macaulay’s
“Minute Upon Indian Education”?

a) By diverting the funds allocated for the study of native languages, like Sanskrit,
Persian and others to the study of English
b) By limiting government jobs to English speakers only
c) By changing the medium of instruction in schools and universities to English
d) By changing the syllabus in schools and universities to include texts which heaped
praises upon British literature, and thereby getting the students interested in the study
of British Literature

Q8. What did Edward Said mean by the term ‘Orientalism’?

a) European colonial domination of the Orient was integrally associated with how the
Orient was conceptualised, researched and talked about in Europe, and presented as
contrasting binary of Occident
b) The discourse about the Orient naturalised the military and economic domination of
the Orient
 c) Orientalism as an academic discipline underlined by the millennia-old prejudice that
the Orient represents a backward and barbaric society, and thus justified colonial rule
by the Occident
d) All of the above

Q9. What is “contrapuntal reading”?

a) Contrapuntal reading is a reading strategy which attempts to read a text against

the grain so as to identify and question the inherent prejudices that underline the
text
b) An accurate depiction of the modern day Middle East and Asia, without scholars and
academics relying solely on colonial texts
c) Scholars now travelling to erstwhile colonies to establish an accurate picture of
colonised peoples
d) Instead of stereotypical portrayal of the colonised subjects as irrational, untamed
barbarians, contrapuntal reading presents their point of view as educated, cultured
beings

Q10. Match the following authors with their books/essays:

I. Edward Said 1. Minutes Upon Indian Education

II. Joseph Conrad 2. The Archaeology of Knowledge
III. Michel Foucault 3. Orientalism
IV. Thomas B. Macaulay 4. Heart of Darkness
a) I-1, II-2, III-3, IV-4
b) I-4, II-3, III-1, IV-2
c) I-3, II-4, III-2, IV-1
d) I-2, II-1, III-4, IV-3