ENG 226 Final, Spring 1997

English 226 Final Examination Spring 1997 Answer one of the following essay questions: 1. At an early point in Orientalism (1978), Said writes that there is nothging mysterious or natural about authority. It is formed, irradiated, disseminated; it is instrumental, it is persuasive; it has status, it establishes canons of taste and value; it is virtually indistinguishable from certain ideas it dignifies as true, and from traditions, perceptions and judgments it forms, transmits, reproduces. Above all, authority can, indeed must, be analyzed. Explain and comment on the above quotation in light of what you know about post-colonial and postmodernist criticism. Provide ample examples to illustrate your views. . Theorists generally agree that all thinking and investigation is necessarily affected and largely determined by prior ideological commitment. The Arnoldian notion of “disinterested” inquiry is therefore untenable. What is your position on this view? Discuss with reference to some of the critical practices and schools of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.