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Civil Services (Main)
Examination, 2026 KVMS-D-ENG
ENGLISH
Paper II
( LITERATURE )
Time Allowed : Three Hours Maximum Marks : 250
Question Paper Specific Instructions
Please read each of the following instructions carefully before attempting
questions :
There are EIGHT questions divided in TWO SECTIONS.
Candidate has to attempt FIVE questions in all.
Questions no. 1 and 5 are compulsory and out of the remaining, any THREE are to be
attempted choosing at least ONE question from each Section.
The number of marks carried by a question/part is indicated against it.
Answers must be written in ENGLISH.
Word limit in questions, wherever specified, should be adhered to.
Attempts of questions shall be counted in sequential order. Unless struck off, attempt of a
question shall be counted even if attempted partly. Any page or portion of the page left
blank in the Question-cum-Answer (QCA) Booklet must be clearly struck off.
KVMS-D-ENG 7
01. Critically comment in about 150 words on each of the following :
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
SECTION A
Fish, flesh, or fowl commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
(W.B. Yeats)
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
(T.S. Eliot)
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
(W.H. Auden)
In the hollows of afternoons
Young mothers assemble
At swing and sandpit
Setting free their children.
(Philip Larkin)
a house that leaned
slowly through our growing
years on a bent coconut
tree in the yard.
Being the burning type,
he burned properly
at the cremation
(A.K. Ramanujan)
KVMS-D-ENG 2
10x5=50
10
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९2.
९३.
৫4.
Answer all of the following questions :
(a)
(b)
(c)
How does the myth of Leda’s rape in Yeats’s “Leda and the Swan”
symbolize the social milieu of early twentieth-century Europe ?
How does T.S. Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi” explore the themes of
alienation, regret and powerlessness ?
Analyse how A.K. Ramanujan’s poems depict the negotiation between
heritage and modernity in the formation of postcolonial identity.
Answer all of the following questions:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Assess how far W.H. Auden’s assertion that “Poetry makes nothing
happen” is true.
Discuss Philip Larkin’s statement that “deprivation is for me what
daffodils were for William Wordsworth”, with reference to his poetic
vision.
What structural and formal innovations characterised modernist
poetry ? Illustrate with reference to the prescribed poems.
Answer all of the following questions :
(a)
(b)
(c)
To what extent does the revolutionary impact of Look Back in Anger
lie, not only in its themes, but also in its language and dramatic
expression ?
Discuss how Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett represents a
convergence between avant-garde and popular culture.
Discuss the use of existential themes, circular dialogues, and illogical
situations in absurd drama.
KVMS-D-ENG 3
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Q5.
Qe.
९7.
૦8.
Answer all of the following questions in about 150 words each :
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
SECTION B
Analyse the ways in which Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim addresses the
ideological and moral consequences of colonialism and racism.
Elaborate how guilt, sin and confession contribute to Stephen’s moral
and psychological development in James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man.
Examine the characters in Sons and Lovers from a psychoanalytical
perspective.
Analyse how E.M. Forster employs the tripartite structure in A Passage
to India to explore the limits of cross-cultural understanding.
Examine Mrs. Dalloway as a novel that explores its deepest concerns
through the themes of medicine, empire, and love.
Answer all of the following questions:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Analyse the role of oral narrative style and mythic framework in
shaping the structure of Kanthapura.
Explore V.S.Naipaul’s use of comic situations and ৪৪৮10
characterisation in A House for Mr. Biswas.
Examine the features and significance of the stream of consciousness
technique in modernist literature with reference to Mrs. Dalloway.
Answer all of the following questions :
(a)
(b)
(c)
Discuss how Joseph Conrad explores the complex issues of honour, guilt
and heroism in his novel Lord Jim.
Analyse the significance of the ending of A Passage to India in terms of
colonial separation and the politics of desire.
Examine how Kanthapura portrays poverty, illiteracy, and superstition.
Answer all of the following questions:
(a)
(b)
(c)
Examine how V.S. Naipaul uses the physical and social landscape in
A House for Mr. Biswas to mirror the struggles, aspirations, and
isolation of Mr. Biswas.
Discuss the representation of colliery life in D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and
Lovers.
Discuss the interplay between Stephen’s personal experiences and his
emerging ideas about the role of the artist in society.
KVMS-D-ENG 4
10x5=50
10
10
10
10
10
15
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20
15
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20
15
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20