CLASSROOM SESSION- RC#1 - 7TH MAY

Directions for questions 31 to 33: The passage given below is followed by a set of three questions.

Choose the most appropriate answer to each question.

We especially revere the genius of Shakespeare in the English-speaking world, but I'd like to focus on the

genius of another writer, a Spanish one, Miguel de Cervantes, who shaped our world as well, and did so in

ways that may not be apparent even to those aware of his enormous literary influence. With the two parts

of "Don Quixote," published in 1605 and 1615 respectively, Cervantes created the world's first bestseller, a

novel that, in the words of the great critic Harold Bloom, "contains within itself all the novels that have

followed in its sublime wake."

As if that were not enough, in writing those volumes Cervantes did something even more profound: he

crystallized in prose a confluence of changes in how people in early modern Europe understood themselves

and the world around them. What he passed down to those who would write in his wake, then, was not

merely a new genre but an implicit worldview that would infiltrate every aspect of social life: fiction.

What is fiction? And how does reading fiction affect how we experience the world?

The literary historian Luiz Costa Lima has argued that prior to the invention of fiction; narratives were largely

measured against one overriding standard: the perceived truthfulness of their relation to the world. That

truth was often a moral or theological one, and to the extent that narratives related the deeds of men,

proximity to an image of virtue or holiness would be considered worthy of imitation, and distance from it

worthy of opprobrium.

Fiction is different.

For a prose narrative to be fictional it must be written for a reader who knows it is untrue and yet treats it for

a time as if it were true. The reader knows, in other words, not to apply the traditional measure of truthfulness

for judging a narrative; he or she suspends that judgment for a time, in a move that Samuel Taylor Coleridge

popularized as "the willing suspension of disbelief," or "poetic faith." Another way of putting this is to say

that a reader must be able to occupy two opposed identities simultaneously: a naïve reader who believes

what he is being told, and a savvy one who knows it is untrue.

In order to achieve this effect the author needs to pull off a complex trick. At every step of the way, a

fictional narrative both knows more and less than it is telling us. It speaks always with at least two voices,

at times representing the limited perspective of its characters, at times revealing to the reader elements of

the story unknown to some or all of those characters.

While writers prior to Cervantes deployed elements of this fictional template, he was the first to use the

technique as a basis of a full-blown, extended narrative. In order to do this, Cervantes imported into the art

of prose narration a ploy he learned from his favorite art form, the one he most desperately wished to excel

at — the theater. Like a playwright including a play within a play, with characters dividing into actors and

audience members on the stage, Cervantes made his book be about books, and turned his characters into

readers of and characters in those books.

31. All of the following explain how narratives were measured prior to the invention of fiction except:

(a) A narrative was considered better if it conveyed reality of that time more accurately.

(b) A narrative was considered better if it upheld religious beliefs of the time.

(c) A narrative was considered less worthy if it depicted behaviour that deviated from an image of the

ideal man.

(d) A narrative was considered less worthy if it depicted actions that went against moral or theological

truths.

32. According to the passage, which one of these is not true of Cervantes?

(a) Cervantes' biggest contribution to the world was the introduction of the first full blown narrative

based on fiction.

(b) Cervantes may not be appreciated completely even by people who otherwise know of his

considerable influence.

(c) Cervantes borrowed elements from theatre in his writings.

(d) Every novel that came after Cervantes' "Don Quixote" borrowed something from it.

33. Which of the following best exemplifies "the willing suspension of disbelief" as described in the

passage?

(a) An astronomer who enjoys stories about alien civilizations even though he/she concedes there

is no possibility of intelligent life on other planets.

(b) A teenager who starts believing in vampires after reading a popular bestseller even though there

is no evidence that they exist.

(c) A reporter who empathises with the plight of the victims after reading an account of genocides

even if he/she knows that the account may be exaggerated.

(d) A politician who adopts the ideas of a famous statesman after reading his memoirs even though

parts of the memoirs were fabricated.