- How would you distinguish “translation” from “borrowing” as a literary activity? Identify two ways that Murray’s translation of Euripides’ Bacchae adds some specific value to the original text.
- What makes J.P. Clark’s “Abiku” different from Wole Soyinka’s “Abiku” and what
does this difference contribute to the potential of “the spirit child” as a trope? - Identify some of the allusions in Robert Hayden’s “A Letter from Phillis Wheatley” and comment on their significance
Section B: Sight passage (a two-part poem)
Who is the speaker of this poem, or are there more than one? What kind of “game” is the speaker proposing and how are you encouraged to regard it or participate in it? Provide support for your analysis.
La Migra (by Pat Mora, 1993)
I
Let’s play La Migra1
I’ll be the Border Patrol.
You be Mexican maid.
I get the badge and sunglasses.
You can hide and run, 5
but you can’t get away
because I have a jeep
I can take you wherever
I want, but don’t ask
Questions because 10
I don’t speak Spanish.
I can touch you wherever
I want but don’t complain
too much because I’ve got
boots and kick—if I have to, 15
and I have handcuffs.
1 Mexican slang for U.S. border patrol agents an abbreviation of the word “immigration”)
Oh, and a gun.
Get ready, get set, run.
II
Let’s play La Migra
You be the Border Patrol. 20
I’ll be the Mexican woman.
Your jeep has a flat,
and you have been spotted
by the sun.
All you have is heavy: hat 25
glasses, badge, shoes, gun.
I know the desert,
where to rest,
where to drink.
Oh, I am not alone. 30
You hear us singing
and laughing with the wind,
Agua dulce brota aquí,
Aquí, aquí,2but since you
can’t speak Spanish. 35
You do not understand.
Get ready.
Section C: Persepolis film
- Discuss this film from an intertextual perspective as a bildungsroman, a genre that
“focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist.” How do you relate to this film? Identify some relevant intertexts.
Sample Solution