Prescribed prose texts
Prescribed prose texts
This domain is extract-based: a passage from a prescribed prose text is given, and you must identify text, author, theme and characterisation. The paper rewards precise placement, not plot summary.
Core
- Build a one-line card for each prescribed text: title, author, period, prose type (khyat, vigat, short story, essay) and central theme.
- Historical prose: Muhnot Nainsi’s Khyat and Vigat are chronicles and gazetteers; they mix genealogy, battle narrative and administrative description.
- Modern prose: Vijaydan Detha’s Batan ri Phulwari retells folk tales with social critique; character is often revealed through dialogue and custom.
- Characterisation questions ask: who changes, who embodies a value, who opposes, and how the author judges them.
Worked example
Prompt: 'An extract lists villages, wells, crops and lineage dues in Marwar. Which prose type?' Reasoning: administrative survey plus lineage plus local detail points to vigat, not a short story or a khyat’s dynastic narrative. Answer: Nainsi’s Vigat; theme is land and livelihood administration.
Traps
- Confusing Khyat (dynastic and genealogical narrative) with Vigat (local survey).
- Naming the patron instead of the author.
- Retelling the extract without naming theme or character function.