The GATE Grind

GATE 2025 XH2 (English) – Question 60

History of English Literature and Literary Studies · Global Perspectives on Literary Studies: Anglophone literatures (British, American, Canadian and other postcolonial literatures) · 2 marks · Multiple select

“I resemble everyone/but myself, and sometimes see/in shop-windows,/despite the well-known laws/ of optics,/the portrait of a stranger,/date unknown,/often signed in a corner/by my father”
Which state(s) of being is/are illustrated in the above lines from A. K. Ramanujan’s “Self Portraits”?

  1. Existential alienation
  2. Anxiety of self, caused by the structures of kinship
  3. Artistic ecstasy
  4. Euphoria in the marketplace

Practise this question in The GATE Grind →

Show answer and explanation

Correct answer: (A) Existential alienation; (B) Anxiety of self, caused by the structures of kinship

Explanation

The speaker does not recognise himself, and the portrait is “signed by my father”, which links the loss of self to his inheritance and kinship. There is no ecstasy or euphoria.