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New English Literature MCQs – Updated Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) MCQs

New English Literature MCQs – Updated Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) MCQs

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Latest English Literature MCQs

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Latest Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) Mcqs

The most occurred mcqs of Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) in past papers. Past papers of Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) Mcqs. Past papers of Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) Mcqs . Mcqs are the necessary part of any competitive / job related exams. The Mcqs having specific numbers in any written test. It is therefore everyone have to learn / remember the related Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) Mcqs. The Important series of Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) Mcqs are given below:

Dryden wrote An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Is this ?

A. A Drama
B. An Essay
C. A Poetical Work
D. An Interlocution

Which of the following texts is the BEST example of the argument that a work’s meaning does not come entirely from the imagination of the author ?

A. Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology
B. T.S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent”
C. Plato’s The Republic
D. Jacques Lacan’s “The Mirror Stage…..

What approach is described by the paragraph? This approach takes as a fundamental tenet that “literature” exists not as an artifact upon a printed page but as a transaction between the physical text and the mind of a reader ?

A. Formalism
B. Reader Response Approach
C. Historical/Biographical Approach
D. Mimetic Approach

Which text argues that, as infants, human beings begin to define their identities against the identities of others ?

A. W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk
B. Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble
C. Roland Barthes’s “The Death of the Author”
D. Jacques Lacan’s “The Mirror Stage . . . “

Aristotle discusses the theory of Tragedy in _______________?

A. Rhetoric
B. Poetics
C. Art Poetique
D. Ars Poetica

In her essay “The Laugh of the Medusa,” what does Hélène Cixous suggest for women ?

A. Women should write for and about themselves in order to counter phallocentric texts.
B. Women should primarily dedicate themselves to studying women’s literature from the past.
C. Women should write, but they should do so only within the existent male canon.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Who called Aristotle “the very Alexander of criticism” ?

A. Saintsbury
B. Atkins
C. Murray
D. Tyllard

How does Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own” contribute to feminist theory ?

A. It suggests that gender has power over class.
B. It suggests that gender roles are conditioned by the possession of money and power.
C. It suggests that the suppression of women is part of a historical climate that will naturally fade away.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Who contributed the term “to see the object as in itself it really is” ?

A. Coleridge
B. Wordsworth
C. Arnold
D. Goethe

The phrase “willing suspension of disbelief” applies to which poet/critic ?

A. Joseph Conrad
B. Charles Lamb
C. Coleridge
D. Wordsworth

What is hermeneutics ?

A. A term that describes the effect of autobiography on text
B. A term that describes the attempt to read homosexuality into literature
C. A term that describes the absence of racial others in the canon
D. A term that describes the interpretation of meaning

What does Judith Butler mean when she suggests that gender is “performed” ?

A. Gender does not reflect an essential truth, but rather is a role people play based on their internalization of socially constructed gender roles.
B. Real gender roles are scripted by excellent writers.
C. Gender roles do not exist.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

How are Julia Kristeva’s psychoanalytic theories distinct from traditional Freudian concepts ?

A. Kristeva suggests that women are not subject to traditional fetishes.
B. Kristeva rejects the idea that neuroses provide insight into the unconscious
C. Kristeva offers a more central place for women’s issues within psychological development.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

What does Edward Said argue about the concept of the Orient ?

A. It illustrates the fundamental political equality of all nations.
B. It has little relationship to the colonization of Asian countries by the West.
C. It was produced by Western scholarship.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

According to Aristotle the unravelling of the plot_____________?

A. Should arise from the circumstances of the plot itself
B. By narration
C. By supernatural machinery
D. By the choral odes

“Of all philosopher’s Plato is the most poetic.” Who said this______________?

A. Philiph Sidney
B. Aristlotle
C. Shelley
D. Keats

In which book of the Republic did Plato ban poets from his ideal world ?

A. Book 1
B. Book 10
C. Book 7
D. Book 5

Introduction To Literary Studies MCQs

In Fredric Jameson’s book The Political Unconscious, what does Jameson suggest about literature ?

A. History comprises the essential framework for the performance of literary analysis
B. Biography is essential to literary analysis
C. Politics and the economy are the most important factors in literary analysis
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Who established the Lyceum ?

A. Horace
B. Aristotle
C. Plato
D. Longinus

Regarding the observance of the three Classical Unities in a play, Dr. Johnson’s view is that ?

A. Only the Unity of Place should be observed
B. Only the Unity of Time should be observed
C. Only the Unity of Action should be observed
D. All the three Unities should be observed

“The end of writing is to instruct, the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.” Whose view is this ?

A. Coleridge’s
B. Wordsworth’s
C. Dr. Johnson’s
D. Matthew Arnold’s

Which of the following ideas relates to J.L. Austin’s performativity theory ?

A. Individuals perform gender actively
B. Language is used to indicate action as well as thought.
C. Performance is the ultimate objective of all human beings.
D. All of the above answers are correct

Who is the author of Ars Poetica ?

A. Aristotle
B. Plato
C. Horace
D. Longinus

Which of the following best describes the difference between literary criticism and literary theory ?

A. Literary criticism draws upon research derived from sources outside literature, while literary theory draws upon sources within a text.
B. Literary criticism is concerned only with the meaning of a literary work, while literary theory is concerned only with the structure of a literary work.
C. Literary theory is concerned with the method used to interpret a work, while literary criticism is the application of literary theory.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Michael Foucault was the major practitioner of this school of criticism?

A. Deconstructionism
B. Formalist Criticism
C. Structuralism
D. Mimetic Criticism

Who considers poetry ‘a mother of lies’ ?

A. Plato
B. Aristotle
C. Pope
D. Stephen Gosson

In which essay did Arnold say that for good literature to flourish two powers are necessary – creative and the critical ?

A. The Function of Criticism
B. Essay on Wordsworth
C. Preface to Eighteen Fifty Three poems
D. The Study of Poetry

Aristotle and Plato belong to phase of criticism ?

A. Hellenic
B. Renaissance
C. Hellenistic
D. Graeco-Roman

The term Electra Complex has originated from a tragedy entitled Electra. Who is the author of his tragedy ?

A. Euripides
B. Sophocles
C. Aeschylus
D. Seneca

In which the following works Plato discusses his Theory of Poetry ?

A. Ion
B. Apology
C. The Republic
D. Phaedrus

This critical approach assumes that language does not refer to any external reality. It can assert several, contradictory interpretations of one text ?

A. Deconstructionism
B. Structuralism
C. Formalist Criticism
D. Mimetic Criticism

Christopher Ricks would most likely DISAGREE with which of the following claims about literary theory ?

A. Literary theory often depends on esoteric knowledge to be properly understood.
B. Literary theory is limited in its ability to interpret a text.
C. Literary theory is employed mostly by academics.
D. Literary theory is the only proper way to conceptualize literary texts.

This approach provides a universalistic approach to literature and identifies a reason why certain literature may survive the test of time. It works well with works that are highly symbolic.What approach has this advantage ?

A. Psychological
B. Mimetic
C. Historical/Biographical
D. Mythological/Archetypal

Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria appeared in the year ?.

A. 1817
B. 1718
C. 1818
D. 1717

Literary Theory And Criticism MCQs

The Lyrical Ballads was published in____________________?

A. 1815
B. 1798
C. 1780
D. 1805

Which of the following is a theme of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s book Epistemology of the Closet ?

A. Understanding sexuality is crucial to understanding culture.
B. Literary study is unaffected by a lack of interest in sexuality.
C. Understanding homosexuality has little effect on understanding culture.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

‘Preface to the Lyrical Ballads’ was published in______________?

A. 1802
B. 1800
C. 1798
D. 1815

Aristotle said of chorus in Greek tragedy that_____________?

A. It should make only reports
B. It should be regarded as one of the actors
C. It is only lyrical songs in the play
D. It should only comment on the action

This approach can turn a work into little more than a case study, neglecting to view it as a piece of art. Critics sometimes attempt to diagnose long dead authors based on their works, which is perhaps not the best evidence of their psychology. Critics tend to see sex in everything, exaggerating this aspect of literature. What approach possess this disadvantage ?

A. Formalism/New Criticism
B. Psychological
C. Moral/Philosophical
D. Historical/Biographical

“The tragic-comedy which is the product of the English theatre is one the most monstrous inventions that ever entered into a poet’s thought.” Whose view is this ?

A. Alexander Pope’s
B. John Dryden’s
C. Joseph Addison’s
D. Dr. Johnson’s

What is Christopher Ricks’s attitude toward literary theory ?

A. He considers theory to be the only way that literary texts can be interpreted.
B. He considers it to be vital in order to understand literary texts.
C. He has no misgivings about the practical usability of literary theory.
D. He feels that literary theory is ultimately too limited in scope to serve as a proper method of interpretation.

What is the central idea of Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics ?

A. There are five phases of linguistic development.
B. Language is inseparable from its historical context.
C. Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Arnold summarises the rule of English criticism in one word, in The Function Of Criticism. What is the word ?

A. Disintrestedness
B. Purification
C. Intresedness
D. Civilization

Who was the most illustrious pupil of Plato ?

A. Aristotle
B. Aristophanes
C. Longinus
D. Socrates

Who remarked, “Spenser write no language.” ?

A. Arnold
B. Pope
C. Dr. Jhonson
D. Ben Jonson

Coleridge considered imagination as______________?

A. A psychological experience
B. Modifying power
C. Critical faculty
D. A product of intellect

Biographia Literaria was written by_________________?

A. Keats
B. Coleridge
C. Wordsworth
D. Charles Lamb

Trauma theory is tremendously influenced by which theoretical school ?

A. Psychoanalysis
B. Feminism
C. Marxism
D. Deconstruction

Who made a distinction between Fancy and Imagination ?

A. Southey
B. Coleridge
C. Wordsworth
D. Hazlitt

Sublimity has_______________?

A. 3 sources
B. 2 sources
C. 4 sources
D. 5 sources

On the Sublime was written in_____________?

A. 2nd Century AD
B. 1st Century AD
C. 1st Century BC
D. 3rd Century AD

Trauma theory primarily developed out of the work of which psychoanalyst ?

A. Sigmund Freud
B. Michel Foucault
C. Carl Jung
D. Jacques Derrida

What is the meaning of the term Hamartia as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy ?

A. Working of fate against the hero
B. Tragic end of the tragedy
C. A weak trait in the character of the hero
D. A strong quality in the character of the hero

Whom did Aristotle consider the most tragic of the Greek dramatists ?

A. Aeschylus
B. Agathon
C. Sophocles
D. Euripides

What is the main goal of ethnic criticism ?

A. To reconcile cultural identity with individual identity
B. To rectify the double experiences of certain racial groups
C. To bring attention to false Euro-centric paradigms
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Which of the following is a rule of semiotics ?

A. All linguistics is in some way related to class struggle.
B. All linguistic and social phenomena are texts, and the object of studying these texts is to reveal the underlying codes that make them meaningful.
C. All linguistic concepts evolve solely out of the responses of people within a specific historical era.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

What does the term meta-language mean, according to Andrzej Warminski ?

A. A language about another language
B. A language that does not yet constitute a real language
C. A supernatural language
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Which of the following statements offers the best definition of the concept of strange attractors in chaos theory ?

A. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are entirely random.
B. Strange attractors are complex forces that are entirely random
C. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are both random and determined.
D. Strange attractors are complex forces that are determined by the laws of physics.

What is defamiliarization ?

A. A term that describes the capacity of art to counter the effects of habit
B. An idea explored by Viktor Shklovsky
C. A term that describes how literature exposes its own artificiality
D. All of the above answers are correct.

Who used the words “romanticism” and “romantic” first ?

A. Coleridge
B. Wordsworth
C. Carlyle
D. Schlegel

Famous Playwright Poet And Others MCQs

Which is a common postcolonial critique of the West ?

A. The West spends too much time trying to consider an Asian perspective.
B. The West refuses to apply economic and political coercion to Asian writers.
C. The West views matters through its own limited historical position.
D. The West tends to look at Asian countries as individual units rather than lump them together.

Which school of literary theory shows a particular interest in the role of testimony in literature ?

A. Trauma theory
B. Chaos theory
C. Ecotheory
D. Formalism

Who coined the term New Historicism ?

A. Terry Eagleton
B. Jacques Derrida
C. Fredric Jameson
D. Stephen Greenblatt

To what idea does the term heteroglossia refer ?

A. The referential relationships among symbols, signifiers, and signs
B. An infant’s inability to speak prior to the mirror stage
C. The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work
D. All of the above answers are correct

Formalist critics believe that the value of a work cannot be determined by the author’s intention. What term do they use when speaking of this belief ?

A. The affective fallacy
B. The intentional fallacy
C. The pathetic fallacy
D. The objective correlative

Seven is an archetype associated with____________?

A. Perfection
B. Evil
C. Birth
D. Death

Horace was a friend of_______________?

A. Julius Caesar
B. Emperor Augustus
C. Alexander the Great
D. Pompey

“Poetry is emotions recollected in tranquility.” Who has defined poetry in these words ?

A. Coleridge
B. Wordsworth
C. Shelley
D. Matthew Arnold

Which of the following is a critical work of Ben Jonson ?

A. Arts of English Poesie
B. Discoveries
C. Discourse of English Poetry
D. An Apologie for Poetrie

A critic examining John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” focuses on the physical description of the Garden of Eden, on the symbols of hands, seed, and flower, and on the characters of Adam, Eve, Satan, and God. He pays special attention to the epic similes and metaphors and the point of view from which the tale is being told. He looks for meaning in the text itself, and does not refer to any biography of Milton. He is most likely a critic ?

A. Reader Response
B. Mimetic
C. Feminist
D. Formalist


One purpose of LITERARY CRITICISM is described below: “The historical approach, for instance, might be helpful in addressing a problem in Thomas Otway’s play Venice Preserv’d. Why are the conspirators, despite the horrible, bloody details of their obviously brutish plan, portrayed in a sympathetic light? If we look at the author and his time, we see that he was a Tory whose play was performed in the wake of the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Bill Crisis, and that there are obvious similarities between the Conspiracy in the play and the Popish Plot in history. The Tories would never approve of the bloody Popish Plot, but they nonetheless sympathized with the plotters for the way they were abused by the Tory enemy, the Whigs. Thus it makes sense for Otway to condemn the conspiracy itself in Vencie Preserv’d without condemning the conspirators themselves.” What purpose does this prescribe to ?

A. To help resolve a question, problem, or difficulty in the reading
B. To enable to form judgments about literature.
C. To help decide which is the better of two conflicting readings.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

One purpose of LITERARY CRITICISM is described below: A formalist approach might enable us to choose between a reading which sees the dissolution of society in Lord of the Flies as being caused by too strict a suppression of the “bestial” side of man and one which sees it as resulting from too little suppression. We can look to the text and ask: What textual evidence is there for the suppression or indulgence of the “bestial” side of man? Does Ralph suppress Jack when he tries to indulge his bestial side in hunting? Does it appear from the text that an imposition of stricter law and order would have prevented the breakdown? Did it work in the “grownup” world of the novel? What purpose does this prescribe to ?

A. To enable to form judgments about literature.
B. To help decide which is the better of two conflicting readings.
C. To help resolve a question, problem, or difficulty in the reading.
D. All of the above answers are correct.

New English Literature MCQs – Updated Literary Theory and Criticism ( English Literature ) MCQs