Literary Criticism Questions and Answers

Q: Shakespeare, according to Johnson, offers :

According to Johnson, Shakespeare offers Representations of general nature.In the Preface to Shakespeare (1765), Dr Johnson praises Shakespeare as the poet of nature: 'Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.' His characters are not shaped by 'the customs of particular places' or 'peculiarities of studies or professions', but are 'the genuine progeny of common humanity'.The other options, manners peculiar to individuals, times or places, are exactly what Johnson says Shakespeare does not offer.

Q: By 'Peripeteia' Aristotle means :

By peripeteia Aristotle means Reversal of Fortune.In the Poetics, peripeteia is a change of the situation to its opposite, as when the messenger who comes to cheer Oedipus reveals his parentage and so brings about his ruin. With anagnorisis (recognition), it marks the complex plot that Aristotle considered best.The climax is the point of highest tension, an anti-climax is a let-down, and an interlude is a short entertainment between acts, so none of them is the reversal.

Q: Wordsworth writes, "Humble and rustic life was chosen because in that condition the essential passions of the heart ......................... ".

The essential passions of the heart find a better soil.In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800), Wordsworth explains that humble and rustic life was chosen 'because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language'.The other options reverse what he says: the passions are less under restraint, speak a plainer language, and can be more accurately contemplated in rural life.

Q: Which one of the following 'Critic-School' pair is correctly matched ?

The correctly matched pair is Raymond Williams-Cultural Studies.Raymond Williams, with Culture and Society (1958) and The Long Revolution (1961), was a founder of British cultural studies and of cultural materialism.The other pairs are wrong. Fredric Jameson is a Marxist critic, not an archetypal one (that is Northrop Frye). I. A. Richards was a pioneer of practical criticism and New Criticism, not historical criticism. Allen Tate was a Southern New Critic, not a Marxist.

Q: What does the term "baroque" mean in the context of literature ?

In literature, baroque means a Grand and highly decorated style.The term comes from art and architecture of the seventeenth century, marked by elaborate ornament, grandeur and dramatic effect. Applied to literature, it describes writing that is ornate and extravagant, rich in conceits, complex syntax and display, as in Crashaw or in the prose of Sir Thomas Browne.It does not mean satirical, concise or tragicomic; concise, plain description is close to its opposite.

Q: Shelley defends poetry against the attack of :

Shelley defends poetry against the attack of Thomas Love Peacock.Peacock's essay The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) argued, half in jest, that poetry belonged to the barbarous ages of mankind and had become useless in an age of science and reason. Shelley replied with A Defence of Poetry (written 1821), which ends with the claim that 'poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world'.Southey, Scott and Coleridge did not provoke the Defence. Coleridge was a defender of the imagination himself, and Southey was Byron's target in The Vision of Judgment.

Q: Among the four statements given below, only one statement is correct. Identify the correct one :

The correct statement is that New criticism considers text as an autonomous, ontological and organic whole.The New Critics, such as Ransom, Brooks, Tate and Wimsatt, treated the poem as a self-contained object to be read closely for its tensions, ironies and paradoxes, and judged by how its parts form an organic unity.The other three are views New Criticism rejected. Seeing the text as a cultural construct or a product of history belongs to cultural materialism and new historicism, and treating it as a repository of authorial intentions is what Wimsatt and Beardsley attacked as the 'intentional fallacy'.

Q: The exemplar and mentor of "liberal humanism" in England was :

The exemplar and mentor of liberal humanism in England was Matthew Arnold.Arnold's view of culture as 'the best which has been thought and said', his belief that literature could take the place of religion, and his ideal of disinterested criticism made him the founding figure of the liberal humanist tradition in English studies, later carried on by F.R. Leavis.Johnson, Dryden and Pope were great critics, but they belong to the neoclassical tradition that predates this idea of culture.

Q: Who in "An Essay of Dramatic Poesy" by Dryden represents the Ancients ?

In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy the Ancients are represented by Crites.The essay (1668) is a dialogue among four speakers on a boat on the Thames. Crites (usually identified with Sir Robert Howard) defends the classical drama of Greece and Rome. Eugenius argues for the moderns, Lisideius for French drama, and Neander for English drama.Neander, the 'new man', is Dryden's own voice, which is why 'J. Dryden' is a distractor. Neither Dryden nor Neander speaks for the Ancients, and Lisideius and Eugenius defend other positions.

Q: Samuel Johnson called John Donne a metaphysical poet in :

Johnson called Donne a metaphysical poet in the Life of Cowley.In his Lives of the Poets (1779-81), Samuel Johnson used the life of Abraham Cowley to discuss the whole school: 'about the beginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets'. He named Donne among them and condemned their strained wit.The Lives of Gray, Pope and Dryden contain no such discussion; Gray and Pope belong to the eighteenth century, and the Life of Dryden deals with Dryden's own work. Cowley, the last of the line, gave Johnson the occasion.

61.

Shakespeare, according to Johnson, offers :

A.Particular manners peculiar to individuals
B.Particular manners peculiar to times
C.Particular manners peculiar to place
D.Representations of general nature

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: D

According to Johnson, Shakespeare offers Representations of general nature.

In the Preface to Shakespeare (1765), Dr Johnson praises Shakespeare as the poet of nature: 'Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature.' His characters are not shaped by 'the customs of particular places' or 'peculiarities of studies or professions', but are 'the genuine progeny of common humanity'.

The other options, manners peculiar to individuals, times or places, are exactly what Johnson says Shakespeare does not offer.

Discuss in Forum

62.

By 'Peripeteia' Aristotle means :

A.Climax
B.Anti-climax
C.Reversal of Fortune
D.Interlude

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: C

By peripeteia Aristotle means Reversal of Fortune.

In the Poetics, peripeteia is a change of the situation to its opposite, as when the messenger who comes to cheer Oedipus reveals his parentage and so brings about his ruin. With anagnorisis (recognition), it marks the complex plot that Aristotle considered best.

The climax is the point of highest tension, an anti-climax is a let-down, and an interlude is a short entertainment between acts, so none of them is the reversal.

Discuss in Forum

63.

Wordsworth writes, "Humble and rustic life was chosen because in that condition the essential passions of the heart ......................... ".

A.are under restraint
B.find a better soil
C.do not speak a plainer language
D.cannot be accurately contemplated

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: B

The essential passions of the heart find a better soil.

In the Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800), Wordsworth explains that humble and rustic life was chosen 'because in that condition, the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity, are less under restraint, and speak a plainer and more emphatic language'.

The other options reverse what he says: the passions are less under restraint, speak a plainer language, and can be more accurately contemplated in rural life.

Discuss in Forum

64.

Which one of the following 'Critic-School' pair is correctly matched ?

A.Raymond Williams-Cultural Studies
B.Fredric Jameson-Archetypal Criticism
C.I. A. Richards-Historical Criticism
D.Allen Tate-Marxist Criticism

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: A

The correctly matched pair is Raymond Williams-Cultural Studies.

Raymond Williams, with Culture and Society (1958) and The Long Revolution (1961), was a founder of British cultural studies and of cultural materialism.

The other pairs are wrong. Fredric Jameson is a Marxist critic, not an archetypal one (that is Northrop Frye). I. A. Richards was a pioneer of practical criticism and New Criticism, not historical criticism. Allen Tate was a Southern New Critic, not a Marxist.

Discuss in Forum

65.

What does the term "baroque" mean in the context of literature ?

A.Grand and highly decorated style
B.Highly satirical
C.Very concise, short and precise description
D.Tragic with a comic interlude

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2021, SET Exam - 2021,

Answer: A

In literature, baroque means a Grand and highly decorated style.

The term comes from art and architecture of the seventeenth century, marked by elaborate ornament, grandeur and dramatic effect. Applied to literature, it describes writing that is ornate and extravagant, rich in conceits, complex syntax and display, as in Crashaw or in the prose of Sir Thomas Browne.

It does not mean satirical, concise or tragicomic; concise, plain description is close to its opposite.

Discuss in Forum

66.

Shelley defends poetry against the attack of :

A.Robert Southey
B.Walter Scott
C.Thomas Love Peacock
D.Samuel T. Coleridge

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: C

Shelley defends poetry against the attack of Thomas Love Peacock.

Peacock's essay The Four Ages of Poetry (1820) argued, half in jest, that poetry belonged to the barbarous ages of mankind and had become useless in an age of science and reason. Shelley replied with A Defence of Poetry (written 1821), which ends with the claim that 'poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world'.

Southey, Scott and Coleridge did not provoke the Defence. Coleridge was a defender of the imagination himself, and Southey was Byron's target in The Vision of Judgment.

Discuss in Forum

67.

Among the four statements given below, only one statement is correct. Identify the correct one :

A.New criticism considers text as a cultural construct
B.New criticism considers text as a product of history
C.New criticism considers text as a repository of authorial intentions
D.New criticism considers text as an autonomous, ontological and organic whole

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: D

The correct statement is that New criticism considers text as an autonomous, ontological and organic whole.

The New Critics, such as Ransom, Brooks, Tate and Wimsatt, treated the poem as a self-contained object to be read closely for its tensions, ironies and paradoxes, and judged by how its parts form an organic unity.

The other three are views New Criticism rejected. Seeing the text as a cultural construct or a product of history belongs to cultural materialism and new historicism, and treating it as a repository of authorial intentions is what Wimsatt and Beardsley attacked as the 'intentional fallacy'.

Discuss in Forum

68.

The exemplar and mentor of "liberal humanism" in England was :

A.Samuel Johnson
B.John Dryden
C.Alexander Pope
D.Matthew Arnold

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: D

The exemplar and mentor of liberal humanism in England was Matthew Arnold.

Arnold's view of culture as 'the best which has been thought and said', his belief that literature could take the place of religion, and his ideal of disinterested criticism made him the founding figure of the liberal humanist tradition in English studies, later carried on by F.R. Leavis.

Johnson, Dryden and Pope were great critics, but they belong to the neoclassical tradition that predates this idea of culture.

Discuss in Forum

69.

Who in "An Essay of Dramatic Poesy" by Dryden represents the Ancients ?

A.Lisideius
B.Crites
C.Eugenius
D.J. Dryden

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy the Ancients are represented by Crites.

The essay (1668) is a dialogue among four speakers on a boat on the Thames. Crites (usually identified with Sir Robert Howard) defends the classical drama of Greece and Rome. Eugenius argues for the moderns, Lisideius for French drama, and Neander for English drama.

Neander, the 'new man', is Dryden's own voice, which is why 'J. Dryden' is a distractor. Neither Dryden nor Neander speaks for the Ancients, and Lisideius and Eugenius defend other positions.

Discuss in Forum

70.

Samuel Johnson called John Donne a metaphysical poet in :

A.Life of Gray
B.Life of Cowley
C.Life of Pope
D.Life of Dryden

Exam Year(s)

MH SET - 2023, SET Exam - 2023,

Answer: B

Johnson called Donne a metaphysical poet in the Life of Cowley.

In his Lives of the Poets (1779-81), Samuel Johnson used the life of Abraham Cowley to discuss the whole school: 'about the beginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets'. He named Donne among them and condemned their strained wit.

The Lives of Gray, Pope and Dryden contain no such discussion; Gray and Pope belong to the eighteenth century, and the Life of Dryden deals with Dryden's own work. Cowley, the last of the line, gave Johnson the occasion.

Literary Criticism Questions and Answers

Topics

Other Subjects

Tags: Literary Criticism Questions and Answers

About Us

Literary Criticism Questions and Answers

Topics

Other Subjects

Tags: Literary Criticism Questions and Answers

About Us

Stay informed about all important Dates & Notifications