Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) on Literary theory and major schools of Criticism
MCQ on Schools of Criticism| MCQ on Literary Critics | MCQ on Literary Theory and Criticism in English Literature
MCQs on Literary theory and Criticism
Who wrote "The Use of Poetry" and "the Use of Criticism" ?
A. Mathew Arnold
B. T. S. Eliot
C. David Daiches
D. Northrop Frye
Which among the following work is NOT writen by T. S. Eliot ?
A. The Sacred Wood
B. Notes Towards the Definition of Culture
C. Keywords
D. The Function of Criticism
"Principal of Literary Criticism" and "Practical Criticism " are the works of ___.
A. Mathew Arnold
B. T. S. Eliot
C. I. A. Richards
D. Northrop Frye
The Sacred Wood by T.S. Eliot was published in ___.
A. 1935
B. 1920
C. 1902
D. 1925
Epiphany is a theological term brought into English literary criticism by __.
A. James Joyce
B. I. A. Richards
C. Matthew Arnold
D. T. S. Eliot
Who among the following translated Aristotle's Poetics in Latin? (UGC NET 2023)
(a) Giorgio Valla
(b) Pierre Corneille
(c) Hugh Tredennick
(d) W. Hamilton Fyfe
Among the followings who argued " There is no meaning outside the text" ?
A. Jacques Darida
B. I A Richards
C. Ferdinand de Saussure
D. Antonio Gramsci
Edward Said is associated with the term "contrapuntal reading". Among the following works in which the term is found?
A. Culture and Imperialism (1993)
B. Out of the Place (1999)
C. Orientalism (1978)
D. Cultural Imperialism (1993)
Who wrote the Literary work " Anatomy of Criticism" ?
A. Mathew Arnold
B. T. S. Eliot
C. David Daiches
D. Northrop Frye
Who wrote 'The Function of Criticism' ?
A. C. S. Lewis
B. T. S. Eliot
C. Virgina Woolf
D. Mathew Arnold
Which of the following is not a major schools of Criticism ?
A. Legislative Criticism
B. Instructive Criticism
C. Descriptive Criticism
D. Aesthetic Criticism
Who called Dryden the Father of English Criticism ?
A. Joseph Addison
B. Dr. Johnson
C. Coleridge
D. Mathew Arnold
Who coined the phrase 'Objective Correlative'?
(A) C. S. Lewis
(B) T. S. Eliot
(C) Virgina Woolf
(D) Mathew Arnold
In which chapter of Biographia Literaria Coleridge discusses the distinction between Imagination and fancy ?
A. 17 chapter
B. 13 chapter
C. 15 chapter
D. 19 chapter
Who coined the term 'New Criticism' ?
(A) J. E. Spingam
(B) Kennethe Burk
(C) J. C. Ransome
(D) Cleanth Brooks
Who coined the term 'defamiliairization' ?
(A) Roman Jakobson
(B) Mikhail Bakhtin
(C) Bladimir Propp
(D) Victor Shklovsky
Who coined the term 'intertextuality' ?
(A) Helen Cixous
(B) Ronald Barthes
(C) Michel Foucault
(D) Julia Kristeva
Who coined the term 'deconstruction' ?
(A) Paul de Mann
(B) J. Derrida
(C) Hillis Miller
(D) Victor Shklovsky
Who coined the term 'Hegemony' ?
(A) Louis Althusser
(B) Antonio Gramsci
(C) Terry Eagleton
(D) Michel Foucault
List of most important literary terms coined by the proponents :
- Negative Capability - John Keats
- Gyno Criticism - Eline Showalter
- Epiphany - James Joyce
- Problem Plays - Sydney Grundy
- Theatre of the Absurd - Martin Esslin
- Imagism - Ezra Pound
- Stream of Consciousness - William James
- Sonnet - Thomas Wyatt
- Pathetic Fallacy - John Ruskin
- Terza Rima - Thomas Wyatt
- Blank Verse in English poetry : - Surrey (In his translation Aenied)
- Blank Verse in English drama - Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville in Gorboduc (1561) Rhyme Royal - Geoffrey Chaucer
- Temperance Novel (Franklin Evans is the only Novel) : - Walt Whitman
- Victorian Compromise - G. K. Chesterton
- Cultural Industry : - Theodore Adorno & Horkheimer
- Hybridity : - Homi Bhabha
- Difference - Derrida
- Aporia - Derrida
- Deconstruction - Derrida
- Logocentrism & Phonocentrism - Derrida
- Collective Unconsciousness - Carl Jung
- Heteroglossia - Mikhail Bakhtin
- Chutnification - Salman Rushdie
- Objective Correlative - T. S. Eliot
- Inter-texuality - Julia Kristeva
- The Heresy of Paraphrase - Cleanth Brooks (in his The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry)
- Defamiliarization - Viktor Shklovsky
- Lost Generation - Gertrude Stein
- Beat Generation - Jack Kerouac
- Oedipus Complex - Sigmund Freud
- Affective Fallacy & Intentional Fallacy - Wimsatt and Beardsley
- Competence and Performance - N. Chomsky
- Ambiguity - William Empson
- Dissociation of Sensibility and Unification of Sensibility - T. S. Eliot
- Concept of Hegemony - Antonio Gramsci
- Feminism - Charles Fourier
- Comic Inferno - Kingsley Amis (In his New Maps of Hell : A Survey of Science Fiction) 1960
- Gilded Age - Mark Twain
- Comedy of Menace - Irving Wardle
- Queer Theory (1991) - Teresa de Lauretic
- Metaphysical Poetry - Dr. Samuel Johnson
- Egotistical Sublime - John Keats
- Satanic School - Robert Southy
- Post - Modernism - Arnold Toynbee
- Womanism - Alice Walker
- Serendipity (means Pleasant Surprise) - Horace Walpole
- New Historicism - Stephan Greenbalt
- Negritude - Aimee Cesaire and Leopald
- Senghor Surrealist : - Guillaume Apollinaire
- Materialist Feminism - Monique Witting
- Ecriture Feminine - Helene Cixious (In The Laugh of Medusa); 1976
- Bricolage - Claude Levi Strauss
- Binary Opposition - Clade Levi Strauss
- Darwinism - Thomas Henry Huxley
- Sweetness and Light - Jonathan Swift in The Battle of the Books) and later by Mathew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy
- Subaltern - Antonio Gramsci
- Free Forward : - I. A. Richards
- New Journalism - Matthew Arnold
- Communicative Competence - Dell Hymes
- School of Resentment - Harold Bloom
- Holocaust : - Winston Churchill
- Black Humour : - Andre Breton
- Blue Comedy - Max Miller
- Meta Theatre - Lionel Abel
- Epic Theatre - Erwin Piscator
- Interpretive Communities - Stanley Fish
- Hyper Text - Ted Nelson
- The Archetypal Approach - Northrop Frye
- Kinesthetic - F.R. Leavis
- Scrutiny - F.R. Leavis
- New Criticism - J. E. Spingarn
- Chora - Julia Kristeva
- Double think - George Orwell
- Meta History - Hayden White
Concept of 'collective unconsciousness' is associated with ____.
A. Sigmund Freud
B. Carl Jung
C. James Frazer
D. Lacan
Ans. B
Which critic is known for 'dialogic criticism' ?
(A) R. Jacobson
(B) V. Propp
(C) M. Bakhtin
(D) Eichenbaum
Ans. C
Formalistic Criticism is related to the structure of ___
(A) Literary devices
(B) Myths
(C) Content
(D) Form
Ans. C
Semiotic is the study of ___
(A) structures
(B) signifiers
(C) signs
(D) signified
Ans. C
'The Death of the Author' was written by ____.
(A) Helen Cixous
(B) Michel Foucault
(C) Felix Gauttari
(D) Roland Barthes
Ans. D
The title of Cleanth Brooke's book 'The Well Wrought Urn: Studies in the Structure of Poetry' alludes to the poem ____.
A. Rime of Ancient Mariner by S. T. Coleridge
B. The Canonization by John Donne
C. To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell
D. Ode to the West Wind by P. B. Shelley
Ans. B
Of the following theorists identify the one who has examined the narrative constructions of history.
A. Talal Asad
B. Gayatri Spivak
C. Hayden White
D. Toni Morrison
Ans. C
The anthropologist most commonly associated with structuralist thinking is...
A. Levi Strauss
B. Margaret Mead
C. Victor Turner
D. James Clifford
Ans. A
Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in the year...
A. 1991
B. 1993
C. 1998
D. 2000
Ans. B
Who amongst the following is a renowned Welsh Marxist theorist?
A. Cleanth Brooks
B. Raymond Williams
C. Hayden White
D. Toni Morrison
Ans. B
With whose theory are the terms 'irony' and 'paradox' associated?
A. Roland Barthes
B. Cleanth Brooks
C. Allen Tate
D. Mikhail Bakhtin
Ans. B
Raymond Williams is best known for his work...
A. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society
B. The Dialogical Principle
C. The Aims of Interpretation
D. Psychoanalytic Criticism
Ans. A
Post-structuralism as a movement developed in...
A. England
B. America
C. Italy
D. France
Ans. D
The philosopher Jacques Derrida is most associated with...
A. Formalism
B. New Criticism
C. Deconstruction
D. Iconology
Ans. C
Who first translated Derrida's Of Grammatology into English?
A. Aljaz Ahmed
B. Edward Said
C. Gayatri Spivak
D. Homi Bhabha
Ans. C
Which one of the following is NOT a feature of New Criticism?
A. Text is autotelic
B. Text is independent
C. History and biography are important to find the meaning
D. Text has intrinsic value
Ans. C
Find the odd one out.
A. Signified
B. Close reading
C. Langue
D. Arbitrariness
Ans. B
Which one does not go with Post Structuralism.
A. ‘Ecriture’
B. ‘Differance’
C. ‘Deconstruction’
D. ‘Formalism’
Ans. D
Which one can be best described as Raymond William’s contribution to Marxist Criticism?
A. Base Structure
B. Cultural Materialism
C. Super Structure
D. Historical Materialism
Spivak does NOT analyse the following text in her essay “Three Women’s Texts and A Critique of Imperialism”.
A. Jane Eyre
B. Wide Sargasso Sea
C. Frankenstein
D. A Room of One’s Own
Ans. D
According to Toni Morison, the Black Literature should be:
A. imperial
B. beautiful
C. powerful
D. political
Ans. B, C, and D
According to Hayden White, historical narratives can be broadly classified as:
(a) Tragic
(b) Comic
(c) Satiric
(d) Realistic
(e) Romantic
Ans. D
Talal Asad suggested that anthropologists need to explore the asymmetrical tendencies and pressures in the languages of dominated and dominant societies, in order to determine the possibilities and limits of effective translation.
(a) True
(b) False
Ans. True
The following is not a text-based critical approach.
A. Formalism
B. Readers Response theory
C. Genre Studies
D. Structuralism
‘Eclectic analysis of a text’ refers to using multiple critical approaches at once in the analysis of a text.
A. True
B. False
Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) on Literary Criticism and theory | Practice set and Mock test with answers on Literary Criticism | Quizzes on Criticism | MCQ and Mock Test on Literary Criticism |
Roman, Greek and French Critics and their Critical Works :
Plato :
- Republic
- Symposium
- Dialogues
- Phaedrus
Aristotle :
- Poetics
- Rhetoric
- On the Sublime
Horace :
- Ars Poetica (Arts of Poetry)
Mock Test On Literary Theory and Criticism | MCQ Type Questions |
Mock Test on Literary Criticism -
Answers are given Below 👇
1. Who was the first literary critic who said that "Art is twice removed from reality?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Longinus
(D) Horace
2. Who proposed that poets should be banished from the ideal Republic?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Sir Philip Sidney
(D) Sir Thomas More
3. Aristotle's critical work is entitled :
(A) Ars Poetica
(B) Poetics
(C) De Arte Poetica
(D) Art Poetique
4. Who is the author of Ars Poetica ?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Horace
(D) Longinus
5. Who is the author of Symposium ?
(A) Aristotle
(B) Dante
(C) Longinus
(D) Plato
6. Horace was a :
(A) Greek Critic
(B) Roman Critic
(C) French Critic
(D) German Critic
7. Aristotle discusses the theory of Tragedy in :
(A) Art Poetique
(B) Poetics
(C) Rhetoric
(D) Ars Poetica
8. How many principal sources of sublimity are there according to Longinus ?
(A) Three
(B) Four
(C) Five
(D) Six
9. What is the meaning of the term Hamartia as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) Tragic end of the tragedy
(B) Working of fate against the hero
(C) A weak trait in the character of the hero
(D) A strong quality in the character of the
hero
10. What is the meaning of the term Peripeteia as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) Change in the fortune of the hero from
bad to good
(B) Change in the fortune of the hero from good to bad
(C) Constancy in the fortune of the hero
(D) Fluctuations occurring in the fortune of
the hero
11. What is the meaning of the term Anagnorisis as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy ?
(A) The hero's recognition of his tragic flaw
(B) The hero's ignorance about his tragic flaw
(C) The hero's recognition of his adversary
(D) The hero's recognition of his tragic end
12. What is denouement ?
(A) The ending of a tragedy
(B) The ending of a comedy
(C) The climax in a tragedy
(D) The climax in a comedy
13. Who was the originator of the Theory of Imitation in Literature ?
(A) Longinus
(B) Aristotle
(C) Plato
(D) Horace
14. Who was the most illustrious pupil of Plato?
(A) Aristotle
(B) Longinus
(C) Aristophanes
(D) Socrates
15. Who was the most illustrious disciple of Socrates ?
(A) Sophocles
(B) Plautus
(C) Plato
(D) Critus
16. From where has the term Oedipus Complex originated ?
(A) Oedipus the Rex
(6) Oedipus al Colonus
(C) Antigone
(D) Jocasta, the Queen of Thebes
17. The term Electra Complex has originated from a tragedy entitled Clectra, Who is the author of this tragedy?
(A) Aeschylus
(B) Sophocles
(C) Euripides
(D) Seneca
18. In which of the following works Plato dig cusses his Theory of Poetry?
(A) Apology
(B) lon
(C) The Republic
(D) Phaedrus
19. Who is the author of the notorious book entitled The School of Abuse?
(A) Roger Ascham
(B) Stephen Hawes
(C) John Skelton
(D) Stephen Gosson
20. An Elizabethan Puritan critic denounced the poets as 'fathers of lies', 'schools of abuse' and caterpillars of a commonwealth,
Mark him out from the following critics:
(A) William Tyndale
(B) Roger Ascham
(C) Stephen Cosson
(D) Henry Howard
ANSWERS
1. (A) 2.(A) 3. (B) 4. (C) 5. (D)
6. (B) 7 (B) 8. (C) 9. (C) 10. (B)
11. (A) 12. (B) 13.(C) 14.(A) 15. (C)
16. (A) 17. (B) 18. (C) 19. (D) 20. (C)
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MCQ ON ENGLISH LITERATURE
Important Quotations from English Literature
Literary Theory and Criticism | Multiple Choice Questions :
1. Philip Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie is a defence of poetry against the charges brought against it by :
(A) Henry Howard(B) Roger Ascham
(C) John Skelton
(D) Stephen Gosson
2. "It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet no more than a long gown maketh an advocate". Whose view is this?
(A) Shakespeare's(B) Marlowe's
(C) Spenser's
(D) Sidney's
3. What does Sidney say about the observance of the three Dramatic Unities in drama?
(A) They must be observed(B) It is not necessary to observe them
(C) He favours the observance of the Unity of Action only
(D) Their observance depends upon the nature of the theme of the play
4. What does Ben Jonson mean by a 'Humorous Character'?
(A) A character who is always cheerful and gay(B) A character who is by nature melancholy
(C) A character whose temper is determined by the predominance of one out of the four fluids in the human body
(D) An eccentric person
5. Which of the following is a critical work of Ben Jonson?
(A) Discourse of English Poetry(B) Discoveries
(C) Arte of English Poesie
(D) An Apologie for Poetrie
6. Dryden wrote An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Is this?
(A) An Essay(B) A Drama
(C) A Poetical Work
(D) An Interlocution
7. In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic Poesy there are four interlocuters representing four different ideologies. Which of them expresses Dryden's own views ?
(A) Lisideius(B) Eugenius
(C) Neander
(D) Crites
8. What has Dryden to say about the observance of the three Classical Dramatic Unities?
(A) He advocates their strict observance(B) He does not advocate their strict observance
(C) He says that every dramatist should
decide it for himself
(D) He is silent about this issue
Quizzes on Renaissance, Elizabethan Age and Jacobean Ages click here
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MCQs on Victorian Age
Multiple Choice Questions on Literary Criticism
MCQ on Literary Theory and Criticism with answers :
Who wrote 'Principles of Literary Criticism' in 1924 ?
A. I. A. Richards
B. F.R. Leavis
C. A. G. Gardiner
D. Kennith Brook
Ans. A
Which work of Eliot is considered to be the menifesto of his critical creed ?
A) On Milton
B) The metaphysical poets
C) The Study of Poetry
D) Traditional and individual talent
Ans. D
What is the full name of the British literary critic, I. A. Richard ?
A. Ibsen Armstrong Richards
B. Ivor Armstrong Richards
C. Isle Armstrong Richards
D. Iden Armstrong Richards
Ans. B
'The Philosophy of Rhetoric' is a literary book written by ___.
A. Irvin Babbitt
B. I. A. Richards
C. T. S. Eliot
D. Longinus
Ans. B
Aristotle's Poetics is divided into how many chapters?
A. Twenty six
B. Thirty
C. Twenty
D. Sixteen
Ans. A
The first five chapters of Aristotle's Poetics deal with ___.
A. Discussion of poetry
B. Different imitative arts, origin of poetry, it's form comedy and tragedy
C. Mimetic theory
D. Tragedy
Ans. B
MCQ on Cultural studies:
Cultural studies has following theories -
semiotics, Marxism, feminist theory, ethnography, critical race theory, post-structuralism, postcolonialism, social theory, political theory, history, philosophy, literary theory, media theory, film/video studies,
1.The term ‘Cultural Materialism’ was made current in 1985 when it was used by Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield as the subtitle of their edited collection of essays?
A. Traditional Shakespeare
B. Political Shakespeare
C. Ethnic Shakespeare
D. Philosophical Shakespeare
Ans. A
2.Elaine Showalter developed a new literary project intended to construct ‘a female framework for the analysis of women’s literature _?
1) Eco-feminism
✓2) gyno-criticism
3) Racial Feminism
4) Female Writing
3. "Cultural Studies" was initially developed as an academic field by -
1. American Capitalist Academics
2. Asian and African Post-Colonial Academics
3. American Postmodern Literary Theorists
✓4. British Marxist Academics
4.The term "Cultural Studies" was coined by -
A. Stuart Hall
B. Richard Hoggart
C. Louis Althusser
D. Raymond Williams
Ans. B
5.Who gave reception theory in Cultural Studies"
✓1. Stuart Hall
2. Richard Hoggart
3. Louis Althusser
4. Raymond Williams
6.The sociologist and cultural theory was given by _______.
A. Stuart Hall
B. Richard Hoggart
C. Louis Althusser
D. Raymond Williams
Ans. A
7. Who coined the term Cultural materialism ?
A. Raymond william
B. Marvin Harris
C. Fredric jamaon
D. Stephen greenbelt
Ans. B
8. Who Used the term Cultural materialism first ?
A. Raymond william
B. Marvin Harris
C. Fredic jamaon
D. Stephen greenbelt
Ans. A
9.Ferdinand de Saussure is important to literary theory because ______.
he liked to read
he wrote many poems
✓ he explained that language is meaning-making
he wrote literary criticism
10.What is semiotics?
✓The study of signs
The study of language
The study of symmetry
The sounds that we make
11.Which word most accurately describes la langue?
Speech
✓Language
Long
None of these words describes la langue.
12.What did Sausuure call his study of signs?
(a) Semiotics ✓
(b) Semiology
(c) Structuralism
(d) Science of Signs
13.Who, among the following, termed his study of signs as Semiotics?
(a) Jonathan Culler
(b) Roland Barthes
(c) Gerard Gennette
(d) Charles Peirce
14.Who was the first director of CCCS Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
Stuart hall
Thompson
✓Richard Hoggart
Raymond william
15.Coding and decoding is associated with _____.
A. Stuart hall
B. Julton Steewart
C. Raymond william
D. Theodore Adorno
Ans. A
16.Who coined the term cultural poetics ?
A. Stuart hall
B. Thompson
C. Julton Steewart
D. Stephen greenbelt
Ans. D
IMPORTANT BOOKS OF CULTURAL STUDIES:-
- Radical Tragedy- Jonathham Dollimore
- Political Shakespeare- John Drakakis
- The subject of tragedy- Catherine Belsey
- Alternative shakespear-Alan sinfield
- Culture and society-Raymond williams
- Key words-Raymond williams & Stephen greenbelt
17. The term post modernism was first used by
A. William godling
B. Kingsley amis
C. Arnold toynbee
D. Wolfgang Isher
Ans. C
18. Reception theory is a historical application of a form of ________.
A. New historicism
B. New criticism
C. Read response theory
D. Post modernism
Ans. D
19. Reception theory was proposed by______.
A. Hermeneutics
B. Hans robert jauss
C. Hans George gadamer
D. Goaame
Ans. C
20. Who was author of a reader oriented approach called effective stylistic ?
A. Stanley Fish
B. Wolfgang Isher
C. David Bleich
D. Jonathan Culler
Ans. A
21. who among the following makes a distinction between the implied reader and an actual reader ?
A. David Bleich
B. Jonathan culler
C. Stanley fish
D. Wolfgang Usher
Ans. D
22. The word romanticism had its origins in the _______ .
A. Later ages
B. Modern ages
C. Early ages
D. Middle ages
Ans. D
24. Formalism views literature primarily as a specialized mode of ______ .
A. Characters
B. Plot
C. Emotions
D. Language
Ans. D
25. Who introduced the term "Gynocriticism" ?
A. Ellen moer
B. Sandra Gilbert
C. Elaine showalter
D. E. Showalter
Ans. C
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