500+ Literary Criticism - (100-200 Questions)

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101. For Coleridge, our power to perceive symbols gleaned from the world about us is related to the category of :

(A) primary imagination

(B) secondary imagination

(D) intuition

Ans: A

102. What, among the following, is ruled out by Longinus as a way of achieving the sublime?

(A) great thoughts

(B) immoderate emotion

(D) dignified and elevated word arrangement

Ans: B

103. In The Advancement of Learning Bacon noted the need for more studies of

I. moral knowledge

II. forbidden knowledge

III. civil knowledge

IV. spiritual knowledge

The right combination according to the code is

(A) I and III

(B) I and IV

(D) II and IV

Ans: A

104. As Sidney argues in A Defence of Poesy which discipline is more useful and praiseworthy – history or poetry?

(A) History “being captivated to truth” is more useful than poetry.

(B) Poetry where man can see “virtue exalted and vice punished” is more

useful than history.

wickedness”.

(D) History and poetry are synonymous, and so both are useful.

Ans: B

105. Which of the following books proposes a political theory ?

(A) Principia

(B) Leviathan

(D) Liberty of Prophesying

Ans: B

106. The phrase disassociation of sensibility was first used by :

(A) Philip Sydney

(B) T. S. Eliot

(D) Mathew Arnold

Ans: B

107. A philosophical attitude pervading much of modern literature is :

(A) Absurdism

(B) Dadaism

(D) Surrealism

Ans: A

108.‘Fancy’ deals with :

(A) Fixities and definities

(B) Imagination and Reason

(D) Structure and Superstructure

Ans: A

109. The most obvious feature of Johnson’s The Lives of the Poets is the

equipoise between :

(A) Language and form

(B) Style and content

(D) Myth and archetype

Ans: C

110. With whom was Dr. Johnson intimately associated in his personal life?

(A) Boswell

(B) Dryden

(D) Lord Bolingbroke

Ans: A

111. Philip Sidney wrote An Apology for Poetry in immediate response to

(A) Plato’s Republic

(B) Aristotle’s Poetics

(D) Jeremy Collier’s Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage.

Ans: C

112. Dr. Johnson’s “The Vanity of Human Wishes” expresses

(A) Epicureanism

(B) Humanism

(D) Cynicism

Ans: D

113. (A) : Dr Johnson’s The Lives of the Poets carries critical and biographical studies of poets he admired. It does not, however, carry a life of William Wordsworth.

Reason (R) : Dr. Johnson singled out poets whom he not only admired but also adored. This explains his omission of Wordsworth.

(A) (A) is wrong but (R) is correct.

(B) (A) is true but (R) is false.

(D) Neither (A) nor (R) is true.

Ans: D

114. “He is not fully recognized at home; he is not recognized at all abroad. Yet I firmly believe that the poetical performance of __________ is, after that of Shakespeare and Milton, undoubtedly most considerable in our language.” To whom does Matthew Arnold refer in the above statement ?

(A) Edmund Spenser

(B) John Keats

(D) S.T. Coleridge

Ans: C

115. The concept of human mind as tabula rasa or blank tablet was propounded by

(A) Bishop Berkley

(B) David Hume

(D) John Locke

Ans: D

116. The phrase ‘the willing suspension of disbelief ’ occurs in

(A) Biographia Literaria

(B) Preface to Lyrical Ballads

(D) Poetics

Ans: A

117. Which romantic poet coined the famous phrase ‘spots of time’ ?

(A) John Keats

(B) William Wordsworth

(D) Lord Byron

Ans: B

118. Who, amongst the following, does not belong to the ‘Great Tradition’, enunciated by F. R. Leavis ?

(A) Joseph Conrad

(B) James Joyce

(D) George Eliot

Ans: B

119. Put the following books of Pope in a sequence of publication. Answer the question with the help of the Code given below :

(i) The Dunciad

(ii) The Rape of the Lock

(iii) An Essay on Man

(iv) An Essay on Criticism

Code :

(A) (ii), (iii), (i), (iv)

(B) (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)

(D) (ii), (i), (iv), (iii)

Ans: C

120. The term “egotistical sublime” was coined by

(A) S.T. Coleridge

(B) John Keats

(D) William Hazlitt

Ans: B

121.“The future of poetry is immense, because in poetry…. our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay.” – This claim for poetry is made in

(A) Arnold’s “The Study of Poetry”

(B) Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry”

(D) Eliot’s of Poetry and Poets

Ans: A

122. Plato censured poetry because he believed it

(A) eliminates the ego.

(B) promotes sensuality.

(D) cripples the imagination.

Ans: B

123. Eliot uses the term “objective correlative” in his essay.

(A) “The Metaphysical Poets”

(B) “Hamlet”

(D) “Dante”

Ans: B

124. Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man was published in

(A) 1790

(B) 1791

(D) 1793

Ans: B

125. In Dryden’s Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668), who opens the discussion on behalf of the ancients?

(A) Lisideius

(B) Crites

(D) Neander

Ans: B

126. Whom did Keats regard as the prime example of ‘negative capability’?

(A) John Milton

(B) William Wordsworth

(D) P.B. Shelley

Ans: C

127. “He found it [English] brick and left it marble”, remarked one great writer on another. Who were they?

(A) Milton on Shakespeare

(B) Dryden on Milton

(D) Jonson on Shakespeare

Ans: C

128. List – I

1. Good sense is the body of poetic genius

2. Poetry is the breath and a finer spirit of all knowledge

3. Literary criticism is a description and evaluation of its object

4. Nature never set forth the earth in as rich a tapestry as diverse poets

have done

List – II

I. Brooks, “The Formalist Critic”

II. Sidney, Defence/ An Apology for Poetry

III. Wordsworth, Preface to Lyrical Ballads

IV. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria

1 2 3 4

(A) IV III I II

(B) II IV III I

(D) IV II I III

Ans: A

129.“The story and the novel, the idea and the form, are the needle and thread, and I never heard of a guild of tailors who recommended the use of the thread without the needle, or the needle without the thread.” This famous passage describing the relation of idea to form is found in

(A) Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry

(B) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria

(D) I.A. Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism

Ans: C

130. William Wordsworth’s statement of purpose in publishing the Lyrical Ballads carries the following phrase. (Complete the phrase correctly).“to choose incidents from common life and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as possible, ______.”

(A) in a selection of language really used by men.

(B) in a relation to language really used by men.

(D) in deference to language actually used by men.

Ans: A

131. One English poet addressing another:

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;

Thou hast a voice whose sound was like the sea:

Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,

So didst thou travel on life’s common way,

In cheerful godliness….

Whose lines are these? To whom are they addressed?

(A) W.H. Auden – W.B. Yeats

(B) P.B. Shelley – William Blake

(D) Ben Jonson – William Shakespeare

Ans: C

132. Samuel Johnson’s Lives of Poets (1781) was originally a series of introductions to the poets he wrote for a group of London publishers. They were collected as:

(A) Lives of English Poets: Critical and Biographical Essays.

(B) Prefaces, Biographical and Critical, to the Works of English Poets.

(D) Lives of English Poets: Biographical and Critical Notes.

Ans: B

133. Who claimed: “I have not published a single paper that is not written in

a spirit of benevolence and with a love of mankind”?

(A) Pope

(B) Dryden

(D) Addison

Ans: D

134. In the Advancement of Learning Bacon attempted a preliminary survey of the entire field of learning, by analyzing the principal obstacles to its advancement. Identify from among the following choices the one that he did not mention as an obstacle:

(A) Rhetoric

(B) Medieval scholasticism

(D) Pseudo sciences

Ans: C

135. Who among the following theorists formulated the concept of the utile dulci, profit combined with delight?

(A) Plato

(B) Aristotle

(D) Longinus

Ans: C

136. Out of the four humours of the body, the Jacobeans thought of themselves as especially prone to

(A) Choler

(B) Blood

(D) Melancholy

Ans: D

137. In the Defence of Poetry, what did Sydney attribute to poetry?

(A) A magical power whereby poetry plays tricks on the reader.

(B) A divine power whereby poetry transmits a message from God to the

reader.

virtuous models.

(D) A realistic power that cannot be made to seem like mere illusion and

trickery.

Ans: C

138. Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding is a classic statement of _________ Philosophy.

(A) Aesthetic

(B) Empiricist

(D) Realist

Ans: B

UPDATE: Now, you can get set of two booklets: 500+ Literary Criticism & 1000+ Literary Theory And Cultural Studies MCQs in booklet/hardcopy format. Click here to know more.

139. Who among the following English poets defined poetic imagination as“a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite ‘I AM’ ”?

(A) Blake

(B) Wordsworth

(D) Shelley

Ans: C

140. The Uncertainty Principle is attributed to

(A) William James

(B) John Dewey

(D) Charles Darwin

Ans: C

141. Philosophy of Symbolic Forms is a work associated with _______.

(A) Wilhelm von Humboldt

(B) Ernst Cassirer

(D) Battista Vico

Ans: B

142.“All Rising to Great Place is by a _____ staire.” (Francis Bacon)

(A) Murky

(B) Winding

(D) Sinister

Ans: B

143. New Science is a work associated with _______.

(A) Ernest Cassirer

(B) Wilhelm von Humboldt

(D) Immanuel Kant

Ans: C

144. Which of the following works is not actually a prose essay?

(A) Essay of Dramatic Poesy

(B) Essay on Man

(D) An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision

Ans: B

145. Identify the incorrect factor in Henry James’ theory of the novel :

(A) It should be sentimental

(B) It should be objective

(D) It should be viewed as an artistic form

Ans: A

146. D.H. Lawrence popularized the concept of …………… in his novels.

(A) Realism

(B) Naturalism

(D) Expressionism

Ans: C

147. Who, among the following, advanced the theory that the mind is a tabula rasa at birth, and acquires all ideas by experience?

(A) John Locke

(B) John Wesley

(D) Denis Diderot

Ans: A

148. In the Defense of Poesy Sidney says: “Now as in geometry the oblique must be known as well as right and in arithmetic, the odd as well as the even, so in the actions of our life who seeth not the filthiness of evil wanteth a great foil to perceive the beauty of virtue”. Which of the following forms of poesy offers a foil that helps us perceive the beauty

of virtue?

(A) Pastorals

(B) Parody

(D) Tragedy

Ans: C

149. Matthew Arnold’s “touchstones” were “short passages, even single lines” of classic poetry beside which the lines of other poets may be placed in order to detect the presence or absence of high poetic quality. In his “Study of Poetry” Arnold cited “touchstones” from such non- English poets as Homer and Dante and also from the English poets, Shakespeare and Milton. Which English poet did he disapprovingly call“not one of the great classics” in the list below?

(A) Chaucer

(B) Sidney

(D) Donne

Ans: A

150. In the lines “With gold jewels cover every part, /And hide with

ornaments their want of art” (Essay on Criticism), Pope rejects

(A) the ‘Follow Nature’ fallacy

(B) artificiality

(D) poor taste

Ans: B

151. The author of the essay “Silly Novels by Lady Novelists” is ……………..

(A) George Eliot

(B) Henry James

(D) Richard Steele

Ans: A

152. In which chapter of Poetics does Aristotle use the word ‘catharsis’ in his definition of tragedy?

(A) Chapter IV

(B) Chapter VI

(D) Chapter V

Ans: B

153. Match the following:

List – I

(a) “The Function of Criticism”

(b) “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”

(d) “The Function of English at the Present Time”

List – II

(1) Terry Eagleton

(ii) Richard Ohmann

(iii) Matthew Arnold

(iv) T. S. Eliot

The right matching according to the code is:

(a) (b) (c) (d)

(A) (iv) (iii) (i) (ii)

(B) (i) (ii) (iii) (iv)

(D) (ii) (iii) (iv) (i)

Ans: A

154. Samuel Johnson’s use of the term “metaphysical” in a piece of criticism was ………….

(A) approving

(B) disapproving

(D) accidental

Ans: B

155. F. R. Leavis and Q. D. Leavis launched a critical journal devoted to the

moral centrality of English Studies. Name the Journal.

(A) The English Historical Review

(B) The Criterion

(D) The Edinburgh Review

Ans: C

156. In “Tradition and Individual Talent” Eliot describes the workings of the

poet’s mind in terms of which of the following?

(A) Natural selection

(B) A chemical reaction

(D) A cornucopia

Ans: B

157. The pre-eminent evaluative criterion of F.R. Leavis’s Great Tradition is

(A) moral purpose

(B) sublime subject matter

(D) truth to life

Ans: A

158. In “Tradition and Individual Talent”, according to T.S. Eliot, the term“Traditional”

usually means

(A) something positive

(B) something negative

(D) something old

Ans: B

159. Shakespeare famously neglects to observe Aristotle’s rules concerning the three dramatic unities, and Samuel Johnson undertakes to defend Shakespeare from these criticisms in his Preface to Shakespeare.

Which of the Aristotelian dramatic unities does Johnson believe Shakespeare to observe most successfully?

(A) Time

(B) Place

(D) Johnson does not feel that the Aristotelian dramatic unities are important

Ans: C

160. In his Defence of Poesy which of the following works does Sidney commend as good examples of English Poesy ?

I. The Mirror of Magistrates

II. The Shepherd’s Calendar

III. Lament for the Makers

IV. Ballad of Scottish King

The right combination according to the code is :

(A) I and III

(B) I and IV

(D) II and III

Ans: C

161. In “Tradition and the Individual Talent” T.S Eliot uses the analogy of the catalyst to elucidate his theory of impersonal poetry. He cites the example of a filament of platinum and, in the poetic process this is equivalent to

(A) the language of the poet

(B) the mind of the poet

(D) the life of the poet

Ans: B

162. Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets combines the following except

(A) analytical criticism

(B) literary history

(D) Socratic dialogue

Ans: D

163. Samuel Johnson denounced the metaphysical poets saying, “About the beginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets”. In the biography of which of the following poets in his Lives of Poets did Johnson make this remark ?

(A) John Dryden

(B) Thomas Parnell

(D) Alexander Pope

Ans: C

164. In An Essay of Dramatic Poesy whom does John Dryden refer to as “the most learned and judicious Writer which any Theatre ever had” ?

(A) John Webster

(B) Christopher Marlowe

(D) William Shakespeare

Ans: C

165. What does the phrase ut pictura poesis from Horace’s Art of Poetry mean ?

(A) “as in painting, so in poetry”.

(B) “poetry beggars pictorial description” .

(D) “picture above all poetry” .

Ans: A

166. Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis is about a utopian state called

(A) Asgard

(B) Avalon

(D) Baltia

Ans: C

167. What does Philip Sidney call poet-haters in his Defence of Poesie ?

(A) Misogynists

(B) Misanthropes

(D) Mysomousoi

Ans: D

168. The four Moral Essays of Alexander Pope are addressed to carefully selected figures. Identify

(A) Timons, Newton, Martha Blount, Wellington

(B) Lord Cobham, Robert Walpole, Houghton Hall, Chandos

(D) William III, John Haydn, Joseph Addison, John Dennis

Ans: C

169. Where, according to T.S. Eliot, are we likely to find “not only the best, but the most individual parts of a poet’s work” ?

(A) in the poet’s juvenilia or rejected drafts.

(B) in the best anthologies and scrap-books.

(D) in those parts where the living poets depart from their ancestors.

Ans: C

170. Samuel Johnson has the following to say about an English poet:“These images are marked by glittering accumulations of ungraceful ornaments : they strike, rather than please. The images are magnified by affectation : the language is labored into harshness. The mind of the writer seems to work with unnatural violence -‘Double, double, toil and trouble’. He has a kind of strutting dignity, and is tall by walking on tiptoe. His art and his struggle are too visible, and there is too little appearance of ease and nature.”

Identify the poet.

(A) Thomas Gray

(B) John Dryden

(D) Thomas Wyatt

Ans: A

171. Who among the ancients prescribed that poetry should both instruct and delight ?

(A) Longinus

(B) Plotinus

(D) Horace

Ans: D

172. In imitation of which classical poet did Samuel Johnson write his London and The Vanity of Human Wishes?

(A) Horace

(B) Homer

(D) Tasso

Ans: C

173. In his essay “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” (1864) Matthew Arnold contended that

(A) Creative and critical powers should be ranked equally

(B) Creative and critical powers are not comparable in any way

(D) Creative power should be ranked higher than critical power

Ans: D

174. Why did Plato banish the poet from his ideal state?

(A) Poetry makes an artificial distinction between form and content

(B) Poetry deals with form, to the neglect of content.

reality it seeks to represent, and (moreover) the purpose of art is not to

describe reality but to change it.

(D) In representing the sensual aspects of reality, the poet fails to discern

the transcendent reality behind mere appearance.

Ans: D

175. From among the following, identify the two correct statements in Johnson’s criticism of Shakespeare :

(a) His Athenians are not sufficiently Greek and his kings not completely

royal.

(b) He sacrifices virtue to convenience and is more careful to please than

to instruct.

own customs and opinions.

(d) He sacrifices reason, property and truth to pursue even a poor and

barren quibble.

Choose the correct option:

(A) (a) and (b)

(B) (a) and (c)

(D) (b) and (d)

Ans: D

176. Which two writers have written essays on the defence of poetry?

(a) Sir Philip Sidney

(b) P. B. Shelley

(d) T. S. Eliot

Choose the correct option :

(A) (a) and (d)

(B) (a) and (c)

(D) (a) and (b)

Ans: D

177. What, in sum, is Sidney’s point in the following?

“Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have

done; neither with pleasant rivets, fruitless trees, sweet—smelling

flowers, not what so ever else may make the too-much-loved earth more

lovely. Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden” (Philip

Sidney)

(A) Works of art are superior to the natural world they represent

(B) Works of art can often compete with the natural world represented

by them

rich tapestry

(D) The natural world is far superior to the works of art that represent it

Ans: A

178. Why did T. S. Eliot assert that Virgil, not Homer, is the poet of Europe?

(A) There are some initial moral concerns in Virgil

(B) Virgil belongs to the Roman period

(D) Virgil wrote in Latin while Homer wrote in Greek

Ans: A

179. Which one of the following of Plato’s beliefs/acts was Shelley countering by saying that ‘poets are the acknowledged legislators of mankind”?

(A) Banishment of poets from the republic

(B) Distrust of value of poetry for mankind

(D) Description of poets as mad men

Ans: C

180. Which of the following statements is correct?

(A) Langue is the language system, and Parole, the individual usage.

(B) Langue is the language usage, and Parole, the individual system.

application.

(D) Langue is the language collective, and Parole, the individual

deviation.

Ans: A

181. Of the five conditions of the Sublime, according to Longinus, the most

important condition is:

(A) Vigorous treatment of passions

(B) Majesty of the structure

(D) A wide range of thoughts

Ans: C

182. What does Socrates mean when in Plato’s Ion, he says “Poets are nothing but the interpreters of gods”?

(A) The Poets are the markers of their poems

(B) The Poets are acutely aware of gods in composing their poems

(D) The Poets first hear what gods say then put than into words

Ans: C

183. Following Plato, which two of the following statements about ‘Phantasm and Semblance’ are correct?

1. ‘Phantasm’ is an image, while ‘Semblance is the real object’.

2. ‘Phantasm’ is the real object while ‘Semblance is only a

resemblance’.

3. ‘Phantasm’ unlike semblance has the same proportional as the

object.

4. Semblance is unreal’ but looks ‘real’ as compared to phantasm.

Choose the correct option:

(A) (b) and (c)

(B) (c) and (d)

(D) (d) and (a)

Ans: B

184. Which of the following is true of Aristotle’s Critical Position?

(A) Writers are likely to be mere entertainers who appeal to the emotions

and passions of the audience.

(B) Texts created by poets are almost inevitably inaccurate and defective

as limitations

of the work will be essential to it and will be linked to every other part.

(D) Texts should be judged on the basis of how accurately they imitate

philosophical truth.

Ans: C

185. Match List I and List II

List I

Critics

A. Horace

B. John Dryden

C. Samuel Daniel

D. Ben Jonson

List II

Text

I. A Defence of Rhyme

II. Timber: or, Discoveries

III. Ars Poetica

IV. Of Dramatic Poesy

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

(a)A – II, B – I, C – IV, D – III

(b) A – III, B – IV, C – II, D – I

(d) A – II, B – IV, C – I, D – III

Ans: C

186. Who said of the blank verse, quoting an unnamed critic, that it is -…verse only to the eye”, adding further that it “has neither the easiness of prose, nor the melody of numbers”?

(A) John Dryden

(B) Alexander Pope

(D) Samuel Johnson

Ans: D

187. Which one of the following statements is true about Aristotle’s poetics?

(A) He asserted the value of poetry by integrating rhetoric and imitation

(mimesis).

(B) He asserted the value of poetry by focusing on both rhetoric and

imitation (mimesis).

(D) He asserted the value of poetry by focusing on imitation (mimesis)

rather than rhetoric.

Ans: D

188. Arrange the following in the chronological order of publication:

A. Advancement of Learning

B. The Origin of Species

C. On Heroes and Hero Worship

D. The Lives of the Poets

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

a. D, A, C, B

b. D, A, B, C

c. A D, C, B

d. A D, B, C

Ans: C

189. Poetry according to Sir Philip Sidney is of three kinds. They are:

(A) religious, dramatic, romantic

(B) classical, romantic, neo-classical

(D) religious, philosophical, imaginative

Ans: D

190. Which according to Thomas Hobbes is the only ‘science’ God has bestowed on mankind, that informs the structure of his monumental work, Leviathan?

(A) Astronomy

(B) Architecture

(D) Geometry

Ans: D

191.Which English poet defined poetry as a criticism of life?

A) Shelley

B) Arnold

C) Tennyson

D) Macaulay

Ans: B

192. In Aristotle’s Poetics we read that it is the imitation of an action that is complete and whole, and of a certain magnitude… having a beginning, middle and an end. What is it?

A) Poetry

B) Force

C) Epic

D) Tragedy

Ans: D

193. The “Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” was first published in

A) 1798

B) 1800

C) 1801

D) 1802

Ans: C

194. The theory of the impersonality of the poet was put forward by

A) Samuel T. Coleridge

B) Samuel Johnson

C) T.S. Eliot

D) W.S. Merwin

Ans: C

194. Which literary critic compares the poet’s mind to a catalytic agent ?

(A) Terry Eagleton

(B) Dryden

(D) T.S. Eliot

Ans: D

195. Who said ‘‘No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone’’ ?

(A) T.S. Eliot

(B) I.A. Richards

(D) Raymond Williams

Ans: A

196. Who in ‘‘An Essay of Dramatic Poesy’’ by Dryden represents the Ancients?

(A) Lisideius

(B) Crites

(D) J. Dryden

Ans: A

197. Shelley defends poetry against the attack of :

(A) Robert Southey

(B) Walter Scott

(D) Samuel T. Coleridge

Ans: C

198. Who in ‘‘An Essay of Dramatic Poesy’’ by Dryden represents the Ancients?

(A) Lisideius

(B) Crites

(D) J. Dryden

Ans: A

199. 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

intentions

(D) New criticism considers text as an autonomous, ontological and organic whole

Ans: D

200. Which of the following is not written by Wordsworth?

(A) The Prelude

(B) The Excursion

(D) The Borderers

Ans: C

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500+ Literary Criticism – (100-200 Questions)

500+ Literary Criticism – (1-100 Questions)

500+ Literary Criticism – (200-300 Questions)

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