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201. Peripeteia, according to Aristotle, stands for:
(A) Error of judgment
(C) Recognition
(B) ‘Reversal’ in hero’s fortunes
(D) Roundabout speech
Ans: B
202. “It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to create………”
In the above statement ‘It’ refers to:
(A) Magic
(B) Fancy
(C) Primary imagination
(D) Secondary imagination
Ans: C
203. Which one of the following is the fourth source of sublime as defined by Longinus?
(A) Dignity of composition
(B) Capacity of strong emotions
(C) Grandeur of thought
(D) Nobility of diction
Ans: C
204. What was called as ‘Organon’ by Aristotle’s followers Peripatetics?
(A) Collection of Aristotle’s Works on Politics
(B) Collection of Aristotle’s Works on Poetics
(C) Collection of Aristotle’s Works on Logic
(D) Collection of Aristotle’s Works on Metaphysics
Ans: C
205. Which character takes the side of Modern English dramatists by criticizing the faults of the classical playwrights who did not themselves observe the Unity of Place in the Essay on Dramatic Poesy?
(A) Lisideus
(C) Neander
(B) Crites
(D) Eugenius
Ans: D
206. The concept of objective correlative appears in which of Eliot’s works?
(A) “Tradition and Individual Talent”
(B) “The Frontiers of Criticism”
(C) “Hamlet and his Problems”
(D) “The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism”
Ans: A
207. According to Coleridge, what is it that dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate
and to unify?
(A) Fancy
(C) Epiphany
(B) Secondary imagination
(D) Sensibility
Ans: B
208. Odes and Epodes was written by:
(B) Horace
(D) Plato
(A) Longinus
(C) Aristotle
Ans:B
209. Who said, “The effect of elevated language upon audience is not persuasion but transport.”
(A) Cacecilius
(C) Horace
(B) Plotinus
(D) Longinus
Ans: D
210. Shakespeare, according to Johnson offers:
(A) particular manners peculiar to individuals
(B) particular manners peculiar to time
(C) particular manners peculiar to place
(D) representation of general nature
Ans:D
211. Wordsworth writes, “Humble and rustic life was generally chosen, because, in that condition, the essential passions of heart
(A) are under great restraint
(B) do not speak a plainer language
(C) cannot be accurately contemplated
(D) find a better soul
Ans:B
212. As propounded by Coleridge in Biographia Literaria, what do the following terms suggest in terms of poetic genius. Match the qualities in Column A with their corresponding parts in Column B:
Column-A
(i) Good Sense
(ii) Fancy
(iii) Motion
(iv) Imagination
Column-B
(a) Life
(b) Soul
(c) Drapery
(d) Body
The correctly matched items according to the series are:
Codes :
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv)
(A) (d) (c) (a) (b)
(B) (a) (b) (c) (d)
(C) (b) (a) (d) (c)
(D) (c) (d) (b) (a)
Ans:A
213. In which of the following essays, did Arnold put forward the “Touchstone Theory’ ?
(A) “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time”
(B) “Culture and Anarchy”
(C) “The Study of Poetry”
(D) “The Literary Influence of Academics”
Ans: A
214. “Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation is directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry”. These lines are from which essay of T. S. Eliot?
(A) “Tradition and the Individual Talent”
(B) “The Metaphysical Poets”
(C) “Hamlet and his Problems”
(D) “Frontiers of Criticism”
Ans: A
215. Alexander Pope in the Essay on Criticism deals with
(A) the merits and limitations of the 18th century school of poetry
(B) the merits and limitations of the 18th century school of drama
(C) the merits and limitations of the 18th century school of criticism
(D) the merits and limitations of the 18th century school of prose
Ans: A
216. The Essay in which Dryden has compared Horace, Juvenal and Persius is
(A) Essay on Influence
(B) Essay on Criticism
(C) Essay on Ancients
(D) Essay on Satire
Ans: D
217. Who of the following translated Homer’s Iliad?
(A) Alexander Pope
(C) John Donne
(B) William Congreve
(D) George Herbert
Ans: A
218. Who distinguished between the primary and secondary imagination?
(A) William Wordsworth
(B) S.T. Coleridge
(C) Robert Southey
(D) De Quincey
Ans:B
219. Who is the author of Biographia Literaria ?
(A) Shelley
(B) Byron
(C) S.T. Coleridge
(D) Hazlitt
Ans: C
220. Arrange the following in the right chronological order:
A) Lyrical Ballads , Biographia Literaria, Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Adonais
(B) Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Lyrical Ballads, Literaria Biographia, Adonais
(C) Lyrical Ballads, Biographia Literaria, Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Adonais
(D) Biographia Literaria, Adonais, Lyrical Ballads, Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Ans: C
221. Who defined poetry as a “criticism of life” :
(A) Arnold
(B) Tennyson
(C) Browning
(D) Rossetti
Ans: A
222. Defence of Poesie belongs to the genre of :
(A) Drama
(B) Poetry
(C) Criticism
(D) Fiction
Ans: C
223. Biographia Literaria was published in
(A) 1817
(B) 1805
(C) 1815
(D) 1800
Ans: B
224. The phrase ‘willing suspension of disbelief is associated with
(A) Keats
(B) Lord Byron
(C) Shelley
(D) William Blake
Ans: D
225. Plato wanted to judge poetry from the tool of
(A) Beauty
(B) Sublimity
(C) Truth
(D) None of these
Ans: A
226. The function of tradegy, according to Aristotle, is to offer
(A) understanding
(C) enlightenment
(B) transportation
(D) tragic pleasure
Ans: B
227. “The poet is a man speaking to man’. Who wrote this?
(A) Coleridge
(C) Wordsworth
(B) Shelley
(D) Dr. Johnson
Ans: C
228. Peripeteia, according to Aristotle, stands for:
(A) Error of judgment
(C) Recognition
(B) ‘Reversal’ in hero’s fortunes
(D) Roundabout speech
Ans: B
229. Neander in Dryden’s Essay of Dramatic Poesie speaks for:
(A) Classical drama
(C) French Neo-classical drama
(B) Modern drama
(D) British drama
Ans: C
230. “It dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to create………”
In the above statement ‘It’ refers to :
Magic
(B) Fancy
(C) Primary imagination
(D) Secondary imagination
Ans: D
231. The term “Tension’ is associated with :
(A) J.C. Ransom
(B) W. Empson
(C) C. Brooks
(D) A. Tate
Ans: B
232. Who made the following statement :
“The great contention of criticism is to
find the faults of the moderns and the
beauties of the ancients ?”
(A) Matthew Arnold
(B) Samuel Johnson
(C) T.S. Eliot
(D) Thomas Carlyle
Ans: B
233. Philip Sydney’s Defense of Poesy was
written in response to
(A) Plato’s Republic
(B) Horace’s Ars Poetica
(C) Aristotle’s Poetics
(D) Stephen Gosson’s The School of Abuse
Ans: D
234. Coleridge’s statement that imagination “dissolves, diffuses, dissipates in order to
recreate” relates to—
(A)secondary imagination
(B) esemplastic imagination
(C) fancy
(D) primary imagination
Ans: A
235. Ars Poetica is the most important critical work of:
(A) Ovid
(B) Virgil
(C) Horace
(D) Longinus
Ans: C
236. How many principal sources of Sublimity are there according to Longinus?
(A) Three sources
(B) Four sources
(C) Five sources
(D) No definite number of sources
Ans: B
237. 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
Ans: B
238. Some Elizabethan Puritan critics denounced poets as ‘fathers of lies’ and caterpillars of a commonwealth’. Who was he who used these offensive terms?
(A) William Tyndale
(B) Roger Ascham
(C) Stephen Gosson
(D) Henry Howard
Ans: C
239. 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 play concerned
Ans: B
240. 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 one of the four liquids in the human body
(D) An eccentric person
Ans: C
241. Dryden wrote An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Is this:
(A) An Essay
(B) A Drama
(C) A Poetical Work
(D) An Interlocution
Ans: A
242. Who called Dryden the father of English criticism?
(A) Joseph Addison
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Coleridge
(D) Matthew Arnold
Ans: B
243. Poetry was generally written in ‘Poetic diction’ by:
(A) The Elizabethan poets
(B) The Neo-classical poets
(C) The Romantic poets
(D) The Victorian poets
Ans: B
244. “The tragi-comedy, which is the product of the English theatre, is one of the most monstrous inventions that ever entered into a poet’s thoughts.” Whose view is this?
(A) John Dryden
(B) Alexander Pope
(C) Joseph Addison
(D) Dr. Johnson
Ans: A
245. “Be Homer’s works your study and delight.
Read them by day, and meditate by night.”
Who gives this advice to the poets?
(A) Sidney
(B) Dryden
(C) Pope
(D) Ben Jonson
Ans: A
246. Which of the following critics preferred Shakespeare’s Comedies to his Tragedies?
(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Addison
Ans: D
247. Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is believed to be the Preamble to Romantic Criticism. In which year was it published?
(A) 1798
(B) 1800
(C) 1801
(D) 1802
Ans: A
248. “The end of writing is to instruct;
the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.”
Whose view is this?
(A) Wordsworth’s
(B) Coleridge’s
(C) Dr. Johnson’s
(D) Matthew Arnold’s
Ans: C
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.
249. Regarding the observance of the three Classical Unities in a play, Dr. Johnson’s
view is that:
(A) Only the unity of Time should be observed
(B) Only the unity of Place should be observed
(C) Only the unity of Action should be observed
(D) All the three unities should be observed
Ans: C
250. “Poetry is emotions recollected in tranquillity.” Who has defined Poetry in these words?
(A) Shelley
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Coleridge
(D) Matthew Arnold
Ans: B
251. “There neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.” Who holds this view?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Hazlitt
(D) Lamb
Ans: A
252. “I write in metre because I am about to use a language different from that of prose.” Who says this?
(A) Wordsworth
(B) Coleridge
(C) Shelley
(D) Keats
Ans: C
253. Which of the following critics has most elaborately discussed the Concept of Imagination?
(A) Walter Pater
(B) John Ruskin
(C) S. T. Coleridge
(D) Freud
Ans: C
254. Who defines poetry “as a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a
criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty”?
(A) Coleridge
(B) Shelley
(C) Walter Pater
(D) Matthew Arnold
Ans: D
255. Who says that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world?”
(A) Shelley
(B) Walter Pater
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) T. S. Eliot
Ans: A
256. Who has divided Literature into two broad divisions-Literature of power and Literature of knowledge?
(A) T. S. Eliot
(B) F. R. Leavis
(C) De Quincey
(D) Matthew Arnold
Ans: D
257. Who gave the concept of “Art for Art’s sake’?
(A) Walter Pater
(B) F. R. Leavis
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) John Keats
Ans: A
258. What is common amongst these three critical expressions?
‘Objective correlative’
‘Dissociation of sensibilities’
‘Unification of sensibilities’
(A) All the three come from T. S. Eliot
(B) All the three come from I. A. Richards
(C) All the three come from F. R. Leavis
(D) All the three come from William Empson
Ans: A
259. Who gave the concept of “Art for life’s sake’?
(A) T. S. Eliot
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Matthew Arnold
(D) Tennyson
Ans: A
260. Who said, “For art’s sake alone I would not face the toil of writing a single
sentence “?
(A) T. S. Eliot
(B) George Bernard Shaw
(C) John Galsworthy
(D) John Masefield
Ans: A
261. In whose opinion “Poetry is the most highly organised form of intellectual
activity?”
(A) G. B. Shaw
(B) W. B. Yeats
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) D. H. Lawrence
Ans: C
262. Is Dryden’s Essay of Dramatic Poesy a work of:
(A) Interpretative criticism
(B) Legislative criticism
(C) Comparative criticism
(D) Textual criticism
Ans: B
263. Who proposed the ‘Touchstone’ method for literary evaluation?
A) Matthew Arnold
B) T.5. Eliot
C) I.A. Richards
D) F.R. Leavis
Ans: A
264. By the term ‘dissociation of sensibility’ Eliot meant
A) The unification of thought and feeling
B) The unification of thought and intellect
Cy The unification of intellect and reason
D) The unification of emotions and feelings
Ans: B
265. 4 Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy was written by
A) Philip Sidney
B) John Milton
C) John Dryden
D) Samuel Butler
Ans: C
266. To Aristotle ‘catharsis’ means
A) Fall from high estate in life
B) Purgation of the emotions
C) To correct manners
D) To refine the conduct
Ans: B
267. The hamartia, the anagnorisis and the peripeteia are the three key elements in
A) A plot
B) An ode
C) A lyric
D) An epic
Ans: B
268. The two great romantic poets behind the creation of Lyrical Ballads are
A) Wordsworth and Coleridge
B) Keats and Wordsworth
C) Collins and Gray
D) Byron and Shelley
Ans: A
269. Who defines criticism as the play of mind on the aesthetic qualities of literature?
(a) Saintsbury
(b) Atkins
(c) Victor Hugo
(d) Edmund Gosse
Ans: A
270. Who commented that ‘Even today the Poetics continues
to be studied and prescribed as textbooks in schools
and colleges’?
(a) F. L. Lucas
(b) Dr Johnson
(c) Atkins
(d) Dryden
Ans: A
271. Longinus says that ‘Great literature springs from great
and’.
(a) lofty souls
(b) immortal ideas
(c) high imagination
(d) nobility of diction
Ans: A
272. ‘On the sublime’ is a piece of
(a) Dramatic
(b) Poetic
(c) Prose
(d) Conversational
Ans: C
273. Who called the poet a Vates?
(a) Greeks
(b) Romans
(c) Italians
(d) Squamards
Ans: C
274. In whose opinion ‘Sidney wrote not a pendants encyclopaedia but a gentleman’s essay’?
(a) School of abuse
(b) Evils of Poesy
(c) Corruptor
(d) None of those
Ans: A
275. What was the chief source of Sidney’s theory of theory?
(a) Plato
(b) Horace
(c) Aristotle
(d) Longinus
Ans: C
276. In whose opinion has Longinus ‘turned and tempered
them with what is Sanest in Classism’?
(a) Atkins
(b) Gibbons
(c) Scott James
(d) Sainsbury
Ans: D
277. Complete Longinus declaration that, ‘sublimity is a certain loftiness and excellence in
(a) Poetry
(b) Style
(c) Language
(d) None of these
Ans: B
278. Who had banished poetry from ideal commonwealth?
(a) Plato
(b) Horace
(c) Gosson
(d) Wilson
Ans: A
279. Sidney has rejected English drama because of
(a) Pure laughter
(b) Extreme seriousness
(c) Worthlessness
(d) Tragi-comedy
Ans: B
280. Who praised Dryden as the father of English criticism?
(a) Atkins
(b) Scott James
(c) Dr Johnson
(d) T. S. Eliot
Ans: C
281. Which of the characters favours the greatness of the
ancients?
(a) Neander
(b) Crites
(c) Lisideius
(d) Eugenius
Ans: A
282. Which is the perfect modern English play according to
Dryden?
(a) Silent women
(b) Duchess of Malfi
(c) Macbeth
(d) Volpone
Ans: A
283. In whose opinion, Dryden is ‘the first Englishman to attempt any extended descriptive criticism’?
(a) Saintsbury
(b) Dr Johnson
(c) Watson
(d) Pope
Ans: A
284. What great achievement has been in the essay of Dramatic Poetry?
(a) Freedom for classical rules
(b) Preference to imaginations
(c) Observing romanticism
(d) Teaching the people
Ans: A
285. The central theme of the Essay of Dramatic Poesy is
(a) Justification of English Drama
(b) Rejection of the French Drama
(c) Reject Aristotle
(d) Praise Chaucer
Ans: A
286. Which edition of Lyrical Ballads is considered to be a
standard critical document?
(a) 1800
(b) 1802
(c) 1815
(d) 1820
Ans: B
287. The preface to the Lyrical Ballad was attached to
(a) 1800 edition
(b) 1802 edition
(c) 1815 edition
(d) 1820 edition
Ans: A
288. Who says that, ‘every great poet is a teacher’?
(a) Wordsworth
(b) Coleridge
(c) Keats
(d) Pope
Ans: A
289. Wordsworth says, ‘Poetry is born not in the mind but in
the heart overflowing with
(a) Emotions
(b) Thoughts
(c) Feelings
(d) Ideas
Ans: C
290. Who has criticised most of Eliot’s theory of objective
correlative?
(a) Washington Allston
(b) WB Yeats
(c) Eliseo Vivas
(d) None of the above
Ans: C
291. In classical Greek, catharsis meant…….
Options:
a. Purgation or cleansing
b. Dirt and defilement
c. Tragic turn
d. Spite and revenge
Ans: a
292. According to Longinus, the sublime
has the following features except :
(A) It is the essence of all great
poetry and oratory.
(B) It is interested in the usual
rhetorical goal of persuasion.
(C) It valorises a special use of
language.
(D) It is a matter of reader-response.
Ans: b
293. The following are two lists of
statements and the poets / critics who
made them. Match them correctly :
List – I
(Statements on
imagination)
List – II
(Poets /
critics)
I. One power
alone makes a
poet – The
Imagination,
The Divine
Vision
1. Shelley
II. … what the
imagination
seizes on beauty
must be the truth
2. Coleridge
III. The great
instrument of
moral good is
the imagination
3. Blake
IV. Works of
imagination
should be
written in a very
plain language
4. Keats
The right combination according to
the code is :
Code :
I II III IV
(A) 2 1 3 4
(B) 3 4 1 2
(C) 1 3 2 1
(D) 4 1 3 2
Ans: a
294. What is denouncement?
A-The ending of a tragedy
B-The climax in a tragedy
C- The climax in a comedy
D- The ending of a comedy
Ans: a
295. Who is the originator of the Theory of Imitation in literature?
A-Plato
B-Longinus
C-Aristotle
D-None
Ans: a
296. From where has the term Oedipus Complex Originated?
A-Antigone
B- Oedipus the Rex
C-Oedipus at Cons
D-None
Ans: b
297. In which of the following works Plato discusses his Theory of Poetry?
A-Ion
B-Apology
C- The Republic
D-None
Ans: c
298. Who is the author of a notorious book entitled The School of Abuse?
A-Stephen Gosson
B-John Skelton
C-Stephen Hawes
D-Roger Ascham
Ans: a
299. Philip Sidney’s Apology for Poetry is a defence of poetry against the charges brought
against it by
A- John Skelton
B- Stephen Gosson
C-Roger Ascham
D-Henry Howard
Ans: b
300. “It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet no more than a long worn maketh an
advocate” whose view is this?
A- Sidney
B-Marlow
C-Spenser
D-Shakespeare
Ans: a
