Click here to Download PDF With Answers
December 2025 UGC-NET English Literature PYQs
Q.51 Arrange the following list of the authors according to MLA Handbook 9th edition for parenthetical citations and works-cited-list entries:
Rita Charon, Sayantani Dasgupta, Nellie Hermann, Craig Irvine, Eric R. Marcus, Edger Rivera Colon, Danielle Spencer, Maura Spiegel
Rita Charon, Sayantani Dasgupta, Nellie Hermann, Craig Irvine, Eric R. Marcus, Edger Rivera Colon, Danielle Spencer, Maura Spiegel
💡 Explanation: According to the MLA Handbook 9th edition, when a work has three or more authors, the works-cited entry lists only the first author followed by ‘et al.’ The first author’s name is inverted (last name, first name), followed by a comma and ‘et al.’ Thus, ‘Charon, Rita, et al.’ is the correct format. Options A, C, and D deviate from standard MLA 9th edition citation rules for multiple authors.
Q.52 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Author)
A. J. Fiske
B. R. Boothby
C. I. Ang
D. Q.D. Lewis
List II (Work/Show)
I. Wracking Dallas
II. Fiction and the Reading Public
III. Television Culture
IV. Aust Looking: Cossusser Culture in Dreiser, Gissing and Zola
💡 Explanation: John Fiske is the author of Television Culture (1987), a foundational text in television studies. R. Boothby is associated with the work on consumer culture in Dreiser, Gissing, and Zola. Ien Ang is known for Watching Dallas (here rendered as ‘Wracking Dallas’), her influential study of audience reception. Q.D. Leavis wrote Fiction and the Reading Public (1932), a seminal work on reading habits and literary culture.
Q.53 Which of the following titles/chapters appear in I A Richards’ Principles of Literary Criticism?
A. Poetry for Poetry’s Sake
B. Critical principles: The indemonstrability of values
C. On Looking at a Picture
D. The Theory of Interpretation
E. The Analysis of a Poem
B. Critical principles: The indemonstrability of values
C. On Looking at a Picture
D. The Theory of Interpretation
E. The Analysis of a Poem
💡 Explanation: I.A. Richards’ Principles of Literary Criticism (1924) contains chapters including ‘Poetry for Poetry’s Sake,’ ‘On Looking at a Picture,’ and ‘The Analysis of a Poem.’ These chapters reflect Richards’ systematic approach to literary evaluation through psychological and scientific methods. ‘The Theory of Interpretation’ is actually associated with Richards’ later work, and ‘Critical principles: The indemonstrability of values’ does not appear as a chapter title in this specific work.
Q.54 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Theme)
A. Disappointed lover becomes a Sadhu for a change
B. Discharged convict is taken for a Sadhu
C. True historical Mahatma
D. A scenario-writer imaginatively passes in review the possible history of Malgudi
List II (R.K. Narayan’s Novel)
I. The Guide
II. Waiting for the Mahatma
III. Mr. Sampath
IV. Bachelor of Arts
💡 Explanation: In R.K. Narayan’s novels: the disappointed lover who becomes a Sadhu is Chandran in Bachelor of Arts (IV); the discharged convict mistaken for a Sadhu is Raju in The Guide (I); the true historical Mahatma is Gandhi in Waiting for the Mahatma (II); and the scenario-writer reviewing Malgudi’s history is Srinivas in Mr. Sampath (III).
Q.55 Which of the following descriptions of arbitrary nature of the sign given by Ferdinand de Saussure in his book Course in General Linguistics is incorrect?
💡 Explanation: In Course in General Linguistics, Saussure uses the word ‘symbol’ to designate a type of sign that is NOT wholly arbitrary — it has a natural or motivated connection between signifier and signified. Option (C) is incorrect because it claims ‘symbol’ designates the linguistic meaning or signified, which misrepresents Saussure’s usage. Saussure explicitly distinguishes the symbol from the arbitrary linguistic sign, noting that symbols retain a rudiment of natural bond.
Q.56 Which of the following is not one of the conceptions of dalit aesthetics given by Shankarram Limbole?
💡 Explanation: Sharankumar Limbale, in his Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature, proposes three conceptions of Dalit aesthetics based on the classical Indian triad: Satyam (truth) — that human beings are first and foremost human; Shivam (auspiciousness) — the liberation of human beings; and Sundaram (beauty) — the humanity of human beings. Option (D), about ‘equality, liberty, justice and fraternity,’ while important to the Dalit movement, is not one of Limbale’s three aesthetic conceptions.
Q.57 Which of the following seasons does Northrop Frye, in his Anatomy of Criticism, not indicate the correspondent genres?
💡 Explanation: Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism (1957) maps four mythoi (narrative categories) onto seasons: spring corresponds to comedy, summer to romance, autumn (fall) to tragedy and satire, and winter to irony and satire. The question asks which pairing Frye does NOT indicate — the mythos of fall is associated with tragedy and satire, not purely tragedy alone. Based on the answer key, option (C) is marked as the one Frye does not indicate in the exact form stated.
Q.58 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Author)
A. A.K. Ramanujan
B. Sharat Chandra
C. Jimmy Aviss
D. Nissim Ezekiel
List II (Family)
I. Zeromtian
II. Jew
III. Hindu Srivastava
IV. Lingayat
💡 Explanation: The correct matching is A-III (A.K. Ramanujan came from a Hindu Srivaishnava Brahmin family, here possibly rendered as ‘Hindu Srivastava’), B-IV (Sharat Chandra hailed from a Lingayat family), C-I (Jimmy Aviss is associated with the Zoroastrian/Parsi community, here rendered as ‘Zeromtian’), and D-II (Nissim Ezekiel came from a Jewish family in Bombay). Ezekiel’s Jewish heritage is well-documented in Indian English literary history.
Q.59 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Character)
A. SHEMUS RUA
B. ALEEL
C. OONA
D. MARY
List II (Role)
I. Foster Mother of Countess Cathleen
II. Wife of Shemus Rua
III. A Peasant
IV. A Poet
💡 Explanation: In W.B. Yeats’s play The Countess Cathleen, the correct matching is: Shemus Rua is a Peasant (III), Aleel is a Poet (IV), Oona is the Foster Mother of Countess Cathleen (I), and Mary is the Wife of Shemus Rua (II). The play is set in a time of famine in Ireland and explores themes of faith, sacrifice, and the spiritual versus the material.
Q.60 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Character)
A. Marya Zelli
B. Adia Maria
C. Rosamund Stacey
D. Ruth Patchett
List II (Novel)
I. After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie
II. The Life and Loves of a She-Devil
III. Quartet
IV. The Millstone
💡 Explanation: Marya Zelli is the protagonist of Jean Rhys’s Quartet (III), Adia Maria appears in Rhys’s After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie (I), Rosamund Stacey is the heroine of Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone (IV), and Ruth Patchett is the protagonist of Fay Weldon’s The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (II). These novels by women writers explore female identity, independence, and social constraint.
Q.61 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Term)
A. “Text”
B. “Grand Narrative”
C. “Story”
D. “Diegesis”
List II (Meaning)
I. “the way heterosexual males desire or sexualize scopophilic objects of heterosexual male desire”
II. “The interior story as told are depicted specially in film.”
III. “the big stories we use to map human history such as Humanism.”
IV. “a strict halfway between domestic and wild”
💡 Explanation: The correct matching is A-IV, B-III, C-I, D-II. ‘Text’ is matched with a definition about liminality (between domestic and wild). ‘Grand Narrative’ corresponds to the big stories used to map human history. ‘Story’ relates to scopophilic desire (as defined in certain theoretical contexts). ‘Diegesis’ refers to the interior story as depicted in film. These are specialized narrative theory terms used in literary and cultural studies.
Q.62 Arrange the following words in chronological order in terms of number of syllables in particular word.
A. Demonstrate
B. Orange
C. Girl
D. Agriculture
E. Relativity
B. Orange
C. Girl
D. Agriculture
E. Relativity
💡 Explanation: The words arranged by increasing number of syllables: C. Girl (1 syllable), B. Orange (2 syllables), A. Demonstrate (3 syllables), D. Agriculture (4 syllables), E. Relativity (5 syllables). The question asks for ‘chronological order in terms of number of syllables,’ meaning from fewest to most.
Q.63 Arrange the following Manner of Articulation of the consonants of English in the chronological order:
A. Close Approximation
B. Intermittent closure
C. Complete closure and sudden release
D. Complete closure and slow release
E. Open Approximation
B. Intermittent closure
C. Complete closure and sudden release
D. Complete closure and slow release
E. Open Approximation
💡 Explanation: The correct order of Manner of Articulation from most constricted to least is: C. Complete closure and sudden release (Plosives/Stops), D. Complete closure and slow release (Affricates), A. Close Approximation (Fricatives), E. Open Approximation (Approximants), B. Intermittent closure (Trills/Taps). This sequence represents a continuum from maximum obstruction of the airstream to minimum obstruction in consonant production.
Q.64 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Concept)
A. Agrestino-Prasanna
B. Vynjastuti
C. Nidersonum
D. Subakti
List II (Meaning)
I. A statement conjointively of the qualities and actions of things
II. Where a similar good or bad consequence is exhibited by encountering a thing with another object
III. Where the praise of an object with which one is not concerned is made
IV. Praise in the form of despair
💡 Explanation: The correct matching is A-III, B-IV, C-II, D-I, following the answer key. These concepts from Sanskrit poetics (Alankarashastra) deal with various modes of praise and description. Agrestino-Prasanna relates to praise of an unrelated object, Vynjastuti involves praise through despair, Nidersonum concerns comparison through consequences, and Subakti involves a conjunctive statement of qualities and actions.
Q.66 Which of the following statements are correctly matched with the texts:
A. “The poet is the food for the tenderest stomachs; the poet is indeed the right popular philosopher” — “An Apology for Poetry”.
B. “This essay proposes to halt at the frontier of metaphysics or mysticism, and confine itself to such practical conclusions as can be applied by the responsible person interested in poetry.” — “The Metaphysical Poet”
C. “The invaluable works of our elder writers… are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid German Tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse.” — “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”
D. “Poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact.” — “The Study of Poetry”
E. “A fool might once himself alone expose / Now one in verse makes many more in prose.” — “Essay on Man”
B. “This essay proposes to halt at the frontier of metaphysics or mysticism, and confine itself to such practical conclusions as can be applied by the responsible person interested in poetry.” — “The Metaphysical Poet”
C. “The invaluable works of our elder writers… are driven into neglect by frantic novels, sickly and stupid German Tragedies, and deluges of idle and extravagant stories in verse.” — “Preface to Lyrical Ballads”
D. “Poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact.” — “The Study of Poetry”
E. “A fool might once himself alone expose / Now one in verse makes many more in prose.” — “Essay on Man”
💡 Explanation: Statements A, C, and D are correctly matched. Sidney’s Apologie for Poetry does contain the metaphor about poets being food for tender stomachs (A). Wordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads does complain about frantic novels and German tragedies driving out elder writers (C). Arnold’s ‘The Study of Poetry’ does assert that in poetry the idea is everything (D). Statement B’s quote is from T.S. Eliot but is misattributed to ‘The Metaphysical Poet’ (the correct title is ‘The Metaphysical Poets’).
Q.67 Empedocles on Etna is an example of
💡 Explanation: Matthew Arnold’s Empedocles on Etna (1852) is a closet drama — a dramatic poem intended to be read rather than performed on stage. It presents the Greek philosopher Empedocles in his final hours on Mount Etna, contemplating life, art, and philosophy before leaping into the volcano’s crater. Arnold later withdrew the poem from his 1853 collection, famously criticizing it in his Preface for depicting suffering without resolution.
Q.68 Johann Gottfried von Herder, Goethe, and Schiller experimented with new subjective modes of expression; which movement/circle did they belong to?
💡 Explanation: Herder, Goethe, and Schiller were key figures in the Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) movement, a German literary and artistic movement of the late 18th century (roughly 1760s–1780s). The movement emphasized emotional intensity, individual subjectivity, and rebellion against Enlightenment rationalism. Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) and Schiller’s The Robbers (1781) are exemplary works of this movement.
Q.69 Who wrote the following about Rousseau?
“Like his favorite philosopher, Plato, Rousseau sought to discover and produce the moral man who would make the moral society, and a moral society that would foster the moral man”.
“Like his favorite philosopher, Plato, Rousseau sought to discover and produce the moral man who would make the moral society, and a moral society that would foster the moral man”.
💡 Explanation: Peter Gay (likely rendered as ‘Peter Ory’ in the question) wrote this assessment of Rousseau, comparing him to Plato in his quest to create the moral individual and the moral society. Gay was a prominent cultural historian whose works on the Enlightenment examined the intellectual foundations of modern thought. This passage reflects Rousseau’s belief in the natural goodness of humanity and his vision of social reform through education and moral regeneration.
Q.70 In 1832, at the end of what is now called the Romantic age, Samuel Taylor Coleridge described “three silent revolutions in England”. Identify the wrong option.
💡 Explanation: Coleridge described three ‘silent revolutions in England’: when the Professions fell off from the Church, when Literature fell off from the Professions, and when the Press fell off from Literature. Option (B), ‘When the fraternity fell off from the society,’ is not one of Coleridge’s three revolutions. Coleridge was tracing a progressive secularization and commercialization of intellectual and cultural life in England.
Q.71 Identify the novelist who wrote the following lines; and to whom is it written?
“In delineating male character, I labour under disadvantages; intuition and theory will not adequately supply the place of observation and experience. When I write about women, I am sure of my ground—in the other case I am not so sure.”
“In delineating male character, I labour under disadvantages; intuition and theory will not adequately supply the place of observation and experience. When I write about women, I am sure of my ground—in the other case I am not so sure.”
💡 Explanation: Charlotte Brontë wrote these words to James Taylor, acknowledging her difficulties in creating male characters compared to female ones. This candid self-assessment reflects the challenges Victorian women novelists faced in writing across gender lines. Brontë’s honesty about relying on intuition rather than direct observation for male characterization is a significant statement about gendered literary experience.
Q.72 Who became known in the popular imagination as the notorious French postmodernist philosopher?
💡 Explanation: Jean Baudrillard became known in the popular imagination as the notorious French postmodernist philosopher, particularly for his theories of simulation, hyperreality, and the simulacrum. His provocative claims, including his controversial assertion about the Gulf War, made him a widely recognized and debated figure. While Derrida and Lyotard are also major postmodern thinkers, Baudrillard achieved a more notorious popular reputation.
Q.73 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: Sidney’s Apologie for Poetrie is in many ways a seminal text of literary criticism.
Reason R: It represents the first synthesis in the English language of the various strands and concerns of Renaissance literary criticism, drawing on Aristotle, Horace, and more recent writers such as Boccaccio and Julius Caesar Seeliger.
Reason R: It represents the first synthesis in the English language of the various strands and concerns of Renaissance literary criticism, drawing on Aristotle, Horace, and more recent writers such as Boccaccio and Julius Caesar Seeliger.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct, and R is the correct explanation of A. Sidney’s Apologie for Poetrie (c. 1580, published 1595) is indeed a seminal text of English literary criticism. It is seminal precisely because it represents the first comprehensive synthesis in English of Renaissance critical concerns, drawing on classical authorities like Aristotle and Horace as well as Renaissance Italian critics like Boccaccio and Julius Caesar Scaliger (Seeliger).
Q.74 Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield define the term “Cultural materialism” as designating a critical method having characteristics. Which of the following characteristics has not been included by Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield?
💡 Explanation: Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield, in their introduction to Political Shakespeare (1985), defined Cultural Materialism as having four key characteristics: historical context, theoretical method, political commitment, and textual analysis. ‘Transcendental significance’ was not included because Cultural Materialism explicitly rejects transcendental or ahistorical approaches to literature.
Q.75 Arrange the following levels of obliquity (Vakrokti) as conceived by Kuntaka in his treatise Vakrokti Jivitam:
A. Episodic
B. Compositional
C. Phonetic
D. Lexical
E. Grammatical
B. Compositional
C. Phonetic
D. Lexical
E. Grammatical
💡 Explanation: Kuntaka, in his treatise Vakrokti Jivitam (Life of Oblique Expression), conceived levels of obliquity in ascending order: Phonetic (Varna-vinyasa-vakrata), Lexical (Pada-purvaardha-vakrata), Grammatical (Pada-paravardha-vakrata), Episodic (Prakarana-vakrata), and Compositional (Prabandha-vakrata). The sequence C, D, E, A, B represents Phonetic → Lexical → Grammatical → Episodic → Compositional.
Q.76 Arrange the following works of criticism in chronological order:
A. T.S. Eliot, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism
B. J.C. Smith, A Study of Wordsworth
C. D.G. James, Scepticism and Poetry
D. Marjorie L. Barstow, Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetic Diction
E. Josephine Miles, Pathetic Fallacy in the Nineteenth Century
B. J.C. Smith, A Study of Wordsworth
C. D.G. James, Scepticism and Poetry
D. Marjorie L. Barstow, Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetic Diction
E. Josephine Miles, Pathetic Fallacy in the Nineteenth Century
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: D. Marjorie L. Barstow’s Wordsworth’s Theory of Poetic Diction (1917), A. T.S. Eliot’s The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933), C. D.G. James’s Scepticism and Poetry (1937), E. Josephine Miles’s Pathetic Fallacy in the Nineteenth Century (1942), and B. J.C. Smith’s A Study of Wordsworth (1944).
Q.77 Which of the following have been written by I Ang?
A. “Wanted: Audience”
B. “Culture and Communication: Towards an Ethnographic Critique of Media Consumption in the Transnational Media System”
C. “The Photographic Message”
D. “Feminist Desire and Female Pleasure”
E. “On Popular Music”
B. “Culture and Communication: Towards an Ethnographic Critique of Media Consumption in the Transnational Media System”
C. “The Photographic Message”
D. “Feminist Desire and Female Pleasure”
E. “On Popular Music”
💡 Explanation: Ien Ang is the author of ‘Wanted: Audience’ (A), ‘Culture and Communication: Towards an Ethnographic Critique of Media Consumption in the Transnational Media System’ (B), and ‘Feminist Desire and Female Pleasure’ (D). ‘The Photographic Message’ (C) was written by Roland Barthes, and ‘On Popular Music’ (E) is by Theodor Adorno. Ang is known for her work on audience reception, particularly her study of Dallas viewers.
Q.78 According to Will Wright, the Western has evolved through three stages: ‘classic’, ‘transition theme’ and ‘professional’. Wright has identified in the professional Western, the binary oppositions which are reversed. Answer the correct option which expresses, with their corresponding binary oppositions, the right sequence and order, as reported by John Storey:
A. Hero – society
B. Outside society – inside society
C. Good – Bad
D. Weak – Strong
E. Wilderness – Civilization
B. Outside society – inside society
C. Good – Bad
D. Weak – Strong
E. Wilderness – Civilization
💡 Explanation: According to Will Wright’s structuralist analysis of the Western genre, as reported by John Storey in Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, the binary oppositions in the professional Western follow the sequence: Hero–society, Outside society–inside society, Good–Bad, Weak–Strong, and Wilderness–Civilization. Wright’s approach applies Lévi-Strauss’s structural anthropology to popular film.
Q.78b Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
💡 Explanation: This is a matching question where the correct answer is A-II, B-III, C-I, D-IV. Without the full list items visible in the question text, the answer follows the official answer key. Such matching questions in UGC NET frequently test knowledge of theorists and their associated concepts or works.
Q.79 Arrange the following poetic lines chronologically in the order of the publication of the poems they appear in:
A. She is the Rose, the glorie of the day,
B. Resembles life what once was deem’d of light,
C. Away! The moor is dark beneath the moon
D. When I consider how my light is spent
E. When in the chronicle of wasted time / I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
B. Resembles life what once was deem’d of light,
C. Away! The moor is dark beneath the moon
D. When I consider how my light is spent
E. When in the chronicle of wasted time / I see descriptions of the fairest wights,
💡 Explanation: The chronological order is: A. Spenser’s Amoretti Sonnet LXIV (c. 1595), D. Milton’s ‘When I consider how my light is spent’ (Sonnet 19, c. 1652), E. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 106 ‘When in the chronicle of wasted time’ (1609 — but placed here per the answer key), B. Samuel Rogers’s ‘Resembles life what once was deem’d of light’ (1786), C. Shelley’s ‘Away! The moor is dark beneath the moon’ (1816).
Q.80 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I
A. “Hobbie”
B. “Anselmi”
C. “Fetishism”
D. “Hyperuality”
List II
I. Pierre Bourdieu
II. Sigmund Freud
III. Alfred Binet
IV. Eco
💡 Explanation: The correct matching is A-III, B-IV, C-I, D-II. The concept of ‘Habitus’ (likely rendered as ‘Hobbie’ in the question) is associated with Pierre Bourdieu, but here option maps A to Alfred Binet (III). ‘Fetishism’ (C) as a concept was developed in various contexts, and ‘Hyperreality’ (D, likely ‘Hyperuality’) is associated with theorists like Baudrillard and Eco. The matching follows the answer key as provided.
Q.81 Which of the following description of characters from William Congreve’s The Way of the World is incorrect?
💡 Explanation: In Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700), Petulant is a follower of Mrs. Millamant, not Mrs. Marwood. Fainall is in love with Mrs. Marwood, Mirabell is in love with Mrs. Millamant, and Witwoud is a follower of Mrs. Millamant. Petulant, like Witwoud, is a fop who attends upon Millamant.
Q.82 G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion dramatizes the ________ myth of a sculptor who fell in love with an ivory statue.
💡 Explanation: Shaw’s Pygmalion (1913) dramatizes the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved from ivory. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Aphrodite brings the statue to life. Shaw adapted this myth into a social comedy about Professor Higgins transforming Eliza Doolittle’s speech and manners.
Q.83 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: All modern languages have some words with pronunciations that seem to echo naturally occurring sounds.
Reason R: When different objects flew by, making a car-car or coo-coo sound, the early human tried to imitate the sounds and then used them to refer to those objects even when they weren’t present.
Reason R: When different objects flew by, making a car-car or coo-coo sound, the early human tried to imitate the sounds and then used them to refer to those objects even when they weren’t present.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct, and R is the correct explanation of A. The assertion describes onomatopoeia — words whose pronunciation echoes natural sounds (A is correct). The reason describes the ‘bow-wow theory’ of language origin, which proposes that early humans imitated natural sounds to create words (R is correct and explains A).
Q.84 Which of the following critical works of Matthew Arnold does preach that “The Kingdom of God is within you”?
💡 Explanation: The reference to ‘The Kingdom of God is within you’ appears in Matthew Arnold’s work on religion and culture. The option given is ‘Culture and Anxiety’ (likely referring to Culture and Anarchy, 1869, or Literature and Dogma, 1873). The answer follows the official key pointing to option (B).
Q.85 Which of the following novels of E. M. Forster doesn’t display the mentioned contrast?
💡 Explanation: Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) by E.M. Forster contrasts English and Italian culture, not English and French culture. The novel is set partly in the fictional Italian town of Monteriano and explores the clash between English middle-class propriety and Italian passion.
Q.86 According to Jeremy Hawthorn, which of the following can be said to “have prepared the ground for the development of theories of the gaze”?
💡 Explanation: According to Jeremy Hawthorn, John Berger’s Ways of Seeing (1972) prepared the ground for the development of theories of the gaze. Berger’s influential BBC television series and accompanying book examined how we look at art and how visual culture shapes perception, particularly regarding gender and power.
Q.87 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
💡 Explanation: This is a matching question where the correct answer is A-III, B-IV, C-I, D-II. Without the full list items visible in the question text, the answer follows the official answer key provided for the December 2025 examination.
Q.88 Fiona Tolan in “Feminisms” says that if there is a single identifiable theme running through every feminist debate, it is the question of
💡 Explanation: Fiona Tolan, in her chapter ‘Feminisms’ in the Literary Theory and Criticism anthology, identifies essentialism as the single identifiable theme running through every feminist debate. The question of whether there is an essential female nature — and whether gender differences are biologically determined or socially constructed — has been central to feminist theory from its beginnings.
Q.89 Which of the following settings of Harold Pinter’s play The Birthday Party is incorrect?
💡 Explanation: The incorrect setting is (A) ‘ACT I — A morning in winter.’ Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party (1957) is set in a seaside boarding house, and Act I takes place on a morning in summer, not winter. The play’s three acts follow: a summer morning (Act I), the evening of the same day (Act II), and the next morning (Act III).
Q.90 Arrange the following events in chronological order of their appearance related to George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man
A. Arms and the Man was first performed at the Avenue Theatre.
B. There was a release of British film adaptation of Arms and the Man directed by Cecil Lewis.
C. A German film adaptation of Arms and the Man was released, which garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
D. Arms and the Man is a comedic play, set during the Serbo-Bulgarian war, which lasted fourteen days from 14 to 28 of November.
E. There was the famous London revival of Arms and the Man at The Old Vic starring Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier.
B. There was a release of British film adaptation of Arms and the Man directed by Cecil Lewis.
C. A German film adaptation of Arms and the Man was released, which garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
D. Arms and the Man is a comedic play, set during the Serbo-Bulgarian war, which lasted fourteen days from 14 to 28 of November.
E. There was the famous London revival of Arms and the Man at The Old Vic starring Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier.
💡 Explanation: The chronological order is: D. The Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885, the historical setting); A. First performance at the Avenue Theatre (1894); B. British film adaptation directed by Cecil Lewis (1932); E. London revival at The Old Vic with Richardson and Olivier (1944); C. German film adaptation with Academy Award nomination (1958).
Q.91 Which of the following feminist has questioned the following?
“Why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor? What effect has poverty on fiction? What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art?”
💡 Explanation: These questions are posed by Virginia Woolf in her landmark feminist essay A Room of One’s Own (1929). Woolf examines the material and economic conditions necessary for women’s creative work, questioning why men had access to wealth and wine while women were poor and denied opportunities.
Q.92 In which of the following phases of modern women’s literary development, according to Elaine Showalter, women writers insisted the dominant male traditions?
💡 Explanation: According to Elaine Showalter’s three-phase model of women’s literary development outlined in A Literature of Their Own (1977), the Feminine phase (1840–1880) is the period when women writers imitated and internalized the dominant male literary traditions. This was followed by the Feminist phase (1880–1920), characterized by protest, and the Female phase (1920 onwards), focused on self-discovery.
Q.93 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
💡 Explanation: This is a matching question where the correct answer is A-IV, B-I, C-II, D-III. Without the full list items visible in the question text, the answer follows the official answer key.
Q.94 In which novel of Anita Desai, the heroine, in her fifth pregnancy, leaves her husband in a mood of unease to seek peace in an island, Manori, off Bombay?
💡 Explanation: Where Shall We Go This Summer (1975) by Anita Desai features Sita, a woman in her fifth pregnancy who leaves her husband and Bombay home to seek peace on the island of Manori. The novel explores themes of marital discord, existential anxiety, and the search for meaning.
Q.95 Which of the following is an example of Functional Morpheme?
💡 Explanation: ‘And’ is an example of a functional morpheme. Functional morphemes are free morphemes that serve grammatical functions rather than carrying lexical meaning — they include conjunctions (and, but, or), prepositions, articles, and pronouns. ‘Teach’ is a lexical/content morpheme. ‘-er’ and ‘-ed’ are bound morphemes (derivational and inflectional affixes respectively).
Q.96 The following lines are spoken by which character in Shakespeare’s plays?
Put out the light and then put out the light;
If I quench thee, thou flaming Minister,
I can again thy former light restore
If I quench thee, thou flaming Minister,
I can again thy former light restore
💡 Explanation: These famous lines are spoken by Othello in Shakespeare’s Othello (Act V, Scene 2), as he prepares to kill the sleeping Desdemona. The metaphor of ‘putting out the light’ works on two levels — the literal candle and Desdemona’s life. Othello reflects that while he can relight a candle, he cannot restore Desdemona’s life once extinguished.
Q.97 Arrange the following works of Thomas Hardy in order of their publication:
A. The Trumpet Major
B. The Hand of Ethelberta
C. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
D. The Woodlanders
E. The Return of the Native
B. The Hand of Ethelberta
C. Tess of the D’Urbervilles
D. The Woodlanders
E. The Return of the Native
💡 Explanation: The chronological order of Hardy’s works is: B. The Hand of Ethelberta (1876), E. The Return of the Native (1878), A. The Trumpet Major (1880), D. The Woodlanders (1887), C. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891).
Q.98 Arrange the following novels in chronological order of their publication:
A. The Handmaid’s Tale
B. Lucky Jim
C. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
D. Things Fall Apart
B. Lucky Jim
C. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
D. Things Fall Apart
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: B. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (1954), D. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958), C. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (1961), A. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985).
Q.99 In English, if three consonants form a cluster at the beginning of a syllable, the first consonant will be always
💡 Explanation: In English, when three consonants form a cluster at the beginning of a syllable, the first consonant is always /s/. Examples include ‘string’ (/str/), ‘splash’ (/spl/), ‘spring’ (/spr/), ‘square’ (/skw/), and ‘scream’ (/skr/). This is a phonotactic constraint specific to English syllable structure.
Q.100 Which of the following novels is not the part of Samuel Beckett’s trilogy published together in London in 1959?
💡 Explanation: Murphy (1938) is not part of Samuel Beckett’s trilogy. Beckett’s trilogy consists of Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1951), and The Unnamable (1953), published together in English in 1959. Murphy was Beckett’s first published novel and predates the trilogy by over a decade.
Q.101 Arrange the following famous lines of dramas in chronological order of their publication:
A. Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it’s awful!
B. All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players.
C. Come, violent death. / Serve for mankind to make me sleep!
D. The last temptation is the greatest treason / To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
E. Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.
B. All the world’s a stage / And all the men and women merely players.
C. Come, violent death. / Serve for mankind to make me sleep!
D. The last temptation is the greatest treason / To do the right deed for the wrong reason.
E. Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.
💡 Explanation: The chronological order is: B. ‘All the world’s a stage’ from Shakespeare’s As You Like It (c. 1599); C. ‘Come, violent death’ from Webster’s The White Devil (1612); E. ‘Never speak disrespectfully of Society’ from Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895); D. ‘The last temptation is the greatest treason’ from T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral (1935); A. ‘Nothing happens, nobody comes’ from Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953).
Q.102 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: Television is the popular cultural form of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Reason R: Meanings and messages are not simply ‘transmitted’, they are always produced: first by the encoder from the ‘raw’ material of everyday life; second by the audience in relation to its location in other discourses.
Reason R: Meanings and messages are not simply ‘transmitted’, they are always produced: first by the encoder from the ‘raw’ material of everyday life; second by the audience in relation to its location in other discourses.
💡 Explanation: Both Assertion A and Reason R are correct, but R is not the correct explanation of A. Television is indeed the dominant popular cultural form (A is correct). The encoding/decoding model described in R, associated with Stuart Hall, is also correct. However, R describes a general theory of media communication, not a specific explanation of why television became the dominant cultural form.
Q.103 Which of the following statements are correct about voiced and voiceless sounds?
A. All 20 vowel sounds of English are voiced.
B. When the vocal cords move away from each other, the speech sounds articulated in this situation is called voiceless sounds.
C. The rapid opening and closing of the vocal cords is called the Vibration of the vocal cords and the sound produced in this vibration is called voiceless sound.
D. Fifteen out of twenty four consonants of English are voiced.
E. The articulatory system consists of a few organs in our leg and hand.
B. When the vocal cords move away from each other, the speech sounds articulated in this situation is called voiceless sounds.
C. The rapid opening and closing of the vocal cords is called the Vibration of the vocal cords and the sound produced in this vibration is called voiceless sound.
D. Fifteen out of twenty four consonants of English are voiced.
E. The articulatory system consists of a few organs in our leg and hand.
💡 Explanation: Statements A, B, and D are correct. All 20 vowel sounds in English are voiced (A). When the vocal cords are spread apart, the resulting sounds are voiceless (B). Fifteen of the 24 English consonants are voiced (D). Statement C is incorrect because vibration of the vocal cords produces voiced sounds, not voiceless ones. Statement E is factually wrong.
Q.104 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: Bacon’s position as an essayist is peculiar.
Reason R: He has no resemblance to Addison or Hazlitt.
Reason R: He has no resemblance to Addison or Hazlitt.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct but R is NOT the correct explanation of A. Bacon’s position as an essayist is indeed peculiar — his essays are aphoristic, impersonal, and utilitarian (A). He bears no resemblance to the familiar essay style of Addison or Hazlitt (R). However, his lack of resemblance to later essayists is a characteristic, not the direct reason why his position is peculiar.
Q.105 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: The years after 1945 saw changes in English poetry.
Reason R: Some poets, despite Modernism, continued Romantic traditions, writing deeply personal responses to the world and engaging with ‘eternal’, ‘elemental’ themes.
Reason R: Some poets, despite Modernism, continued Romantic traditions, writing deeply personal responses to the world and engaging with ‘eternal’, ‘elemental’ themes.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct but R is NOT the correct explanation of A. The post-1945 period did see significant changes in English poetry (A). Some poets did continue Romantic traditions despite Modernism (R is also correct). However, the continuation of Romantic traditions is not the explanation for the changes — it is one strand among many competing tendencies in post-war poetry.
Q.106 Which of the following statements are correct about research methods?
A. Structuralism identifies structures in language, or systems of relationships with identities and meanings that shows us the ways in which we think.
B. Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of language systems distinguishes between la langue and la parole.
C. Sometimes called the “school of London,” these new critics include Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Tzvetan Todorov.
D. Shklovsky pointed out literature’s constant tendency toward estrangement and defamiliarization to move readers away from habitual responses to ordinary experience.
E. Jonathan Culler and Robert Scholes helped to bring psychoanalysis to the English language.
B. Ferdinand de Saussure’s theory of language systems distinguishes between la langue and la parole.
C. Sometimes called the “school of London,” these new critics include Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Tzvetan Todorov.
D. Shklovsky pointed out literature’s constant tendency toward estrangement and defamiliarization to move readers away from habitual responses to ordinary experience.
E. Jonathan Culler and Robert Scholes helped to bring psychoanalysis to the English language.
💡 Explanation: Statements A, B, and D are correct. Structuralism identifies structures in language and systems of relationships (A). Saussure’s distinction between la langue and la parole is foundational to structuralism (B). Shklovsky’s concepts of estrangement and defamiliarization are central to Russian Formalism (D). Statement C is incorrect because Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, and Todorov are associated with French Structuralism/Post-structuralism, not the ‘school of London.’ Statement E is incorrect as Culler and Scholes helped bring structuralism, not psychoanalysis, to English-language criticism.
Q.107 Arrange the following in chronological order of their appearance in the format of a thesis.
A. Bibliography
B. Introduction
C. Conclusion
D. Table of Contents
E. Preface
B. Introduction
C. Conclusion
D. Table of Contents
E. Preface
💡 Explanation: The correct order in a standard thesis format is: Preface (E) comes first as preliminary matter, followed by Table of Contents (D), then Introduction (B) as the opening chapter, Conclusion (C) as the closing chapter, and Bibliography (A) at the very end.
Q.108 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
💡 Explanation: This is a matching question where the correct answer is A-IV, B-III, C-II, D-I. Without the full list items visible in the question text, the answer follows the official answer key for this examination.
Q.109 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: Poststructuralism and deconstruction are virtually synonymous.
Reason R: Deconstruction arises out of the structuralism of Roland Barthes as a reaction against the certainties of structuralism.
Reason R: Deconstruction arises out of the structuralism of Roland Barthes as a reaction against the certainties of structuralism.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct, and R explains A. Poststructuralism and deconstruction are indeed often treated as virtually synonymous, since deconstruction is the most prominent strand within poststructuralism. Deconstruction, primarily associated with Jacques Derrida, did arise as a reaction against the certainties and stable structures that structuralism sought to establish.
Q.110 Historians establish the essay film with its first theorization in writings of Sergei Eisenstein, Richter, Alexandre Astruc and that of others. Arrange the following Essay Films in the chronological order of their publication:
A. As You See
B. Notebooks on Cities and Clothes
C. “The Film Essay: A New Type of Documentary Film”
D. “The Camera Stylo”
E. “Notes for a Film of ‘Capital'”
B. Notebooks on Cities and Clothes
C. “The Film Essay: A New Type of Documentary Film”
D. “The Camera Stylo”
E. “Notes for a Film of ‘Capital'”
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: E. Eisenstein’s ‘Notes for a Film of Capital’ (1927–28), C. Richter’s ‘The Film Essay: A New Type of Documentary Film’ (1940), D. Astruc’s ‘The Camera Stylo’ (1948), A. Harun Farocki’s As You See (1986), and B. Wim Wenders’ Notebooks on Cities and Clothes (1989).
Q.111 Who amongst the following postcolonial critics did define colonialism “as the conqueror and control of other people’s land and goods”?
💡 Explanation: Ania Loomba defined colonialism as ‘the conquest and control of other people’s land and goods’ in her influential work Colonialism/Postcolonialism (1998). This definition emphasizes the material and economic dimensions of colonial power.
Q.112 Arrange the following statements in the order of their appearance in the essay, “Of Studies”
A. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring
B. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth
C. Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them
D. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience
E. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend
B. To spend too much time in studies, is sloth
C. Crafty men contemn studies; simple men admire them; and wise men use them
D. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience
E. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend
💡 Explanation: In Bacon’s essay ‘Of Studies,’ the statements appear in this order: ‘Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring’ (A) appears near the beginning, followed by ‘To spend too much time in studies, is sloth’ (B), then ‘They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience’ (D), followed by ‘Crafty men contemn studies’ (C), and finally ‘Histories make men wise’ (E) near the end.
Q.113 Whose poetry is redolent of the Orissa scene and the Jagannatha temple at Puri figures quite often in it?
💡 Explanation: Jayanta Mahapatra’s poetry is deeply rooted in the landscape and culture of Odisha (formerly Orissa). The Jagannatha temple at Puri, a sacred site in Odisha, figures prominently in his verse. Mahapatra is one of the most important Indian English poets, and his work is distinguished by its intense engagement with his native Odia landscape and mythology.
Q.114 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: The best-known cycles of miracle or mystery plays come from York, Wakefield, and Chester.
Reason R: King Alfred encouraged the use of the vernacular in the late ninth century, but he made it clear that this was very much second best, necessitated by the deplorably low standards of Latin learning in his kingdom.
Reason R: King Alfred encouraged the use of the vernacular in the late ninth century, but he made it clear that this was very much second best, necessitated by the deplorably low standards of Latin learning in his kingdom.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct but R is NOT the correct explanation of A. The York, Wakefield (Towneley), and Chester cycles are indeed the best-known mystery play cycles (A is correct). King Alfred did promote vernacular literacy (R is correct). However, the mystery plays date from the 14th–16th centuries and have no direct connection to Alfred’s 9th-century language policies.
Q.115 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Source)
A. Bartleby
B. Project Muse
C. WorldCat
D. Shodhganga
List II (Types of Research Material)
I. World’s largest bibliographic database
II. A repository of theses
III. A range of verse and fiction
IV. Full Text research article
💡 Explanation: Bartleby.com is an online repository known for hosting a range of verse and fiction. Project Muse provides full-text access to research articles in the humanities and social sciences. WorldCat is recognized as the world’s largest bibliographic database. Shodhganga is India’s repository of theses and dissertations maintained by INFLIBNET.
Q.116 In which of the following novels of Charles Dickens, the city of London is shown shrouded in fog in the opening chapter?
💡 Explanation: Bleak House (1853) by Charles Dickens famously opens with a powerful description of London enveloped in fog and mud, establishing the novel’s atmosphere of obscurity and confusion associated with the Court of Chancery.
Q.117 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Genre)
A. Dub Poetry
B. Bucolic Poetry
C. Confessional Poetry
D. Topographical Poetry
List II (Poem)
I. “Tintern Abbey”
II. Ariel
III. The Dread Affair
IV. “Eclogues”
💡 Explanation: The correct matching is: Dub Poetry — The Dread Affair (III), a form of Caribbean performance poetry; Bucolic Poetry — Eclogues (IV), referring to pastoral poetry in the tradition of Virgil; Confessional Poetry — Ariel (II), Sylvia Plath’s intensely personal collection; and Topographical Poetry — ‘Tintern Abbey’ (I), Wordsworth’s poem rooted in a specific landscape.
Q.118 According to whom, “the interaction between introjection and projection helps to constitute the ego and the SUPEREGO and to lay the foundations for the OEDIPUS COMPLEX”?
💡 Explanation: Melanie Klein is the psychoanalyst who theorized extensively about the interaction between introjection and projection in early infant development. Klein argued that these mechanisms are crucial in constituting the ego and superego and in laying the groundwork for the Oedipus complex.
Q.119 Which of the following statements about Geoffrey Chaucer are correct?
A. Chaucer’s first work, The Book of the Duchess, is a dream-poem on the death in 1368 of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster, the wife of John of Gaunt.
B. In The House of Fame, it is the first time that Dante’s epic of a journey to Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell – The Divine Comedy is echoed in English.
C. The Canterbury Tales aborts literary, historical, religious, social, and moral concerns, and transcends them all.
D. In The Legend of Good Women, expid and versus, passion and desire, innocence and knowledge, are all invoked.
E. The Miller’s Tale is an old-fashioned fable, a story of deception in war, almost similar to The Knight’s Tale.
B. In The House of Fame, it is the first time that Dante’s epic of a journey to Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell – The Divine Comedy is echoed in English.
C. The Canterbury Tales aborts literary, historical, religious, social, and moral concerns, and transcends them all.
D. In The Legend of Good Women, expid and versus, passion and desire, innocence and knowledge, are all invoked.
E. The Miller’s Tale is an old-fashioned fable, a story of deception in war, almost similar to The Knight’s Tale.
💡 Explanation: Statements A, B, and C about Chaucer are correct. The Book of the Duchess (c. 1368–1372) is indeed a dream-poem occasioned by the death of Blanche (A). The House of Fame does echo Dante’s Divine Comedy in English for the first time (B). The Canterbury Tales does absorb literary, historical, religious, social, and moral concerns (C). Statements D and E contain factual inaccuracies.
Q.120 What do we call the space between the vocal folds?
💡 Explanation: The space between the vocal folds (vocal cords) is called the glottis. The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds in the larynx, and its configuration determines whether sounds are voiced or voiceless. The larynx is the entire voice box structure. The velum is the soft palate, and the tongue is a separate articulator.
Q.121 Which of the following issues is not focussed by Horace in his Ars Poetica?
💡 Explanation: Horace’s Ars Poetica does not focus on ‘the detachment of a writer to his work, tradition, and custom.’ Instead, Horace emphasizes the poet’s engagement with tradition and craftsmanship, the moral and social functions of poetry (dulce et utile), the role of audience reception, and awareness of literary history. Horace advocates for the poet’s active involvement with, rather than detachment from, literary tradition.
Q.122 Who has insisted that the power of the audience “derives from the fact that meanings do not circulate in the cultural economy in the same way that wealth does in the financial”?
💡 Explanation: John Fiske insisted that the power of the audience derives from the fact that meanings do not circulate in the cultural economy the same way wealth does in the financial economy. This is a central argument in Fiske’s work on popular culture, particularly in Understanding Popular Culture (1989) and Television Culture (1987).
Q.123 Arrange the following universities in chronological order in terms of offering courses on Indian English Writing
A. Central Institute of English, Hyderabad
B. University of Mysore
C. Karnataka University
D. Andhra University
E. Osmania University
B. University of Mysore
C. Karnataka University
D. Andhra University
E. Osmania University
💡 Explanation: The chronological order of universities offering courses on Indian English Writing is: D. Andhra University, B. University of Mysore, A. Central Institute of English (Hyderabad), C. Karnataka University, E. Osmania University. Andhra University was among the earliest to introduce Indian English literature as a subject of study.
Q.124 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
💡 Explanation: This is a matching question where the correct answer is A-III, B-I, C-II, D-IV. Without the full list items visible in the question text, the answer follows the official answer key.
Q.125 Which of the following works of Feminist criticism have been written by Toril Moi?
A. French Feminist thought: A Reader
B. Feminisms: A Reader
C. Feminist Literary Criticism
D. Sexual/Textual Politics
E. What is a Woman?
B. Feminisms: A Reader
C. Feminist Literary Criticism
D. Sexual/Textual Politics
E. What is a Woman?
💡 Explanation: Toril Moi is the author of French Feminist Thought: A Reader (A), Sexual/Textual Politics (D), and What is a Woman? (E). Sexual/Textual Politics (1985) is her most influential work. Feminisms: A Reader (B) was edited by Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires, and Feminist Literary Criticism (C) is not attributed to Moi.
Q.126 Which of the following statements about the Kailyard School are correct?
A. In the 1890s there was a flowering of the Scottish provincial novel in a highly sentimental and romanticised form which came to be known as the Kailyard School.
B. The kailyard was the cabbage patch at the back of a village house, and it designates the small-town preoccupations with which the novelists dealt.
C. Dorothy L. Sayers in her novel Peter Pan the popular lower-class sleuth in novels.
D. J.I.M. Stewart, a novelist of the school, writes a novel in this category Lament for a Maker with his friend Lord Peter Wimsey.
E. Barrie’s A Window in Thrums, based on his home town of Kirriemuir in Angus, remains the best known of this short-lived burst of parochial, vernacular romanticism.
B. The kailyard was the cabbage patch at the back of a village house, and it designates the small-town preoccupations with which the novelists dealt.
C. Dorothy L. Sayers in her novel Peter Pan the popular lower-class sleuth in novels.
D. J.I.M. Stewart, a novelist of the school, writes a novel in this category Lament for a Maker with his friend Lord Peter Wimsey.
E. Barrie’s A Window in Thrums, based on his home town of Kirriemuir in Angus, remains the best known of this short-lived burst of parochial, vernacular romanticism.
💡 Explanation: Statements A, B, and E are correct about the Kailyard School. The school flourished in the 1890s with sentimental Scottish provincial novels (A). ‘Kailyard’ refers to the cabbage patch and small-town life (B). Barrie’s A Window in Thrums is the best-known work (E). Statements C and D contain factual errors: Dorothy L. Sayers created Lord Peter Wimsey (not Peter Pan), and J.I.M. Stewart is not associated with the Kailyard School.
Q.127 Which of the following novels is not an example of dystopian novel?
💡 Explanation: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) is not a dystopian novel. It is a novel of manners set in Regency-era England. Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four and Huxley’s Brave New World are classic dystopian novels. Golding’s Lord of the Flies presents a dystopian scenario of civilization’s collapse.
Q.128 Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana and Thomas Mann’s short novel, The Transposed Heads based on the tale of
💡 Explanation: Both Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana (1971) and Thomas Mann’s The Transposed Heads (1940) are based on a tale from the Kathasaritsagara (Ocean of the Streams of Stories), compiled by Somadeva in the 11th century. The tale involves the transposition of heads between two friends and the resulting dilemma of identity.
Q.129 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: A dozen or more distinct languages and literatures flourish today on the Indian literary scene, and most of these are distributed on a broadly regional basis.
Reason R: The Aryans brought Sanskrit to India; the Muslim rule led to the rise of Urdu, as an expression of a composite culture; and the British rule made Indo-Anglian literature possible.
Reason R: The Aryans brought Sanskrit to India; the Muslim rule led to the rise of Urdu, as an expression of a composite culture; and the British rule made Indo-Anglian literature possible.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct, but R is not the correct explanation of A. India does have more than a dozen distinct languages and literatures distributed regionally (A is correct). The historical account in R is also broadly correct. However, R does not directly explain why these literatures are distributed regionally — that is more a function of India’s linguistic geography and the formation of linguistic states.
Q.130 Angela McRobbie, in an influential essay first published in 1978, argues that Jackie, the best-selling teenage girls’ magazine in the 1970s, can be analysed “as a system of messages, a signifying system and a bearer of a certain ideology, an ideology which deals with the construction of teenage femininity”. McRobbie identifies four strategies (‘subcodes’) through which Jackie makes its appeal. Identify the correct strategies or subcodes given below:
💡 Explanation: Angela McRobbie’s influential analysis of Jackie magazine identified four subcodes: the code of romance, the code of personal/domestic life, the code of fashion and beauty, and the code of pop music. These four codes worked together ideologically to shape young women’s identities and desires. The other options introduce incorrect elements like ‘Cinema,’ ‘Mall-Culture,’ or ‘cosmetics.’
Q.131 According to Freud’s example in his Interpretation of Dreams, the psychodynamic critic tends to associate symbols with images. Which of the following symbols is not correct in that context?
💡 Explanation: In Freudian dream symbolism, towers are typically classified as phallic (male) symbols, not symbols of sexual pleasure. Freud associated tall, erect structures like towers, steeples, and poles with male sexual organs. Ponds and enclosed bodies of water are indeed yonic (female) symbols, as are flowers. Lances are classic phallic symbols.
Q.132 Arrange the following in order of their publication:
A. Religio Medici
B. The Terrors of the Night
C. Essays of Elia
D. Utopia
E. The Four Ages of Poetry
B. The Terrors of the Night
C. Essays of Elia
D. Utopia
E. The Four Ages of Poetry
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: D. Utopia by Thomas More (1516), B. The Terrors of the Night by Thomas Nashe (1594), A. Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne (1643), E. The Four Ages of Poetry by Thomas Love Peacock (1820), and C. Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb (1823).
Q.133 Which of the following details about the Dramatis Personae of The Duchess of Malfi are correct?
A. FERDINAND [Duke of Calabria].
B. CARDINAL [Executioner].
C. ANTONIO [BOLOGNA, Steward of the Household to the Duchess].
D. DELIO [Court Officer].
E. DANIEL DE BOSOLA [Gentleman of the Horse to the Duchess].
B. CARDINAL [Executioner].
C. ANTONIO [BOLOGNA, Steward of the Household to the Duchess].
D. DELIO [Court Officer].
E. DANIEL DE BOSOLA [Gentleman of the Horse to the Duchess].
💡 Explanation: The correct details are: A. Ferdinand is the Duke of Calabria; C. Antonio Bologna is the Steward of the Household; and E. Daniel de Bosola is the Gentleman of the Horse. The Cardinal is not an Executioner (B is wrong). Delio is a friend of Antonio, not a Court Officer (D is wrong).
Q.134 Who defined culture as “one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language”?
💡 Explanation: Raymond Williams defined culture as ‘one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’ in his influential work Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976). Williams was a foundational figure in Cultural Studies and Cultural Materialism.
Q.135 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: The defining event of the first part of the twenty-first century was the attack on American targets, including the Twin Towers in New York, on 11 September 2001.
Reason R: A novel by Christopher Brookmyre published two days before the attacks happened, A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away, was, and still is, astonishingly prescient both about the violence and about some of its roots and resonances.
Reason R: A novel by Christopher Brookmyre published two days before the attacks happened, A Big Boy Did It and Ran Away, was, and still is, astonishingly prescient both about the violence and about some of its roots and resonances.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct, but R is NOT the correct explanation of A. The 9/11 attacks were indeed the defining event of the early 21st century (A). Brookmyre’s novel was published just before the attacks and proved prescient (R). However, a coincidentally timed novel does not explain why 9/11 was the defining event.
Q.136 Which of the following definitions of various social variation in language is incorrect?
💡 Explanation: Option (D) is incorrect because it describes taboo language, not jargon. Jargon refers to specialized technical vocabulary used within a particular profession, trade, or group. The definition given in (D) — words involving body parts and bodily functions that people avoid — actually describes taboo words or profanity. Convergence (A), register (B), and slang (C) are all correctly defined.
Q.137 Which of the following statements are correct about Mulk Raj Anand?
A. Anand had his education at Lahore, London and Cambridge, and took a Doctorate in Philosophy.
B. He was associated with the Progressive Writers’ Movement in India; and after the War, he finally settled down in London.
C. In Coolie, the evil appears as greed, selfishness and inhumanity in their hundred different forms.
D. In The Barber’s Trade Union, Anand immortalizes Munoo the barber as he has immortalized Bakha.
E. Anand’s early novels come fresh from contact with the flesh and blood of everyday existence.
B. He was associated with the Progressive Writers’ Movement in India; and after the War, he finally settled down in London.
C. In Coolie, the evil appears as greed, selfishness and inhumanity in their hundred different forms.
D. In The Barber’s Trade Union, Anand immortalizes Munoo the barber as he has immortalized Bakha.
E. Anand’s early novels come fresh from contact with the flesh and blood of everyday existence.
💡 Explanation: Statements A, C, and E are correct. Anand was educated at Lahore, London, and Cambridge and earned a Doctorate (A). Coolie (1936) exposes greed, selfishness, and inhumanity (C). Anand’s early novels draw from lived experience (E). Statement B is incorrect because Anand settled in India (Bombay), not London. Statement D confuses characters: Munoo is the protagonist of Coolie, not The Barber’s Trade Union.
Q.138 Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion A and the other is labelled as Reason R.
Assertion A: The technique of art is to make objects “unfamiliar”, to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception.
Reason R: The process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged.
Reason R: The process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged.
💡 Explanation: Both A and R are correct, and R is the correct explanation of A. These statements paraphrase Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of ‘defamiliarization’ (ostranenie) from his essay ‘Art as Technique’ (1917), a foundational text of Russian Formalism. Shklovsky argued that the purpose of art is to make the familiar strange, thereby prolonging the process of perception, which is itself the aesthetic goal.
Q.139 Which of the following in-text citations is incorrect?
💡 Explanation: The incorrect citation is (B) because according to MLA format, when the author’s name is already mentioned in the signal phrase, the parenthetical citation should contain only the page number, not the author’s last name again. The correct format should be ‘(194)’ rather than ‘(Baron 194).’
Q.140 Which of the following book has an account of the ‘Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization’?
💡 Explanation: A Passage to England by Nirad C. Chaudhuri contains an account of the ‘Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization.’ Published in 1959, it chronicles Chaudhuri’s first visit to England and his encounters with English civilization and culture.
📖 Reading Comprehension (Q.141–Q.145)
Read the poem/passage and answer the questions that follow.
Q.141 What did the lady repent for?
💡 Explanation: The lady repented for her rudeness and false pride. The poem (attributed to Queen Elizabeth I) narrates how a beautiful young woman scorned all her suitors until Cupid punished her by making her fall in love. She then experienced the restlessness she had inflicted on others and regretted her proud dismissal of her lovers.
Q.142 Why did the lady reject all the proposals?
💡 Explanation: The lady rejected all proposals because she was proud and arrogant. The poem clearly states that she ‘did scorn them all’ and grew ‘prouder’ with each rejection. Her dismissive refrain — ‘Go, go, go, seek some other where’ — reflects an arrogant sense of superiority over her suitors.
Q.143 In the poem, why was the last lover “proud” and “victorious”?
💡 Explanation: Venus’s son (Cupid) is called ‘proud’ and ‘victorious’ because he was handsome and self-confident. As the god of love, Cupid possessed inherent power and beauty. His confidence lay in his ability to humble even the proudest hearts with his arrows.
Q.144 What does the line, “When I was fair and young, then favor graced me”, appear to connote?
💡 Explanation: The line ‘When I was fair and young, then favor graced me’ connotes that the lady received many love-proposals. ‘Favor’ here refers to the attention, admiration, and romantic interest of many suitors. The next line confirms this: ‘Of many was I sought their mistress for to be.’
Q.145 What does the line, “Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more”, appear to stand for?
💡 Explanation: The refrain ‘Go, go, go, seek some other where, importune me no more’ stands for her arrogance and self-pride. This dismissive command reveals the speaker’s contemptuous attitude toward her suitors, conveying deep-seated pride and a sense of superiority.
📖 Reading Comprehension (Q.146–Q.150)
Read the prose passage and answer the questions that follow.
Q.146 What excuse does the author prefer to give for the ill-natured satirists and critics?
💡 Explanation: The only excuse the author can offer for ill-natured satirists is that the wounds they inflict are only imaginary. The author acknowledges this is a weak justification, as the emotional damage caused by satire is real even if not physical.
Q.147 What does trouble the author most?
💡 Explanation: What troubles the author most is that the talents of humour and ridicule are in the possession of an ill-natured man. The author is concerned about the combination of talent and ill nature, which makes such a person dangerous in society.
Q.148 According to the author, what is made the subject of ridicule and buffoonery?
💡 Explanation: According to the author, virtue, merit, and everything praiseworthy are made the subjects of ridicule and buffoonery when a vicious, witty person deploys satire. This inversion — where the good become targets — is the gravest social harm of misused wit.
Q.149 What does appear to be the danger of satire, according to the author?
💡 Explanation: The primary danger of satire is the giving of secret stabs to a man’s reputation. Anonymous or concealed attacks on reputation are particularly harmful because the victim cannot defend themselves against an unseen attacker.
Q.150 In the passage, “secret stabs” stands for:
💡 Explanation: In the passage, ‘secret stabs’ stands for lampoons and satires. The author uses this metaphor to describe anonymous satirical writings that attack people’s reputations from concealment.
Sir , Kindly Please take a look at Q. 78 .
Good