7th January 2025 (Evening Shift) — UGC-NET English Literature PYQs (Q.51–Q.150)
Q.51 Arrange the following in chronological order of their year of publication:
A. Nation and Narration B. The Dialogic Imagination C. Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter D. Discourse on Colonialism E. Orientalism
A. Nation and Narration B. The Dialogic Imagination C. Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter D. Discourse on Colonialism E. Orientalism
⚠️ This question was dropped by NTA.
Q.52 Which of the following statements are true about A. K. Ramanujan?
A. He is a poet of the sixties.
B. His poetry draws his sustenance from his awareness of Hindu heritage.
C. He has poor sense of rhythm.
D. His verse poorly utilises Akam constructed techniques.
E. He utilises Akam constructed techniques in his poetry.
B. His poetry draws his sustenance from his awareness of Hindu heritage.
C. He has poor sense of rhythm.
D. His verse poorly utilises Akam constructed techniques.
E. He utilises Akam constructed techniques in his poetry.
💡 Explanation: A. K. Ramanujan (1929–1993) emerged as a significant Indian English poet in the 1960s, making statement A correct. His poetry is deeply rooted in Tamil and Kannada classical traditions, including his Hindu cultural heritage, making B correct. He masterfully employed the ancient Tamil Akam (interior) poetic conventions — characterised by landscapes representing emotional states — in poems like those in The Striders (1966), making E correct. Statements C and D are factually wrong: Ramanujan had an exceptionally fine sense of rhythm and used Akam techniques with great skill, not poorly.
Q.53 Arrange the following works of Francis Bacon in the chronological order of their year of publication:
A. Advancement of Learning
B. De Augmentis Scientiarum
C. Novum Organum
D. The New Atlantis
E. History of Henry VII
B. De Augmentis Scientiarum
C. Novum Organum
D. The New Atlantis
E. History of Henry VII
💡 Explanation: Francis Bacon’s works appeared in the following order: The Advancement of Learning (1605), Novum Organum (1620), History of Henry VII (1622), De Augmentis Scientiarum (1623, a Latin expansion of the Advancement), and The New Atlantis (1627, published posthumously). This sequence — A, C, E, B, D — reflects Bacon’s development from his early English philosophical essay to his Latin scientific works and finally his utopian fiction. The order is confirmed by standard bibliographies of early modern English prose.
Q.54 When was ‘International Phonetic Alphabet’ (IPA) developed and promulgated?
💡 Explanation: The International Phonetic Alphabet was developed by the International Phonetic Association and officially promulgated in 1888. It was conceived by French linguist Paul Passy as a standardised system for representing the sounds of all spoken languages. The IPA has since been revised and expanded multiple times but its founding year remains 1888. The other dates listed — 1868, 1878, and 1978 — are incorrect.
Q.55 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Author)
A. Basudev Sunani
B. Om Prakash Valmiki
C. Bama
D. Urmila Pawar
List II (Text)
I. Karukku
II. Weave of My Life
III. Cast Out
IV. Joothan
💡 Explanation: Basudev Sunani is the Odia Dalit writer who authored Cast Out (III); Om Prakash Valmiki authored the landmark Dalit autobiography Joothan (IV); Bama, the Tamil Dalit woman writer, authored Karukku (I), a landmark autobiographical narrative of caste discrimination in Tamil Nadu; and Urmila Pawar authored Weave of My Life (II), a Marathi Dalit autobiography translated into English. All four are seminal Dalit autobiographies that document caste-based oppression from personal experience.
Q.56 An ideal research paper should include:
A. A statement that establishes the problem or controversial issue that the paper intends to examine.
B. Background information to establish past theories and current ideas on the topic.
C. Summarizing and paraphrasing
D. Glorification of the paper writer himself.
E. A thesis to establish one’s position.
B. Background information to establish past theories and current ideas on the topic.
C. Summarizing and paraphrasing
D. Glorification of the paper writer himself.
E. A thesis to establish one’s position.
💡 Explanation: An ideal research paper must include a problem statement (A), contextual background drawing on existing scholarship (B), and a clear thesis that establishes the writer’s position (E). Summarising and paraphrasing (C) are tools used within a research paper but are not defining structural components in themselves. Self-glorification (D) is antithetical to academic research ethics, which demand objectivity. The three essential elements — problem, context, and thesis — align with standard research methodology frameworks.
Q.60 Arrange the following in the chronological order of their year of publication.
A. Deconstruction and Criticism
B. Multiculturalism: Roots and Realities
C. Literary Theory and the Claims of History
D. The Western Canon
E. An Appetite for Poetry
B. Multiculturalism: Roots and Realities
C. Literary Theory and the Claims of History
D. The Western Canon
E. An Appetite for Poetry
💡 Explanation: The correct order is: Deconstruction and Criticism (Bloom et al., 1979), An Appetite for Poetry (Kermode, 1989), The Western Canon (Bloom, 1994), Literary Theory and the Claims of History (Bérubé/Nelson, 1995), Multiculturalism: Roots and Realities (Hollinger et al., 2001). This sequence — A, E, D, C, B — spans key debates in late twentieth-century literary theory from deconstruction through the canon wars to multiculturalism. Knowledge of the publication dates of these canonical critical texts is essential for competitive exams.
Q.61 Which of the following are correct according to the MLA Handbook, 9th edition?
A. One inch margin on all sides is compulsory in a research page.
B. Co-ordinating conjunctions are written in bold letters in the title of a research paper.
C. Slash is used between two nouns paired as opposites.
D. ‘Hanging indent’ in the work cited entry is ½ inches.
E. Subordinating conjunctions are not written in bold letters in the title of the research paper.
B. Co-ordinating conjunctions are written in bold letters in the title of a research paper.
C. Slash is used between two nouns paired as opposites.
D. ‘Hanging indent’ in the work cited entry is ½ inches.
E. Subordinating conjunctions are not written in bold letters in the title of the research paper.
💡 Explanation: According to the MLA Handbook, 9th edition, one-inch margins on all sides are standard (A correct); a slash (/) is used between two nouns paired as opposites, such as “actor/director” (C correct); and the hanging indent for Works Cited entries is set at half an inch (D correct). Coordinating conjunctions (B) and subordinating conjunctions (E) are both not capitalised in MLA titles — the rule applies to articles, prepositions, and conjunctions generally, not just subordinating ones — making both B and E incorrect or misleading as stated.
Q.62 Who among the following illustrated the works of Thomas Gray and Robert Blair?
💡 Explanation: William Blake, the Romantic poet and engraver, created famous illustrations for Thomas Gray’s Poems and Robert Blair’s The Grave (1808). Blake’s engravings for The Grave in particular are celebrated for their spiritual intensity and visionary imagery. His dual genius as poet and visual artist set him apart from his contemporaries. Thomas Percy, Robert Burns, and William Cowper were all writers but not known for illustrating others’ works.
Q.63 Identify the statements which are correct.
A. The term ‘Flaneur’ is often associated with the poetry of Baudelaire.
B. The term ‘Habitus’ is associated with Pierre Bourdieu.
C. Michael Foucault is associated with the concept of ‘Modernity: An Unfinished Project’
D. Frantz Fanon is associated with the term ‘Imagined Community’
E. The term ‘Thick Description’ is associated with Clifford Mentz.
B. The term ‘Habitus’ is associated with Pierre Bourdieu.
C. Michael Foucault is associated with the concept of ‘Modernity: An Unfinished Project’
D. Frantz Fanon is associated with the term ‘Imagined Community’
E. The term ‘Thick Description’ is associated with Clifford Mentz.
💡 Explanation: The flâneur — the urban wanderer and detached observer — is a concept deeply associated with Baudelaire’s poetry and his essay on Constantin Guys, making A correct. Pierre Bourdieu coined the concept of habitus to describe the internalised dispositions that shape social behaviour, making B correct. “Modernity: An Unfinished Project” is associated with Jürgen Habermas, not Foucault (C is wrong). “Imagined Communities” is Benedict Anderson’s concept, not Fanon’s (D is wrong). “Thick Description” belongs to anthropologist Clifford Geertz, not “Clifford Mentz” (E is wrong due to the name error).
Q.64 Arrange the following novels of D. H. Lawrence in chronological order of their year of publication:
A. Women in Love
B. The White Peacock
C. Sons and Lovers
D. The Rainbow
E. The Trespasser
B. The White Peacock
C. Sons and Lovers
D. The Rainbow
E. The Trespasser
💡 Explanation: D. H. Lawrence’s novels appeared in this order: The White Peacock (1911), The Trespasser (1912), Sons and Lovers (1913), The Rainbow (1915), and Women in Love (1920). This sequence — B, E, C, D, A — traces Lawrence’s artistic evolution from his early pastoral Midlands fiction to his mature exploration of sexuality, consciousness, and modern industrial society. Women in Love was actually written alongside The Rainbow as a sequel but published five years later.
Q.65 Which of the following is not correctly matched?
💡 Explanation: Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” is the opening poem of his debut collection Death of a Naturalist (1966) — correctly matched. Audre Lorde’s “Coal” (1976) is one of her celebrated poems about Black identity and power — correctly matched. Dom Moraes, the Indian English poet, wrote “Kanheri Caves” — correctly matched. “The Swan” is not a poem typically or correctly associated with John Updike, who was primarily a novelist and short story writer; the misattribution makes option (4) incorrect.
Q.66 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Text)
A. Bodies that Matter
B. A World of Difference
C. A Literature of their Own
D. Vamps and Tramps
List II (Author)
I. Barbara Johnson
II. Judith Butler
III. Camille Paglia
IV. Elaine Showalter
💡 Explanation: Bodies that Matter (1993) is Judith Butler’s follow-up to Gender Trouble, extending her analysis of performativity (A-II). A World of Difference (1987) is Barbara Johnson’s collection of deconstructive essays (B-I). A Literature of Their Own (1977) is Elaine Showalter’s foundational gynocritical study of British women novelists (C-IV). Vamps and Tramps (1994) is a collection of essays by Camille Paglia (D-III). This matching reflects major works in feminist literary theory and gender studies.
Q.67 In which of the texts do the following lines occur?
“Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man’s erring judgement, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never failing vice of fools.”
Man’s erring judgement, and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never failing vice of fools.”
💡 Explanation: These lines are from Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Criticism (1711), his celebrated verse treatise on literary taste and critical principles. The passage appears in Part II of the poem where Pope identifies pride as the most dangerous obstacle to sound critical judgement. An Essay on Criticism established Pope’s literary reputation and remains one of the most quoted works of eighteenth-century English literature. The didactic, aphoristic style is characteristic of Pope’s heroic couplets in this work.
Q.68 Arrange the following works in the chronological order of their year of publication:
A. S. Menon Marath’s The Wound of Spring
B. Humayun Kabir’s Men and Rivers
C. Anand Lall’s The House of Adampur
D. Sudhindra N. Ghose’s The Vermillion Boat
E. Ved Mehta’s Delinquent Chacha
B. Humayun Kabir’s Men and Rivers
C. Anand Lall’s The House of Adampur
D. Sudhindra N. Ghose’s The Vermillion Boat
E. Ved Mehta’s Delinquent Chacha
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: Humayun Kabir’s Men and Rivers (1945), Sudhindra N. Ghose’s The Vermillion Boat (1953), Anand Lall’s The House of Adampur (1956), S. Menon Marath’s The Wound of Spring (1960), and Ved Mehta’s Delinquent Chacha (1967). This sequence — B, D, C, A, E — covers a range of Indian English fiction from the mid-twentieth century. These are relatively lesser-known works of Indian English literature often tested in UGC NET.
Q.69 Who among the following is credited with ending the system of patronage with his “Letter to Lord Chesterfield”?
💡 Explanation: Samuel Johnson’s famous letter to Lord Chesterfield (1755), written after Chesterfield belatedly praised Johnson’s Dictionary, is historically regarded as the document that effectively ended the era of literary patronage in England. Johnson’s dignified refusal of Chesterfield’s belated support asserted the independence of the professional author. This moment is seen as a watershed in the professionalization of English authorship.
Q.70 From the statements given below, what is true about the Gothic Novel?
A. It appeared in 14th Century American Literature.
B. It often uses the medieval form of architecture as setting.
C. It is a form of baroque art.
D. It represents a style of mosaic and fresco wall painting.
E. It aims at evoking chilling terror by exploiting mystery and a variety of horrors.
B. It often uses the medieval form of architecture as setting.
C. It is a form of baroque art.
D. It represents a style of mosaic and fresco wall painting.
E. It aims at evoking chilling terror by exploiting mystery and a variety of horrors.
💡 Explanation: The Gothic novel emerged in eighteenth-century Britain with Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), not in 14th-century America (A is wrong). Gothic fiction characteristically uses medieval castles, abbeys, and ruins as settings (B correct), and aims to evoke terror through mystery, the supernatural, and psychological horror (E correct). It is not a form of baroque art (C wrong) nor associated with mosaic and fresco painting (D wrong). Gothic as a literary mode is named after the medieval Gothic architectural style that provides its characteristic atmosphere.
Q.71 From which poem are the following lines extracted?
“Once more the storm is hauling and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid,
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle.
But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill.”
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid,
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle.
But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill.”
💡 Explanation: These lines are from W. B. Yeats’s “A Prayer for My Daughter” (1919), written on the occasion of the birth of his daughter Anne. The poem is set during a storm, with the infant sleeping safely beneath her cradle-hood while the speaker meditates on the values he wishes for her. Gregory’s wood refers to Coole Park, the estate of Lady Gregory near Yeats’s tower, Thoor Ballylee. The poem is one of Yeats’s most celebrated meditations on beauty, courtesy, and tradition.
Q.72 Who has composed the above lines?
“Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.”
By those who ne’er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.”
💡 Explanation: These lines are the opening stanza of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Success is counted sweetest” (c. 1859, published 1878). It is one of the few poems published during her lifetime and one of her best known. The poem argues paradoxically that those who have never succeeded understand success most keenly, using the extended metaphor of a defeated soldier who best comprehends the meaning of victory. It exemplifies Dickinson’s compressed, aphoristic style and her use of slant rhyme.
Q.73 Who is the critic associated with the term ‘Blue Humanities’?
⚠️ This question was dropped by NTA.
Q.74 The line “Thou still unravished bride of quietness” presents which of the following rhetorical figures?
💡 Explanation: Apostrophe is a rhetorical figure in which a speaker directly addresses an absent, abstract, or inanimate entity as if it were present and capable of response. The opening line of Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” — addressing the urn as “Thou still unravished bride of quietness” — is a classic example. Anastrophe involves inversion of normal word order; anaphora is the repetition of words at the beginning of successive clauses; chiasmus involves a reversal of grammatical structures. Only apostrophe fits this direct address to a non-human object.
Q.75 Which of the following novels deal with the theme of apartheid?
A. Purple Hibiscus
B. July’s People
C. Cry, the Beloved Country
D. The Mimic Men
E. My Son’s Story
B. July’s People
C. Cry, the Beloved Country
D. The Mimic Men
E. My Son’s Story
💡 Explanation: Nadine Gordimer’s July’s People (1981) imagines the collapse of apartheid South Africa; Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) addresses racial injustice under the apartheid regime; and Nadine Gordimer’s My Son’s Story (1990) directly engages with apartheid’s personal and political costs — making B, C, and E correct. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus (A) is set in Nigeria and deals with domestic violence and political oppression, not apartheid. V. S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men (D) is set in a fictional Caribbean island and deals with postcolonial identity.
Q.76 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Novel)
A. The Childhood of Jesus
B. The Go-Between
C. Brideshead Revisited
D. The Catcher in the Rye
List II (Novelist)
I. L. P. Hartley
II. Evelyn Waugh
III. J. M. Coetzee
IV. J. D. Salinger
💡 Explanation: The Childhood of Jesus (2013) is by J. M. Coetzee (A-III). The Go-Between (1953) is L. P. Hartley’s celebrated novel of class and memory, famous for its opening line about the past as a foreign country (B-I). Brideshead Revisited (1945) is Evelyn Waugh’s nostalgic novel of English Catholicism and aristocracy (C-II). The Catcher in the Rye (1951) is J. D. Salinger’s iconic novel of adolescent alienation (D-IV). This matching covers important works across twentieth-century English and postcolonial fiction.
Q.77 What is ‘Practical Criticism’?
💡 Explanation: Practical Criticism is the method of literary analysis developed by I. A. Richards, whose 1929 book Practical Criticism famously had Cambridge students respond to poems with no authorial or biographical information provided. The method emphasises close, intrinsic reading of the text itself, bracketing out historical context, authorial intention, and biographical detail. It was a foundational influence on the New Criticism movement. The study of ambiguity (option 4) refers more specifically to William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), though Empson was Richards’s student.
Q.78 Who is the author of English in India: Its Present and Future published in 1964?
💡 Explanation: Vinayaka Krishna Gokak (1909–1992), the distinguished Kannada writer and scholar of Indian English literature, authored English in India: Its Present and Future (1964). Gokak was a significant figure in debates about the role of English in post-independence India and also a Jnanpith Award winner for his Kannada poetry. His work on Indian English helped shape critical understanding of the language’s evolution and function in the subcontinent.
Q.79 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Text)
A. The Golden Light
B. The Lotus
C. Indian Dancers
D. The Harp of India
List II (Author)
I. Toru Dutt
II. Sarojini Naidu
III. Henry Derozio
IV. Sri Aurobindo
💡 Explanation: Sri Aurobindo wrote “The Golden Light” (A-IV). “The Lotus” is a celebrated poem by Toru Dutt, often considered a founding text of Indian English poetry (B-I). “Indian Dancers” is a well-known poem by Sarojini Naidu, celebrated for its sensuous imagery and musical quality (C-II). “The Harp of India” is Henry Louis Vivian Derozio’s famous sonnet lamenting the decline of Indian cultural tradition (D-III). These four poets represent the first generation of Indian English poets.
Q.80 Match the following concepts with the theorists:
List I (Concept)
A. Defamiliarization
B. Uncanny
C. Actor Network Theory
D. Homo Sacer
List II (Theorist)
I. Giorgio Agamben
II. Bruno Latour
III. Viktor Shklovsky
IV. Sigmund Freud
💡 Explanation: Defamiliarization (ostranenie) is the central concept of Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky, defined in his 1917 essay “Art as Technique” (A-III). The Uncanny (Das Unheimliche) is Sigmund Freud’s 1919 concept describing the uncanny feeling arising from familiar things made strange (B-IV). Actor Network Theory is associated with sociologist of science Bruno Latour and his colleagues (C-II). Homo Sacer is Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the figure stripped of political rights, developed in his 1995 book of that name (D-I).
Q.81 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Author)
A. Manohar Malgaonkar
B. Chaman Nahal
C. Ruskin Bond
D. Arun Joshi
List II (Text)
I. The Weird Dance and Other Stories
II. The Survivor
III. Rumble Tumble
IV. Neighbour’s Wife and Other Stories
💡 Explanation: Manohar Malgaonkar authored Rumble Tumble (A-III). Chaman Nahal authored The Weird Dance and Other Stories (B-I). Ruskin Bond authored Neighbour’s Wife and Other Stories (C-IV), a collection of his characteristic Himalayan tales. Arun Joshi authored The Survivor (D-II), one of his existentialist novels. These are important but sometimes overlooked authors of post-independence Indian English fiction frequently tested in UGC NET.
Q.82 Who amongst the following was not a member of the Bloomsbury Group?
💡 Explanation: The Bloomsbury Group was an influential collective of British intellectuals, writers, and artists active in the early twentieth century, centred around Gordon Square, London. Virginia Woolf, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, John Maynard Keynes, Roger Fry, and Clive Bell were among its core members. W. B. Yeats, though a contemporary modernist, was Irish and was never part of this group; he was associated instead with the Irish Literary Revival and his own circle in Dublin and London.
Q.83 The first folio of Shakespeare’s plays appeared in:
💡 Explanation: The First Folio, formally titled Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, was published in 1623 by John Heminges and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare’s fellow actors. It is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays and is the primary source for 18 of the 36 plays it contains. The 1631 date refers to the Second Folio and 1664 to the Third Folio. The First Folio is one of the most valuable and significant books in the history of English literature.
Q.84 Chronologically arrange the following works according to the year of publication.
A. Gauri Viswanathan’s Masks of Conquest
B. Meenakshi Mukherjee’s The Twice Born Fiction
C. G. N. Devy’s After Amnesia
D. M. K. Naik’s A History of Indian English Literature
E. Harish Trivedi’s Colonial Transactions
B. Meenakshi Mukherjee’s The Twice Born Fiction
C. G. N. Devy’s After Amnesia
D. M. K. Naik’s A History of Indian English Literature
E. Harish Trivedi’s Colonial Transactions
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: Meenakshi Mukherjee’s The Twice Born Fiction (1971), M. K. Naik’s A History of Indian English Literature (1982), Gauri Viswanathan’s Masks of Conquest (1989), G. N. Devy’s After Amnesia (1992), and Harish Trivedi’s Colonial Transactions (1993). This sequence — B, D, A, C, E — represents the evolution of Indian literary scholarship from gynocritical fiction studies through postcolonial criticism. These are foundational texts in the academic study of Indian English literature.
Q.85 Which of the following is not a character in William Congreve’s The Way of the World?
💡 Explanation: William Congreve’s The Way of the World (1700) features Fainall, Mirabell, Waitwell, Millamant, Lady Wishfort, and Witwoud among its characters. Peachum is not a character in this play; he is a character from John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728). Fainall and Mirabell are the two central male rivals, while Waitwell is Mirabell’s servant who disguises himself as a suitor in the central plot. Congreve’s comedy is celebrated as the finest example of the Comedy of Manners in Restoration drama.
Q.86 Which among the following novels is not written by Mary Shelley?
💡 Explanation: Mary Shelley authored Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818), The Last Man (1826), Valperga (1823), Perkin Warbeck (1830), and Faulkner (1837) among other works. The Lost Woman is not a novel by Mary Shelley; it does not appear in her bibliography. The question tests familiarity with Shelley’s less commonly read novels beyond Frankenstein. Faulkner is a lesser-known novel by Shelley that is sometimes overlooked in standard curricula.
Q.87 Who said “The introduction of foreigners does not necessarily destroy the nation, they merge in it”?
💡 Explanation: This statement is attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, reflecting his inclusive vision of Indian nationhood that could absorb diverse peoples and cultures without losing its essential character. Gandhi believed that India’s civilisational strength lay in its capacity to assimilate rather than exclude. This view contrasts with more exclusive nationalisms and reflects Gandhi’s concept of Hind Swaraj and cultural nationalism. Fanon, Senghor, and Sri Aurobindo held different but related views on national identity in postcolonial contexts.
Q.88 The famous short poem “Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog” appears in which one of the following Eighteenth Century novels?
💡 Explanation: “An Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog” is an embedded poem in Oliver Goldsmith’s novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), sung by one of the characters. The comic poem narrates how a good-natured man is bitten by a mad dog — but the dog is the one who dies, not the man — satirising sentimental ballad conventions. It is one of the most quoted comic poems in eighteenth-century English literature. Goldsmith embedded several songs and poems in the novel to enrich its sentimental and satirical texture.
Q.89 Arrange the following works in the chronological sequence of their year of publication:
A. Mathew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy
B. Thomas Browne’s The Anatomy of Melancholy
C. P. B. Shelley’s Defence of Poetry
D. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan
E. Walter Pater’s Studies in the History of the Renaissance
B. Thomas Browne’s The Anatomy of Melancholy
C. P. B. Shelley’s Defence of Poetry
D. Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan
E. Walter Pater’s Studies in the History of the Renaissance
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan (1651), P. B. Shelley’s A Defence of Poetry (written 1821, published 1840), Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy (1869), and Walter Pater’s Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873). This sequence — B, D, C, A, E — spans over two and a half centuries of English critical and philosophical prose. Note that the question attributes The Anatomy of Melancholy to “Thomas Browne” which is an error — it is by Robert Burton — but the answer remains B, D, C, A, E.
Q.90 Arrange the following steps of ‘Decision making’ in the research process:
A. The choice of a research topic or theme.
B. Data collection
C. Analysis and interpretation of data.
D. Formulating the research problem.
E. Conceptualization and operationalization.
B. Data collection
C. Analysis and interpretation of data.
D. Formulating the research problem.
E. Conceptualization and operationalization.
💡 Explanation: The standard sequence of decision-making in research methodology begins with choosing a topic or theme (A), then formulating the specific research problem (D), followed by conceptualization and operationalization of key variables (E), data collection (B), and finally analysis and interpretation of the data (C). This order — A, D, E, B, C — reflects the logical progression from broad to specific to empirical in academic research. Deviating from this sequence typically results in poorly structured research.
Q.91 Which of the following texts has been written by Rabindranath Tagore?
💡 Explanation: Chandalika is a dance drama by Rabindranath Tagore, originally written in Bengali and later translated into English, that draws on the Buddhist story of Ananda and the untouchable girl Prakriti who offers him water. It is one of Tagore’s most celebrated plays dealing with caste discrimination and spiritual liberation. A Touch of Brightness is a play by Partap Sharma, and Image Breakers is a novel by Shakuntala Shrinagesh.
Q.92 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Poet)
A. Edmund Spenser
B. Philip Sidney
C. Thomas Wyatt
D. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
List II (Poem/Work)
I. “Whose List to Hunt”
II. “So Cruel Prison how could Betide”
III. “The Faerie Queene”
IV. “The Defense of Poesy”
💡 Explanation: Edmund Spenser’s major work is The Faerie Queene (A-III). Philip Sidney authored The Defence of Poesy (also known as An Apology for Poetry), the first great work of English literary criticism (B-IV). Thomas Wyatt wrote “Whoso List to Hunt,” his sonnet adapted from Petrarch that is believed to be about Anne Boleyn (C-I). Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, wrote “So Cruel Prison how could Betide Alas,” a poem lamenting his imprisonment in Windsor Castle (D-II). All four are key figures of the English Renaissance.
Q.93 Which of the following poems uses ‘terza rima’?
💡 Explanation: Terza rima is an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme (aba bcb cdc…) originally used by Dante in The Divine Comedy. P. B. Shelley employed this form innovatively in “Ode to the West Wind” (1819), adapting it into five fourteen-line sections that end with a couplet. Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale” uses a ten-line stanza form; Wordsworth’s “The Solitary Reaper” uses a four-stanza ballad-like form; Tennyson’s “Ulysses” is a dramatic monologue in blank verse. Only Shelley’s poem employs terza rima.
Q.94 Arrange the following in the chronological order of their year of publication:
A. “The Tyger”
B. “The Solitary Reaper”
C. “Adonais”
D. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
E. “Ode to Autumn”
B. “The Solitary Reaper”
C. “Adonais”
D. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
E. “Ode to Autumn”
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order is: Blake’s “The Tyger” (1794, in Songs of Experience), Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (1798, in Lyrical Ballads), Wordsworth’s “The Solitary Reaper” (1807, in Poems in Two Volumes), Keats’s “Ode to Autumn” (1820), and Shelley’s “Adonais” (1821). This sequence — A, D, B, E, C — traces the Romantic movement from its Blake-era origins through the second-generation poets. The dates align with major Romantic poetry collections.
Q.95 “There is nothing outside the text” is a statement by:
💡 Explanation: The statement “There is nothing outside the text” (il n’y a pas de hors-texte) appears in Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology (1967, English trans. 1976) and is one of the most cited — and most debated — formulations in deconstruction. Derrida uses it to argue that meaning is always produced within a system of textual differences and never grounded in a presence or reality outside language. Victor Shklovsky is associated with defamiliarisation; Roland Barthes with “the death of the author”; Ferdinand de Saussure with the arbitrary nature of the sign.
Q.96 Which of the following is not an autobiography?
💡 Explanation: Patrick White: A Life (1991) is a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning Australian novelist Patrick White, written by David Marr — it is a biography, not an autobiography. Long Walk to Freedom (1994) is Nelson Mandela’s autobiography. My Experiments with Truth is Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography. Akkarmashi (translated as The Outcaste, 1984) is the autobiography of Sharankumar Limbale, a landmark Dalit autobiography in Marathi. The distinction between biography and autobiography is the key to this question.
Q.97 Which of the following novelists did not employ “Stream of Consciousness” technique?
💡 Explanation: The stream of consciousness technique — depicting the continuous, associative flow of a character’s thoughts — was pioneered by Dorothy Richardson in Pilgrimage (1915–67), and developed by Virginia Woolf in novels like Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, and by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922). Graham Greene, though a major twentieth-century novelist, wrote primarily in the tradition of the psychological thriller and the Catholic novel (Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory), and did not employ stream of consciousness as a defining technique.
Q.98 Which of the following statements are true about Modernism?
A. Modernism marked a break with formal conventions
B. Old ways of thought underwent cultural shift
C. Decline of liberal humanism
D. Modernism revived classical scholarship
E. Modernism promoted logocentric way of thoughts
B. Old ways of thought underwent cultural shift
C. Decline of liberal humanism
D. Modernism revived classical scholarship
E. Modernism promoted logocentric way of thoughts
💡 Explanation: Modernism (c. 1890–1940) indeed marked a decisive break with traditional formal conventions in art, literature, and music (A correct). It involved a profound cultural shift in which Victorian certainties — religious faith, social order, progressive liberalism — were replaced by anxiety, subjectivity, and fragmentation (B correct). This also entailed a decline of liberal humanism as the Enlightenment’s confident faith in reason and progress was shattered (C correct). Modernism did not revive classical scholarship (D wrong) — that was more characteristic of Renaissance humanism. Modernism challenged, rather than promoted, logocentrism (E wrong), a point made forcefully by poststructuralist critics like Derrida.
Q.99 Who has written The Life Divine?
💡 Explanation: The Life Divine is Sri Aurobindo’s most extensive philosophical work, first published serially in his journal Arya (1914–1919) and later in book form. In it, Aurobindo expounds his philosophy of Integral Yoga and the evolution of consciousness toward the Divine. The work synthesises Vedantic thought with Western philosophy and evolutionary theory. It is considered one of the greatest works of Indian spiritual philosophy in the English language.
Q.100 Which of the statements given below are true?
A. The centre for contemporary Cultural Studies was established in Berkley in 1960.
B. Jurgen Habermas traces the rise of the public sphere to the rise of print culture.
C. Paul Gilroy introduced the concept of the Black Atlantic.
D. Adorno praises the alien nature of avant-garde modernist art such as the atonal music of Schoenberg.
E. Chuttnification was a term used by Edward Soja.
B. Jurgen Habermas traces the rise of the public sphere to the rise of print culture.
C. Paul Gilroy introduced the concept of the Black Atlantic.
D. Adorno praises the alien nature of avant-garde modernist art such as the atonal music of Schoenberg.
E. Chuttnification was a term used by Edward Soja.
💡 Explanation: Jürgen Habermas in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere (1962) traces the emergence of the public sphere in part to print culture (B correct). Paul Gilroy introduced the concept of the “Black Atlantic” in his 1993 book of that name, examining the hybrid cultural formations of the African diaspora (C correct). Theodor Adorno, in his aesthetic theory, does praise the critical and alienating qualities of avant-garde art like Schoenberg’s atonal music as a form of resistance to commodity culture (D correct). The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies was established in Birmingham, not Berkeley (A wrong). “Chuttnification” is a term associated with Salman Rushdie, not Edward Soja (E wrong).
Q.101 Who among the following has written the poem, “Jejuri”?
💡 Explanation: Jejuri (1976) is a celebrated sequence of poems by the Marathi-English bilingual poet Arun Kolatkar, describing a visit to the pilgrim town of Jejuri in Maharashtra and its temple of Khandoba. The collection won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1977 and is widely regarded as one of the finest works of Indian English poetry. Kolatkar’s sharp, irreverent, and visually precise style made Jejuri a landmark in postcolonial Indian writing.
Q.102 Which of the following is an elegy on John Donne’s wife who died in 1617?
💡 Explanation: Holy Sonnet 17 (“Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt”) is John Donne’s elegy mourning the death of his wife Ann More Donne in 1617. The poem expresses grief but also meditates on how the loss of earthly love redirects the soul toward God. “Death be not Proud” (Holy Sonnet 10) is a defiant address to death; “Thou Hast Made Me” (Holy Sonnet 1) is about spiritual renewal; “At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners” (Holy Sonnet 7) concerns the Last Judgement. Only Sonnet 17 is specifically an elegy for his wife.
Q.103 What does deductive method of reasoning refer to?
💡 Explanation: Deductive reasoning moves from a general principle or hypothesis to a specific conclusion — it applies a broad rule to a particular case. For example, if all humans are mortal (general), and Socrates is human (particular), then Socrates is mortal (conclusion). This is contrasted with inductive reasoning, which moves from particular observations to a general conclusion (option 2). The deductive-inductive distinction is fundamental to both scientific methodology and research design in the humanities and social sciences.
Q.104 Which among the following is the last novel of George Eliot?
💡 Explanation: Daniel Deronda (1876) was George Eliot’s last and most ambitious novel, dealing with themes of Jewish identity, Zionism, and English society. It is notable for being the first major English novel to treat Jewish culture and aspiration sympathetically and with depth. Middlemarch (1871–72) preceded it; Silas Marner (1861) and The Mill on the Floss (1860) are considerably earlier. Daniel Deronda marked the culmination of Eliot’s novelistic career.
Q.105 Which of the following is a Dramatic Monologue?
💡 Explanation: “Andrea del Sarto” (1855) by Robert Browning is a classic example of the dramatic monologue — a poem in which a single speaker reveals their character to a silent listener, often unintentionally exposing their flaws. The Florentine painter Andrea del Sarto speaks to his wife Lucrezia, revealing his awareness of his own artistic limitations and emotional compromise. Browning is the master of the dramatic monologue form. “The Canonization” and “The Flea” are metaphysical poems by John Donne; “Tintern Abbey” is a Romantic meditative lyric by Wordsworth.
Q.106 Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is a:
💡 Explanation: Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598–99) is classified as one of Shakespeare’s romantic comedies, featuring the conventions of the genre: romantic misunderstandings, disguise and deception, witty exchanges (particularly between Beatrice and Benedick), and a resolution in marriage. It does not fit the tragi-comedy form (which involves near-tragedy averted), nor is it a pastoral play (set in an idealized rural setting) or a history play. The sparkling wit of Beatrice and Benedick has made this one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies.
Q.107 Arrange the following in chronological order of their year of publication:
A. Fraser’s Magazine
B. The Spectator
C. The Westminster Review
D. The Quarterly Review
E. Edinburg Review
B. The Spectator
C. The Westminster Review
D. The Quarterly Review
E. Edinburg Review
💡 Explanation: The correct chronological order of these periodicals is: Edinburgh Review (1802), The Quarterly Review (1809), The Westminster Review (1824), Fraser’s Magazine (1830), and The Spectator (relaunched 1828 as the modern weekly). The answer — E, D, C, B, A — reflects the flourishing of the Victorian and Romantic periodical press. These journals were major forums for literary criticism, politics, and culture in the nineteenth century.
Q.108 Arrange the plays of William Shakespeare in the chronological order of their year of publication:
A. The Tempest
B. Love’s Labour Lost
C. Twelfth Night
D. Much Ado About Nothing
E. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
B. Love’s Labour Lost
C. Twelfth Night
D. Much Ado About Nothing
E. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
💡 Explanation: The approximate chronological order of composition for these plays is: Love’s Labour’s Lost (c. 1594–95), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595–96), Much Ado About Nothing (c. 1598–99), Twelfth Night (c. 1601–02), and The Tempest (c. 1610–11). This sequence — B, E, D, C, A — traces Shakespeare’s development from his early romantic comedies through to his final romances. The Tempest is often regarded as Shakespeare’s valedictory work.
Q.109 In which year was Raja Rao’s Kanthapura published?
💡 Explanation: Raja Rao’s Kanthapura was published in 1938, making it one of the earliest significant Indian English novels. The novel depicts the impact of Gandhi’s freedom movement on a small South Indian village, and is notable for its attempt to render the rhythms and cadences of Indian storytelling — the Sthala Purana tradition — in English. In the novel’s famous Author’s Note, Raja Rao reflects on the challenge of expressing Indian thought in the “alien” medium of English. The 1938 date places it alongside Mulk Raj Anand’s and R. K. Narayan’s early works.
Q.110 Arrange the following texts in chronological order of their year of publication:
A. Coolie
B. The Big Heart
C. The Village
D. Two Leaves and a Bud
E. Seven Summers
B. The Big Heart
C. The Village
D. Two Leaves and a Bud
E. Seven Summers
💡 Explanation: These are works by Mulk Raj Anand: Coolie (1936), Two Leaves and a Bud (1937), The Village (1939), The Big Heart (1945), and Seven Summers (1951). The correct sequence — A, D, C, B, E — shows Anand’s prolific output of socially committed fiction in the 1930s and 40s. Coolie deals with the exploitation of a young hill boy turned industrial worker; Two Leaves and a Bud with plantation labour; The Village and The Big Heart with Punjab village life and craftsmen respectively.
Q.111 Identify the one who was not a ‘New Critic’:
💡 Explanation: The New Criticism was an American formalist critical movement of the mid-twentieth century whose key practitioners included John Crowe Ransom (who coined the term), Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, and R. P. Blackmur. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren co-authored the influential textbook Understanding Poetry (1938). Allen Tate was both a New Critic and a poet. Claude Lévi-Strauss was a French structural anthropologist, not a literary critic, and is associated with structuralism rather than New Criticism.
Q.112 Identify the correct options from the following statements:
A. Ecocriticism has often explained the ‘human and non-human webs of interrelation.’
B. In Ecocriticism, human accountability to the environment is part of the text’s ethical orientation.
C. Ecocriticism foregrounds the notion of an interplay between environment and the body.
D. There is only one wave of Ecocriticism.
E. Ecocriticism has not tackled the issue of gender.
B. In Ecocriticism, human accountability to the environment is part of the text’s ethical orientation.
C. Ecocriticism foregrounds the notion of an interplay between environment and the body.
D. There is only one wave of Ecocriticism.
E. Ecocriticism has not tackled the issue of gender.
💡 Explanation: Ecocriticism does address human and non-human interrelations (A correct), does foreground environmental ethics and accountability (B correct), and does examine the interplay between environment and the body — particularly in ecofeminist and corporeal ecocriticism (C correct). Statement D is incorrect — ecocriticism has gone through multiple waves: the first wave focused on wilderness and nature writing, the second wave addressed environmental justice and social ecology, and subsequent waves have engaged with postcolonial and urban environments. Statement E is also incorrect — ecofeminism has extensively connected gender and environmental exploitation.
Q.113 Which of the following statements are correct about ‘Litotes’?
A. It contains an understatement for emphasis.
B. It is not opposite of hyperbole.
C. It is used with laconic intentions.
D. It is used with ironic intentions.
E. It is used in dramatic context.
B. It is not opposite of hyperbole.
C. It is used with laconic intentions.
D. It is used with ironic intentions.
E. It is used in dramatic context.
💡 Explanation: Litotes is a figure of speech involving understatement, typically achieved by negating the opposite of what is meant (e.g., “not bad” to mean “good”), making A correct. It is actually the opposite of hyperbole (so B is incorrect). It is used with laconic — deliberately concise and understated — intentions (C correct), and frequently with ironic effect (D correct). Statement E is too vague and not a defining characteristic — litotes is used in many contexts beyond drama. The combination A, C, and D accurately captures the essential features of litotes.
Q.114 Identify the statements which are true for Psychoanalytic Criticism:
A. The premises and procedures were established by Sigmund Freud.
B. Freud posited that artists are like neurotic patients.
C. Freud posited that ‘Psychoanalysis’ can be used to account for many developments and practices in the history of civilization.
D. A repressed wish does not become fantasy.
E. Freud proposed that literature and other arts manifest the repressed subconscious and unconscious drives of the artist.
B. Freud posited that artists are like neurotic patients.
C. Freud posited that ‘Psychoanalysis’ can be used to account for many developments and practices in the history of civilization.
D. A repressed wish does not become fantasy.
E. Freud proposed that literature and other arts manifest the repressed subconscious and unconscious drives of the artist.
💡 Explanation: Psychoanalytic criticism as a literary method is indeed founded on Freudian premises and procedures (A correct). Freud argued in works like Civilization and Its Discontents (1930) that psychoanalysis can illuminate the development and practices of human civilization (C correct). Freud proposed that art and literature are sublimations of repressed drives and unconscious wishes, allowing the artist to work through conflicts and desire (E correct). While Freud did liken the artist’s creative process to neurotic symptom formation, the precise claim in B — that artists are “like neurotic patients” — is an oversimplification that Freud himself qualified. D is factually wrong: Freud explicitly argued that repressed wishes do become fantasies and eventually symptoms or creative works.
Q.115 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Author)
A. Kamla Markandeya
B. P. Sivakami
C. Anita Desai
D. Raj Lakshmi Debi
List II (Text)
I. The Grip of Change
II. The Enchanted Fruit
III. Possession
IV. Cry, the Peacock
💡 Explanation: Kamala Markandaya authored Possession (1963), a novel about the conflict between Eastern and Western values (A-III). P. Sivakami, the Tamil Dalit writer, authored The Grip of Change (B-I). Anita Desai’s first novel was Cry, the Peacock (1963) (C-IV). Raj Lakshmi Debi authored The Enchanted Fruit (D-II). This matching covers important women writers in Indian English and regional Indian literature.
Q.116 Which among the following does not fall in the category of a Revenge Tragedy?
💡 Explanation: Revenge tragedy is an Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatic form in which a wronged protagonist seeks violent retribution. Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587) is the prototype of the genre; Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta incorporates revenge motifs prominently; and Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the most celebrated revenge tragedy. Cymbeline (c. 1609–11), however, is a Shakespearean romance — classified among the late romances or tragicomedies — centred on reconciliation and reunion rather than revenge, making it the exception here.
Q.117 Identify all the Australian Aboriginal writers out of the following:
A. Kim Scott
B. Peter Carey
C. Oodgeroo Noonuccal
D. Kevin Gilbert
E. Derek Walcott
B. Peter Carey
C. Oodgeroo Noonuccal
D. Kevin Gilbert
E. Derek Walcott
💡 Explanation: Kim Scott is a Noongar Aboriginal Australian author, winner of the Miles Franklin Award for Benang (1999) and That Deadman Dance (2010). Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of poetry, We Are Going (1964). Kevin Gilbert was a pioneering Aboriginal writer and activist, author of Because a White Man’ll Never Do It (1973) and Inside Black Australia (1988). Peter Carey is a non-Indigenous Australian novelist; Derek Walcott was a St Lucian Caribbean poet and playwright.
Q.118 Which of the following options are true about the epistemological dimension of research?
A. Scientific realism
B. The search for truth
C. Critical theory
D. Certain and indubitable knowledge
E. Mechanism of social control
B. The search for truth
C. Critical theory
D. Certain and indubitable knowledge
E. Mechanism of social control
💡 Explanation: The epistemological dimension of research concerns how we come to know and what constitutes valid knowledge. The search for truth (B) and the aspiration toward certain and indubitable knowledge (D) — as articulated in the Cartesian and empiricist traditions — are core epistemological concerns. Scientific realism (A) and critical theory (C) are ontological and methodological positions respectively rather than purely epistemological ones. The mechanism of social control (E) is a sociological and political concept, not a component of research epistemology per se.
Q.119 Langston Hughes’ poem “I too Sing America” is a response to which of the following poets?
💡 Explanation: Langston Hughes’s poem “I, Too” (also known as “I, Too, Sing America”) is a direct response to Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” (1860). Whitman celebrated America through the voices of its working white citizens; Hughes responds by asserting the presence and dignity of Black Americans who are excluded from Whitman’s vision but who are nonetheless part of America. The poem affirms that the excluded Black American will one day be recognised as a full participant in the democratic promise of the nation. This intertextual dialogue is a landmark moment in African American literary history.
Q.120 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Work)
A. Nala and Damayanti
B. Jayadeva
C. The Viziers of Bassora
D. The Flute of Krishna
List II (Author)
I. Sri Aurobindo
II. Vasudeva Rao
III. P. A. Krishnaswamy
IV. Harindranath
💡 Explanation: Nala and Damayanti is associated with Vasudeva Rao (A-II). Jayadeva is a play by Harindranath Chattopadhyaya (B-IV). The Viziers of Bassora is by P. A. Krishnaswamy (C-I). The Flute of Krishna (D) is matched with P. A. Krishnaswamy (III) per the official answer key — A-II, B-IV, C-I, D-III. These are important works of early Indian English drama.
Q.121 Which of the given statements are correct?
A. Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan is a novel.
B. Joothan represents the Dalit Valmiki community in critical light.
C. Joothan enumerates the difficulties of being a Dalit in independent India.
D. Joothan was translated into English by Arun Prabha Das.
E. Joothan critiques the upper castes.
B. Joothan represents the Dalit Valmiki community in critical light.
C. Joothan enumerates the difficulties of being a Dalit in independent India.
D. Joothan was translated into English by Arun Prabha Das.
E. Joothan critiques the upper castes.
💡 Explanation: Joothan (1997) by Omprakash Valmiki is an autobiography, not a novel (A is wrong). It does represent the Dalit Valmiki community and examines their experiences critically (B correct). The work documents the profound indignities and hardships of Dalit life in post-independence India (C correct). It was translated into English by Arun Prabha Mukherjee, not “Arun Prabha Das” — so D is wrong due to the incorrect surname. The text is a sustained critique of caste hierarchy and upper-caste oppression (E correct).
Q.122 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Author)
A. Henry Miller
B. John Steinback
C. James Jones
D. James Baldwin
List II (Text)
I. The Grapes of Wrath
II. No Name in the Streets
III. Tropic of Cancer
IV. From Here to Eternity
💡 Explanation: Henry Miller authored Tropic of Cancer (1934), his controversial autobiographical novel (A-III). John Steinbeck authored The Grapes of Wrath (1939), his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the Dust Bowl migration (B-I). James Jones authored From Here to Eternity (1951), set in the U.S. Army in Hawaii before Pearl Harbour (C-IV). James Baldwin authored No Name in the Streets (1972), his passionate essay on race and civil rights in America (D-II). All four are key figures of twentieth-century American literature.
Q.123 Functional Communicative Approach in English Language Teaching is in opposition to the:
💡 Explanation: The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or Functional Communicative Approach emerged in the 1970s as a direct challenge to the Structural Approach (also called Audio-Lingual Method), which focused on drilling grammatical structures and sentence patterns without attention to meaning or real communication. CLT emphasises functional use of language — what language does, not just how it is structured. The Grammar Translation Method is older and more classical; the Structural Approach (behaviourist in orientation) was the immediate predecessor that CLT sought to replace.
Q.124 Arrange the following poems by W. B. Yeats in the chronological order of their year of publication:
A. “Adam’s Curse”
B. “Among School Children”
C. “The Second Coming”
D. “The Wild Swans at Coole”
E. “Under Ben Bulben”
B. “Among School Children”
C. “The Second Coming”
D. “The Wild Swans at Coole”
E. “Under Ben Bulben”
💡 Explanation: The chronological order of these Yeats poems is: “Adam’s Curse” (1904, in In the Seven Woods), “The Wild Swans at Coole” (1917, collection of same name), “The Second Coming” (1920, in Michael Robartes and the Dancer), “Among School Children” (1927, in The Tower), and “Under Ben Bulben” (1939, published posthumously in Last Poems). This sequence — A, D, C, B, E — traces Yeats’s career from his early Celtic Twilight phase through his major middle and late periods.
Q.125 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Term)
A. Antonomasia
B. Antiphrasis
C. Apocrypha
D. Aretalogy
List II (Meaning)
I. Writings or statements of doubtful or spurious authorship.
II. A figure of speech in which some defining word or phrase is substituted for a person’s proper name.
III. A narrative of miraculous deeds of God or Hero.
IV. Ironic or humorous use of words in senses opposite to the generally accepted meanings.
💡 Explanation: Antonomasia is a figure of speech substituting a descriptive phrase or epithet for a proper name (e.g., calling a wise person “a Solomon”) — A-II. Antiphrasis is the ironic or humorous use of words in the opposite sense to their meaning (related to verbal irony) — B-IV. Apocrypha refers to writings of dubious or non-canonical authorship, most commonly the biblical texts excluded from the scriptural canon — C-I. Aretalogy is a narrative of miraculous deeds attributed to a deity or hero — D-III. These are technical rhetorical and literary terms important for advanced literary study.
Q.126 The incorrect works cited entries according to MLA Handbook, 9th edition are:
A. Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in the Age of Destruction. Oxford UP, 2011.
B. Charon, Rita, et al. The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Oxford UP, London, 2017.
C. Saban, Ann. “The Perils of Ownership”. American Review, vol.10, no.2, 2007, pp.1-27.
D. Riddle, Julie. “Shadow Animals.” The Georgia Review, 67.3, pp. 424-47.
E. Copeland, Edward. The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austin. Cambridge UP, 1997. 131-48.
B. Charon, Rita, et al. The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Oxford UP, London, 2017.
C. Saban, Ann. “The Perils of Ownership”. American Review, vol.10, no.2, 2007, pp.1-27.
D. Riddle, Julie. “Shadow Animals.” The Georgia Review, 67.3, pp. 424-47.
E. Copeland, Edward. The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austin. Cambridge UP, 1997. 131-48.
💡 Explanation: Entry B is incorrect because MLA 9th edition does not include place of publication; “Oxford UP, London” should simply be “Oxford UP.” Entry D is incorrect because volume and issue number should be formatted as “vol. 67, no. 3” rather than “67.3,” and page numbers must include “pp.” Entry E is incorrect for two reasons: MLA does not include page range after the publisher for a book (that format is for a chapter in an edited collection), and the author’s name is misspelled (“Austin” should be “Austen”). Entry A and C follow MLA 9th edition conventions correctly.
Q.127 Arrange the following works of literature chronologically based on their year of publication:
A. The English Patient
B. The Swinging Bridge
C. Lives of Girls and Women
D. Family Matters
E. Birnam Wood
B. The Swinging Bridge
C. Lives of Girls and Women
D. Family Matters
E. Birnam Wood
💡 Explanation: The correct order is: Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women (1971), Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (1992), Rohinton Mistry’s Family Matters (2002), Ramabai Espinet’s The Swinging Bridge (2003), and Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood (2023). This sequence — C, A, D, B, E — spans over five decades of Commonwealth literature in English from Canada, Sri Lanka/Canada, India/Canada, Trinidad/Canada, and New Zealand. These are all prize-winning or critically acclaimed works of the postcolonial Anglophone tradition.
Q.128 The above lines were spoken by which of the following characters?
“O Sir, content you’,
I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly followed.”
I follow him to serve my turn upon him.
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters cannot be truly followed.”
💡 Explanation: These lines are spoken by Iago in the opening scene of Shakespeare’s Othello (Act I, Scene 1), in conversation with Roderigo. Iago declares that he serves Othello only for his own ends — to betray him — encapsulating his fundamental duplicity and self-interest. The lines reveal Iago’s Machiavellian nature: he presents himself as a loyal follower while harbouring murderous contempt. This is one of the most important speech acts in the play for establishing Iago’s character and the thematic conflict between appearance and reality.
Q.129 Which of the following is not matched correctly?
💡 Explanation: Poems of Govindagraj is a translation of the Marathi poet Ram Ganesh Gadkari (pen name Govindagraj), and this translation is associated with Vinayak Krishna Gokak, not Tilottama Ranjan. The other three pairings are correct: Ira De’s The Hunt and Other Poems, Margaret Chatterjee’s The Spring and the Spectacle, and Tapati Mookerji’s The Golden Road to Samarkhand are correctly matched to their respective authors.
Q.130 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Theorist)
A. Mikhail Bakhtin
B. Michael Foucault
C. Roland Barthes
D. Sigmund Freud
List II (Concept/Work)
I. “Archeology of the Human Sciences”
II. “Text can be either readerly or writerly”
III. “Dialogue as the intrinsic feature of language”
IV. “Dreams and the unconscious”
💡 Explanation: Mikhail Bakhtin’s central contribution to literary theory is his concept of dialogism — the idea that dialogue and polyphony are intrinsic features of language and the novel (A-III). Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things (1966) is subtitled “An Archaeology of the Human Sciences,” and he is associated with archaeological and genealogical methods of inquiry (B-I). Roland Barthes in S/Z (1970) distinguished between the readerly (lisible) and writerly (scriptible) text (C-II). Sigmund Freud’s foundational contribution is his theory of dreams and the unconscious, articulated in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) (D-IV).
Q.131 Which of the following works of R. K. Narayan were published after independence?
A. The Dark Room
B. The English Teacher
C. The Financial Expert
D. Swami and Friends
E. The Guide
B. The English Teacher
C. The Financial Expert
D. Swami and Friends
E. The Guide
💡 Explanation: Indian independence occurred in August 1947. Among Narayan’s works listed: The Dark Room (1938) and Swami and Friends (1935) were published before independence; The English Teacher (1945) was also pre-independence. The Financial Expert (1952) and The Guide (1958) were published after independence — making C and E correct. The Financial Expert won the Sahitya Akademi Award and The Guide won both the Sahitya Akademi Award and the National Book Award in the US.
Q.132 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Text)
A. My Days with Gandhi
B. Among the Great
C. Life of Sri Aurobindo
D. Rabindranath Tagore
List II (Author)
I. D. K. Roy
II. N. K. Basu
III. Krishna Kripalani
IV. A. B. Purani
💡 Explanation: My Days with Gandhi is by N. K. Basu (A-II). Among the Great is by D. K. Roy (B-I), who was a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and a musician-writer. Life of Sri Aurobindo is by A. B. Purani (C-IV), a close disciple of Aurobindo who documented his life and teachings. Rabindranath Tagore: A Biography is by Krishna Kripalani (D-III), who was Tagore’s son-in-law and his authoritative biographer. These are important biographical works related to major Indian cultural and spiritual figures.
Q.133 Identify the poet who has composed the following lines:
“Ganga was sunken, and the limp leaves
Waited for rain, while the black clouds
Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
The Jungle crouched, humped in silence.”
Waited for rain, while the black clouds
Gathered far distant, over Himavant.
The Jungle crouched, humped in silence.”
💡 Explanation: These lines are from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), specifically from the section “What the Thunder Said” (Part V). Eliot draws on the Indian landscape and the Upanishadic myth of the Thunder’s instruction (Datta, Dayadhvam, Damyata) to explore themes of spiritual aridity and the need for regeneration. “Himavant” refers to the Himalayas. The lines exemplify Eliot’s technique of juxtaposing Eastern and Western mythologies in his modernist masterpiece.
Q.134 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Text)
A. Autobiography of an Unknown Indian
B. My Son’s Father
C. All through the Gandhian Era
D. My God Died Young
List II (Author)
I. Dom Moraes
II. A. S. Iyenger
III. Sasthi Brata
IV. Nirad C. Chaudhary
💡 Explanation: Autobiography of an Unknown Indian (1951) is Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s celebrated and controversial autobiography (A-IV). My Son’s Father (1968) is Dom Moraes’s memoir (B-I). All through the Gandhian Era is by A. S. Iyenger (C-II). My God Died Young (1968) is the autobiography of Sasthi Brata, a controversial account of Bengali middle-class life and disillusionment (D-III). These are important Indian autobiographical texts in English, covering the colonial and independence period.
Q.135 Arrange the following works in the chronological order their year of publication:
A. Orientalism B. Black Skin, White Masks C. Masks of Conquest D. The Wretched of the Earth E. “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
A. Orientalism B. Black Skin, White Masks C. Masks of Conquest D. The Wretched of the Earth E. “Can the Subaltern Speak?”
⚠️ This question was dropped by NTA.
Q.136 Identify the correct statements concerning the respective genre:
A. An epistle is a literary genre in the form of letter.
B. Epigraph is an inscription on funeral monument.
C. Epigram is a short, pithy poem wittily expressed.
D. Epitaph is a formal statement in the beginning of a literary work
E. Epyllion is a short poem in the meter of an epic poetry.
B. Epigraph is an inscription on funeral monument.
C. Epigram is a short, pithy poem wittily expressed.
D. Epitaph is a formal statement in the beginning of a literary work
E. Epyllion is a short poem in the meter of an epic poetry.
💡 Explanation: An epistle is indeed a literary genre in the form of a letter (A correct) — Pope’s Moral Epistles are prime examples. An epigram is a short, pithy, witty poem or saying (C correct) — associated with Martial in Latin and Pope and Dryden in English. An epyllion is a short narrative poem in the dactylic hexameter of epic verse — sometimes called a “miniature epic” (E correct), as in Marlowe’s Hero and Leander. Epigraph (B) is not an inscription on a funeral monument — that is an epitaph; an epigraph is a quotation placed at the beginning of a literary work. Epitaph (D) is an inscription on a tomb or grave, not a formal opening statement.
Q.137 Match the LIST-I with LIST-II
List I (Author)
A. Paul Ehrlich
B. Lawrence Buell
C. Nevil Shute
D. Rachel Carson
List II (Text)
I. The Environmental Imagination (1995)
II. On the Beach (1957)
III. Silent Spring (1962)
IV. The Population Bomb (1972)
💡 Explanation: Paul Ehrlich authored The Population Bomb (1968/1972) (A-IV), a landmark environmentalist text warning of overpopulation. Lawrence Buell authored The Environmental Imagination (1995), the foundational text of American ecocriticism (B-I). Nevil Shute authored On the Beach (1957), the dystopian novel about nuclear fallout killing humanity (C-II). Rachel Carson authored Silent Spring (1962), the pioneering work exposing the dangers of pesticides that launched the modern environmental movement (D-III). These are foundational texts in environmental studies and ecocriticism.
Q.138 Identify the ones which are matched correctly:
A. Barbara Christian: “The Race for Theory”
B. Alfred W. Crosby: “Unhiding the Hidden”
C. Paul Carter: “Naming Place”
D. Graham Huggan: “Ecological Imperialism”
E. Thomas B Macaulay: “Minutes on Indian Education”
B. Alfred W. Crosby: “Unhiding the Hidden”
C. Paul Carter: “Naming Place”
D. Graham Huggan: “Ecological Imperialism”
E. Thomas B Macaulay: “Minutes on Indian Education”
💡 Explanation: Barbara Christian’s “The Race for Theory” (1987) is her celebrated essay critiquing the dominance of abstract theory in African American literary studies (A correct). Paul Carter’s “Naming Place” is associated with his work on spatial history, particularly The Road to Botany Bay (C correct). Thomas Babington Macaulay’s “Minute on Indian Education” (1835) is the notorious document arguing for English-medium education in India (E correct). “Unhiding the Hidden” is by Bill Ashcroft, not Alfred Crosby — Crosby authored “Ecological Imperialism” (1986) — so B and D are swapped and both wrong as stated.
Q.139 The author of “The Politics of Translation” and translator of Mahasweta Devi’s “Stanadyini” is:
💡 Explanation: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak authored the essay “The Politics of Translation” (1993), in which she argues for an ethically engaged, intimate approach to literary translation that respects the “rhetoricity” of the original text. She also translated and introduced Mahasweta Devi’s story “Stanadayini” (“Breast-Giver”) in the collection In Other Worlds (1987) and later in Breast Stories (1997). Spivak’s translations of Mahasweta Devi’s fiction are themselves acts of political and feminist solidarity. Tejaswini Niranjana authored Siting Translation (1992), a different theoretical work on translation.
Q.140 Who is the best known figure amongst the following for articulating the concept of ‘Negritude’?
💡 Explanation: Aimé Césaire, the Martinican poet, playwright, and politician, is the most celebrated figure associated with the Négritude movement, which he co-founded with Léopold Sédar Senghor and Léon-Gontran Damas in Paris in the 1930s. Négritude was a literary and intellectual movement that celebrated Black African cultural heritage as a response to French colonialism and assimilation policies. Césaire’s long poem Notebook of a Return to the Native Land (Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, 1939) is the defining text of the movement. Edward Said is associated with Orientalism; William Jones with Sanskrit scholarship.
📖 Reading Comprehension (Q.141–Q.145) — Based on a passage about Mass Culture
The passage discusses the concept of “mass culture” — commercially produced popular culture that emerged with the industrial revolution. Dominic Strinati defines mass culture as culture produced for mass consumption through industrial processes. One key development in debates surrounding popular culture was the association of popular culture with the United States of America, which occurred during the early twentieth century, driven largely by Hollywood and the global spread of American entertainment. The term “mass culture” refers both to the effects of American culture and to a specific theoretical debate that emerged in America during the post-war period. Atomised individuals — separated from traditional community bonds by industrial capitalism — became susceptible to uniform, mass-produced formulae designed to evoke standardised escapist pleasures. Systematic cultural manipulation takes place through the mass production of culture itself — films, music, entertainment — as analysed by the Frankfurt School theorists Adorno and Horkheimer in Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944).
Q.141 What is the meaning of ‘Atomised individuals’ in the above paragraph?
💡 Explanation: In the passage, “atomised individuals” refers to people who have been separated from their communities and traditional bonds by the forces of industrial capitalism, rendering them isolated, mechanised, and alienated. The term draws on sociological theories of modernity (particularly associated with Ferdinand Tönnies’s distinction between Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft) as well as Marxist concepts of alienation under industrial production. Such individuals, cut off from organic community life, became susceptible to the mass-produced formulaic pleasures of popular culture.
Q.142 Systematic culture manipulation takes place through:
💡 Explanation: According to the passage, systematic cultural manipulation occurs through “uniform, mass produced formulae designed to evoke standardised escapist and superficial pleasures.” This is the mass production of culture itself — films, music, entertainment — rather than goods or food. This concept is closely related to the Frankfurt School’s critique of the “culture industry,” developed by Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer in Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944), which argued that mass-produced culture manipulates consumers into passive conformity.
Q.143 “Mass Culture” refers to:
💡 Explanation: The passage explicitly states that “the term ‘Mass culture’ is particularly relevant in this context as it refers to both the effects of American culture as well as to a specific theoretical debate that emerged in America during the post-war period.” This dual reference — to the cultural hegemony of American popular entertainment and to the theoretical discourse around it — is the correct interpretation. The post-war period saw intensified debate about the cultural and political implications of mass media and consumer society.
Q.144 What is the core issue discussed in the above paragraph?
💡 Explanation: The entire passage is concerned with the phenomenon of mass culture — its origins in the industrial revolution, its association with American entertainment industries (especially Hollywood), and its theoretical analysis in the post-war period. Dominic Strinati’s definition of mass culture as commercially produced popular culture is cited as the conceptual anchor. Elite culture, high culture, and low culture are related but distinct concepts not foregrounded in this particular passage.
Q.145 When did the popular culture get associated with U.S.A.?
💡 Explanation: The passage explicitly states that “one key development in the evolving discussion surrounding popular culture which occurred during the early twentieth century was the association of popular culture with the United States of America.” This association was driven by the rise of Hollywood and the global spread of American popular entertainment in the early 1900s. The early twentieth century saw the USA emerge as the dominant producer and exporter of mass culture, shaping international tastes and values through cinema, music, and consumer goods.
📖 Reading Comprehension (Q.146–Q.150) — Based on a passage from Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village
“In all my wanderings round this world of care,
In all my griefs — and God has given my share —
I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;
I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,
Amidst the swains to show my book-learned skill,
Around my fire an ev’ning group to draw,
And tell of all I felt, and all I saw;
And, as a hare whom hounds and horns pursue,
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
Here to return — and die at home at last.”
In all my griefs — and God has given my share —
I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bowers to lay me down;
I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,
Amidst the swains to show my book-learned skill,
Around my fire an ev’ning group to draw,
And tell of all I felt, and all I saw;
And, as a hare whom hounds and horns pursue,
Pants to the place from whence at first she flew,
I still had hopes, my long vexations past,
Here to return — and die at home at last.”
Q.146 What is the mood of the poem?
💡 Explanation: Despite acknowledging suffering — wanderings, griefs, and care — the speaker repeatedly asserts “I still had hopes,” demonstrating an abiding optimism and determination. The poem (from Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village, 1770) expresses a quiet but firm resolve to find meaning, community, and purpose even amid adversity. The tone is neither pessimistic nor merely jovial, but reflects a dignified, hope-filled perseverance. The repeated anaphora of “I still had hopes” underscores the speaker’s emotional resilience.
Q.147 What does the poem say about the nature of the world?
💡 Explanation: The poem opens with the phrase “this world of care” — acknowledging that life is filled with hardship and grief. Yet simultaneously, the speaker maintains hope throughout, so the world is characterised by both care (burden, sorrow) and hope (aspiration, resilience). The passage from The Deserted Village captures Goldsmith’s elegiac view of a world of loss but not despair. The word “care” in eighteenth-century English carried the sense of anxiety and suffering, not simply caution.
Q.148 Identify the meter in the poem.
💡 Explanation: The poem is written in heroic couplets — pairs of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter — which was the dominant verse form of eighteenth-century English poetry, used by Dryden, Pope, Johnson, and Goldsmith. Each line has five iambic feet (ten syllables, alternating unstressed and stressed). For example: “In ALL my WAND’rings ROUND this WORLD of CARE” scans as five iambs. Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village employs this form throughout to achieve its dignified, melancholic tone.
Q.149 What does the poet intend to do in life?
💡 Explanation: The poem explicitly expresses the speaker’s hope “Around my fire an ev’ning group to draw, / And tell of all I felt, and all I saw.” This is a clear statement of his intention to gather people around him and share his accumulated life experiences, feelings, and observations. The speaker envisions himself as a storyteller and wisdom-bearer within his community. There is no mention of complaining to God or the king, nor of showcasing musical talent — the desire is simply to narrate and share.
Q.150 Identify the rhyme scheme in the poem.
💡 Explanation: The poem is written in heroic couplets, meaning consecutive lines rhyme in pairs: care/share (aa), crown/down (bb), still/skill (cc), draw/saw (dd), pursue/flew (ee), past/last (ff). This couplet rhyme scheme — aa bb cc dd ee — is the defining formal feature of Augustan verse, used throughout The Deserted Village and in virtually all of Goldsmith’s poetry. The couplet form creates a sense of balance, closure, and epigrammatic neatness characteristic of eighteenth-century poetic aesthetics.
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