Literary Criticism and Theory – Previous Year Questions
452 questions from past UGC NET English papers, each with the correct answer. Open any question for its explanation.
Topic-wise mock tests
- Which of the following are chapter titles in I. A. Richards' Principles of Literary Criticism (1924)? A. 'Poetry for Poetry's Sake' B. 'Critical Principles: The Indemonstrability of Values' C. 'On Looking at a Picture'…
- Which quotations are correctly matched with their texts? A. Poets are 'the right popular philosophers' — An Apology for Poetry B. The critic must halt at the frontier of metaphysics — 'The Metaphysical Poets' C. 'Franti…
- Match List I with List II: List I: Alamkara List II: Meaning A. Aprastuta-prasamsa I. Conjoint statement of the qualities or actions of things B. Vyajastuti II. Showing a like good or bad consequence by linking one thin…
- Assertion (A): Sidney's Apology for Poetry is a seminal text of literary criticism. Reason (R): It is the first English synthesis of Renaissance criticism, drawing on Aristotle, Horace, Boccaccio and Scaliger.
- Which work by Arnold preaches that 'the kingdom of God is within you'?
- Which issue does Horace NOT address in the Ars Poetica?
- Arrange the following critical works 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,…
- Arrange Kuntaka's levels of vakrata (obliquity) from the smallest to the largest unit: A. Episodic (prakarana) B. Compositional (prabandha) C. Phonetic (varna-vinyasa) D. Lexical (pada-purvardha) E. Grammatical (pratyay…
- Match List I with List II: List I: Archetypal symbol List II: Meaning A. The sea I. Creative energy B. Rivers II. Wisdom C. The sun III. The mother of all life D. The serpent IV. Death and rebirth
- Match List I with List II: List I: Essay List II: Writer A. 'Keats's Sylvan Historian: History without Footnotes' I. Gayatri C. Spivak B. 'Tools for Reading Poetry' II. Cleanth Brooks C. 'Three Women's Texts and a Criti…
- Assertion (A): Post-structuralism and deconstruction are virtually synonymous. Reason (R): Deconstruction arises out of Barthes's structuralism, as a reaction against its certainties.
- Which statement on the arbitrariness of the sign in Saussure's Course is INCORRECT?
- According to Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, which symbol is NOT correctly glossed?
- Who held that the interplay of introjection and projection builds the ego and superego and lays the ground for the Oedipus complex?
- Assertion (A): The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar', to make forms difficult, and to increase the difficulty and length of perception. Reason (R): The process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself…
- Who became known in the popular imagination as the notorious French postmodernist philosopher?
- Which of the following were written or edited 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?
- Which writer asked why men drank wine and women water, and why one sex was so prosperous and the other so poor?
- Match List I with List II: List I: Concept List II: Thinker A. Habitus I. Pierre Bourdieu B. Anaclisis II. Sigmund Freud C. Fetishism (in the sexual sense) III. Alfred Binet D. Hyperreality IV. Umberto Eco
- In which of Showalter's phases did women writers imitate the dominant male tradition?
- Match List I with List II: List I: Term List II: Meaning A. Feral I. The way women are positioned as objects of male scopophilic desire B. Grand narrative II. The interior story as told or shown, especially in film C. G…
- Which is NOT part of Dollimore and Sinfield's definition of cultural materialism?
- According to Fiona Tolan, the one theme that runs through every feminist debate is:
- Which critic defined colonialism as 'the conquest and control of other people's land and goods'?
- Since the publication of Samuel Johnson's 'Preface to Shakespeare' (1765), which of the Unities have been regarded as optional devices, available to playwrights in England to achieve special effects of dramatic concentr…
- Who, amongst the following, attempted to reconcile discrepancies between various classical authors such as Plato and Aristotle, as well as between philosophy and poetry?
- Who said that 'Shakespeare was the Homer, or father of our dramatic poets; Jonson was the Virgil, the pattern of elaborate writing'?
- Who described his criticism as a 'by-product' of his 'private poetry-workshop' and as 'a prolongation of the thinking that went into the formation of my own verse'?
- Who wrote, 'The two pillars upon which a theory of criticism must rest are an account of value and an account of communication'?
- The term 'Trace', which refers to the trace of the other, has been borrowed by Jacques Lacan [read: Derrida] from: