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
- Who has written on narrative empathy?
- Who coined the phrase 'soft capitalism'?
- To whom is the term 'thick description' attributed?
- As a 'proto-discipline' in the 1960s, cultural studies chiefly explored:
- What does CCCS stand for in cultural studies?
- According to Stuart Hall, which concept played a seminal role in cultural studies?
- Who jointly edited Political Shakespeare: New Essays in Cultural Materialism?
- Which of the following was NOT written by Raymond Williams?
- Which of the following books were written by Julia Kristeva? A. Desire in Language B. Illuminations C. Syntax and Semantics D. Revolution in Poetic Language E. The Madwoman in the Attic
- To which of the following is New Historicism indebted? A. Marxism B. Formalism C. Reader-response theory D. Existentialism E. Hermeneutics
- Which of the following statements about cyberpunk are true? A. It is science fiction. B. It uses postmodernist techniques and posthumanist themes. C. Events often take place in virtual reality. D. It is fiction written…
- Statement I: Human bodies are 'sexed' only from a particular, narrow perspective. Statement II: Most reproduction in our lifetimes has nothing to do with 'sex'.
- Who defined hamartia as the 'tragic flaw'?
- What is Francis Quarles's Emblems (1635)?
- Statement I: The best poetry has a power of forming, sustaining and delighting us as nothing else can. Statement II: No man has ever been a great poet without being at the same time a great critic.
- Samuel Butler's Hudibras reflects a revolt against:
- Which of the following hold true for Pope's An Essay on Criticism? A. It is an inquiry into the nature and value of poetry. B. It offers generalisations about good taste. C. It explores the difficulty of impartial, just…
- A passage urging writers to distinguish nature from custom and not to fear rules set by 'literary dictators' is considered the death-knell of neoclassical criticism. Who wrote it?
- Who used the phrase 'gaudiness and inane phraseology' of neoclassical poetic diction?
- Statement I: Dr Johnson inclined towards Tory politics. Statement II: Johnson strongly believed in transcendental scepticism.
- Statement I: Keats coined 'negative capability' in a letter of 1817. Statement II: Eliot introduced 'dissociation of sensibility' in 'Hamlet and His Problems'.
- Who refers to 'high seriousness' as a quality of great poetry and quotes Milton to prove it? A. T. S. Eliot B. Ezra Pound C. Matthew Arnold D. I. A. Richards E. G. M. Hopkins
- Which of the following apply to New Criticism? A. It draws considerably on the critical essays of I. A. Richards and T. S. Eliot. B. Some of its concepts were anticipated by F. R. Leavis. C. It distinguishes literary fr…
- Who is associated with the term 'intentional fallacy'?
- Match List I with List II: List I: Thinker List II: Work A. Karl Marx I. Madness and Civilization B. Claude Lévi-Strauss II. Being and Nothingness C. Michel Foucault III. The German Ideology D. Jean-Paul Sartre IV. The…
- Statement I: For Derrida, aesthetic discourse always involves values and interests; there is no 'pure and neutral' aesthetic realm. Statement II: Outside influence enters aesthetic judgement when philosophers and histor…
- Which of the following apply to the term 'carnival'? A. It became important through Mikhail Bakhtin's work. B. Popular humour subverts official authority in classical, medieval and Renaissance culture. C. It overturns h…
- Who considers a text a site of struggle between authority and popular culture?
- Statement I: In The Birth of the Clinic, the French Revolution created the grounds for the birth of the clinic. Statement II: Doctors came to care for the body as priests had cared for the soul.
- Which of the following relate exclusively to Jacques Lacan? A. The Real B. The id C. The Symbolic D. The ego E. The Imaginary