English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) - Schoolingaxis.com

English Literature MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

 Que- The tragic-comedy which is the product of the English theatre is one the most monstrous inventions that ever entered into a poet's thought. Whose view is this ? 

a. John Dryden's  

b. Alexander Pope's  

c. Joseph Addison's  

d. Dr. Johnson's 


Answer- Joseph Addison's


Que- What is Christopher Ricks's attitude toward literary theory ? 

a. He considers it to be vital in order to understand literary texts.  

b. He considers theory to be the only way that literary texts can be interpreted.  

c. He has no misgivings about the practical usability of literary theory.  

d. He feels that literary theory is ultimately too limited in scope to serve as a proper method of interpretation. 


Answer- He feels that literary theory is ultimately too limited in scope to serve as a proper method of interpretation.


Que- What is the central idea of Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics ? 

a. Language is inseparable from its historical context.  

b. There are five phases of linguistic development.  

c. Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements.  

d. All of the above answers are correct. 


Answer- Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements.


Que- Arnold summarises the rule of English criticism in one word, in The Function Of Criticism. What is the word ? 

a. Disintrestedness  

b. Intresedness  

c. Purification  

d. Civilization 


Answer- Disintrestedness


Que- Who was the most illustrious pupil of Plato ? 

a. Aristotle  

b. Longinus  

c. Aristophanes  

d. Socrates 


Answer- Aristotle


Que- Who remarked, "Spenser write no language." ? 

a. Pope  

b. Arnold  

c. Dr. Jhonson  

d. Ben Jonson 


Answer- Ben Jonson


Que- Coleridge considered imagination as______________? 

a. Critical faculty  

b. Modifying power  

c. A psychological experience  

d. A product of intellect 


Answer- Modifying power


Que- Biographia Literaria was written by_________________? 

a. Wordsworth  

b. Coleridge  

c. Keats  

d. Charles Lamb 


Answer- Coleridge


Que- Trauma theory is tremendously influenced by which theoretical school ? 

a. Psychoanalysis  

b. Marxism  

c. Feminism  

d. Deconstruction 


Answer- Psychoanalysis


Que- Who made a distinction between Fancy and Imagination ? 

a. Wordsworth  

b. Coleridge  

c. Southey  

d. Hazlitt 


Answer- Coleridge


Que- Sublimity has_______________? 

a. 2 sources  

b. 3 sources  

c. 4 sources  

d. 5 sources 


Answer- 5 sources


Que- On the Sublime was written in_____________? 

a. 1st Century BC  

b. 1st Century AD  

c. 2nd Century AD  

d. 3rd Century AD 


Answer- 1st Century AD


Que- Trauma theory primarily developed out of the work of which psychoanalyst ? 

a. Sigmund Freud  

b. Carl Jung  

c. Michel Foucault  

d. Jacques Derrida 


Answer- Sigmund Freud


Que- What is the meaning of the term Hamartia as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy ? 

a. Tragic end of the tragedy  

b. Working of fate against the hero  

c. A weak trait in the character of the hero  

d. A strong quality in the character of the hero 


Answer- A weak trait in the character of the hero


Que- Whom did Aristotle consider the most tragic of the Greek dramatists ? 

a. Agathon  

b. Aeschylus  

c. Sophocles  

d. Euripides 


Answer- Euripides


Que- What is the main goal of ethnic criticism ? 

a. To bring attention to false Euro-centric paradigms  

b. To rectify the double experiences of certain racial groups  

c. To reconcile cultural identity with individual identity  

d. All of the above answers are correct. 


Answer- All of the above answers are correct.


Que- Which of the following is a rule of semiotics ? 

a. All linguistic concepts evolve solely out of the responses of people within a specific historical era.  

b. All linguistic and social phenomena are texts, and the object of studying these texts is to reveal the underlying codes that make them meaningful.  

c. All linguistics is in some way related to class struggle.  

d. All of the above answers are correct. 


Answer- All linguistic and social phenomena are texts, and the object of studying these texts is to reveal the underlying codes that make them meaningful.


Que- What does the term meta-language mean, according to Andrzej Warminski ? 

a. A language about another language  

b. A supernatural language  

c. A language that does not yet constitute a real language  

d. All of the above answers are correct. 


Answer- A language about another language


Que- Which of the following statements offers the best definition of the concept of strange attractors in chaos theory ? 

a. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are entirely random.  

b. Strange attractors are complex forces that are determined by the laws of physics.  

c. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are both random and determined.  

d. Strange attractors are complex forces that are entirely random 


Answer- Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are both random and determined.


Que- What is defamiliarization ? 

a. A term that describes how literature exposes its own artificiality  

b. An idea explored by Viktor Shklovsky  

c. A term that describes the capacity of art to counter the effects of habit  

d. All of the above answers are correct. 


Answer- All of the above answers are correct.


Que- Who used the words "romanticism" and "romantic" first ? 

a. Wordsworth  

b. Coleridge  

c. Carlyle  

d. Schlegel 


Answer- Schlegel


Que- Which is a common postcolonial critique of the West ? 

a. The West spends too much time trying to consider an Asian perspective.  

b. The West tends to look at Asian countries as individual units rather than lump them together.  

c. The West views matters through its own limited historical position.  

d. The West refuses to apply economic and political coercion to Asian writers. 


Answer- The West views matters through its own limited historical position.


Que- Which school of literary theory shows a particular interest in the role of testimony in literature ? 

a. Trauma theory  

b. Ecotheory  

c. Chaos theory  

d. Formalism 


Answer- Trauma theory


Que- Who coined the term New Historicism ? 

a. Jacques Derrida  

b. Terry Eagleton  

c. Fredric Jameson  

d. Stephen Greenblatt 


Answer- Stephen Greenblatt


Que- To what idea does the term heteroglossia refer ? 

a. An infant's inability to speak prior to the mirror stage  

b. The referential relationships among symbols, signifiers, and signs  

c. The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work  

d. All of the above answers are correct 


Answer- The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work


Que- Formalist critics believe that the value of a work cannot be determined by the author's intention. What term do they use when speaking of this belief ? 

a. The pathetic fallacy  

b. The intentional fallacy  

c. The affective fallacy  

d. The objective correlative 


Answer- The intentional fallacy


Que- Seven is an archetype associated with____________? 

a. Perfection  

b. Birth  

c. Evil  

d. Death 


Answer- Perfection


Que- Horace was a friend of_______________? 

a. Alexander the Great  

b. Emperor Augustus  

c. Julius Caesar  

d. Pompey 


Answer- Emperor Augustus


Que- Poetry is emotions recollected in tranquility. Who has defined poetry in these words ? 

a. Shelley  

b. Wordsworth  

c. Coleridge  

d. Matthew Arnold 


Answer- Wordsworth


Que- Which of the following is a critical work of Ben Jonson ? 

a. Discourse of English Poetry  

b. Discoveries  

c. Arte of English Poesie  

d. An Apologie for Poetrie 


Answer- Discoveries


Que- A critic examining John Milton's "Paradise Lost" focuses on the physical description of the Garden of Eden, on the symbols of hands, seed, and flower, and on the characters of Adam, Eve, Satan, and God. He pays special attention to the epic similes and metaphors and the point of view from which the tale is being told. He looks for meaning in the text itself, and does not refer to any biography of Milton. He is most likely a critic ? 

a. Reader Response  

b. Feminist  

c. Mimetic  

d. Formalist 


Answer- Formalist


Que- A critic examining John Milton's "Paradise Lost" focuses on the physical description of the Garden of Eden, on the symbols of hands, seed, and flower, and on the characters of Adam, Eve, Satan, and God. He pays special attention to the epic similes and metaphors and the point of view from which the tale is being told. He looks for meaning in the text itself, and does not refer to any biography of Milton. He is most likely a critic ? 

a. Reader Response  

b. Feminist  

c. Mimetic  

d. Formalist 


Answer- Formalist


Que- One purpose of LITERARY CRITICISM is described below: A formalist approach might enable us to choose between a reading which sees the dissolution of society in Lord of the Flies as being caused by too strict a suppression of the "bestial" side of man and one which sees it as resulting from too little suppression. We can look to the text and ask: What textual evidence is there for the suppression or indulgence of the "bestial" side of man? Does Ralph suppress Jack when he tries to indulge his bestial side in hunting? Does it appear from the text that an imposition of stricter law and order would have prevented the breakdown? Did it work in the "grownup" world of the novel? What purpose does this prescribe to ? 

a. To help resolve a question, problem, or difficulty in the reading.  

b. To help decide which is the better of two conflicting readings.  

c. To enable to form judgments about literature.  

d. All of the above answers are correct. 


Answer- To help decide which is the better of two conflicting readings.


Que- What are the basic questions literary theory asks ? 

a. What is literature?  

b. Why do people write literature?  

c. What are the effects of literature?  

d. All of these. 


Answer- All of these.


Que- A work of criticism that considers how English imperialism affected native Indian authors would be an example of_______________? 

a. Marxist theory  

b. psychoanalytic theory  

c. postcolonial theory  

d. deconstruction 


Answer- postcolonial theory


Que- In "Characters of Shakespeare's Plays", what does William Hazlitt mean when he states the following: "We do not like to see our author's plays acted, and least of all, 'Hamlet'. There is no play that suffers so much in being transferred to the stage" ? 

a. Hamlet cannot be staged properly because of the complexity of the play's use of language.  

b. Hamlet is not relevant to the Romantic age.  

c. The role of Hamlet cannot be properly played by any actor.  

d. Hamlet is a work that was written to be read, not performed. 


Answer- The role of Hamlet cannot be properly played by any actor.


Que- Which of the following offers the best definition of the theatrical concept of a chorus ? 

a. Members of the audience who comment on the play's actions  

b. Characters who remind the audience that the play is fictional  

c. A group of characters who comment on the actions of the play while participating in them  

d. A group of characters who comment on the actions of the play while not participating in them 


Answer- A group of characters who comment on the actions of the play while not participating in them


Que- Which of the following poems can be described as a haiku ? 

a. Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"  

b. Bishop's "One Art"  

c. Auden's "Paysage Moralisé"  

d. William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" 


Answer- Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"


Que- Which of the following are examples of poetic structures ? 

a. Lines of text with words that rhyme at the end  

b. A continuous block of text  

c. Unrhymed lines  

d. All of these 


Answer- All of these


Que- Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" can be described as what kind of play ? 

a. A comedic play  

b. A tragic play  

c. A modern play  

d. A tragi-comedy 


Answer- A comedic play


Que- Which of the following offers the best definition of a fable ? 

a. A story in which the author provides an explicit moral  

b. A story that takes place in the distant past  

c. A light-hearted, humorous story in which viewers are shown proper ways to behave  

d. A story told to little children 


Answer- A story in which the author provides an explicit moral


Que- Which of the following concepts does Aristotle consider to be the most important element of a Greek tragedy ? 

a. Plot  

b. Poetic diction  

c. Song composition  

d. Stage design 


Answer- Plot


Que- Which of the following assertions would William Wordsworth most likely agree with ? 

a. Poetry should be written in the common language of ordinary people.  

b. Poetry should focus on the lives and thoughts of elite people.  

c. Poetry should never concern itself with the natural world.  

d. Poetry should rhyme. 


Answer- Poetry should rhyme.


Que- Which of the following are examples of literary interpretation ? 

a. Investigating the relationship between words and objective reality  

b. Comparing the Bible to folk tales from other cultures  

c. Researching an author's biography for clues about how to understand his or her writing  

d. Researching what previous critics have said about a literary work 


Answer- Comparing the Bible to folk tales from other cultures


Que- What form of verse is usually sung and details a dramatic or exciting episode ? 

a. An ode  

b. An elegy  

c. An epitaph  

d. A ballad 


Answer- A ballad


Que- Which of the following is a component of a gothic novel ? 

a. An atmosphere of dread, fear, and darkness  

b. An isolated protagonist  

c. A hero or protagonist who is tempted by a villain  

d. All of these 


Answer- All of these


Que- In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", why does the Mariner kill the albatross ? 

a. For revenge  

b. To change the weather  

c. To bring forth life-in-death  

d. It is never directly stated why he does so. 


Answer- It is never directly stated why he does so.


Que- Which of the following statements offers the best definition of "rhetoric" ? 

a. Questions for which the answers are obvious  

b. Persuasive writing and speaking  

c. Writing that is complicated and scholarly  

d. Logical writing and speaking 


Answer- Persuasive writing and speaking


Que- A picaresque novel dramatizes the life of what kind of person ? 

a. A member of the royalty  

b. A lowborn, wandering adventurer  

c. A member of the middle class engaging in self-exploration  

d. A child as he or she develops into an adult 


Answer- A lowborn, wandering adventurer


Que- Which of the following statements is a proper example of what Aristotle termed a syllogism ? 

a. All dogs have four legs, all creatures do not have four legs, hence all creatures with four legs are dogs.  

b. All men breathe air, all dogs breathe air, hence all men are dogs.  

c. All mammals are warm-blooded, all dogs are mammals, hence all dogs are warm-blooded.  

d. All dogs have hair, all people have hair, hence anything with hair is a dog or a person. 


Answer- All mammals are warm-blooded, all dogs are mammals, hence all dogs are warm-blooded.

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