English Literature Multiple Choice Questions on Literary Theory and Criticism

(Last Updated: 22.09.2020). Check Important Objective Type English Literature Multiple Choice Question Answers on Literary Theory and Criticism. These solved questions answers on Literary Theory and Criticism section of English Literature Objective type question answers (MCQ) can be used as English Literature Study Material for UGC NET/JRF/STET, TET and other written examinations (UGC NET English Paper-II) based on objective type multiple-choice questions.

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 Multiple Choice Questions Answers on Literary Theory and Criticism - English Literature 

1. Aristotle and Plato belong to the ____ phase of criticism.
(A) Hellenic
(B) Hellenistic
(C) Renaissance
(D) Graeco-Roman

2. Who was the first literary critic who said that “Art is twice removed from reality”?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Longinus
(D) Horace

3. ‘On Translating Homer’ is written by
(A) Mathew Arnold
(B) Walter Pater
(C) T. S. Eliot
(D) William Hazlitt

4. Who proposed that poets should be banished from the ideal Republic?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Sir Philip Sidney
(D) Sir Thomas More

5. Who considers poetry ‘a mother of lies’
(A) Aristotle
(B) Plato
(C) Pope
(D) Stephen Gosson

6. Aristotle’s critical work is entitled:
(A) Ars Poetica
(B) Poetics
(C) De Arte Poetica
(D) Art Poetique

7. Who is the author of Ars Poetica?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Horace
(D) Longinus

8. Who is the author of Symposium?
(A) Aristotle
(B) Dante
(C) Longinus
(D) Plato

9. To whom “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful passion.”
(A) Keats
(B) Shelley
(C) Wordsworth
(D) Coleridge

10. Horace was a:
(A) Greek Critic
(B) Roman Critic
(C) French Critic
(D) German Critic

11. Aristotle discusses the theory of Tragedy in :
(A) Art Poetique
(B) Poetics
(C) Rhetoric
(D) Ars Poetica

12. How many principal sources of sublimity are there according to Longinus?
(A) Three
(B) Four
(C) Five
(D) Six

13. 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

14. Who is the meaning of the term Peripeteia as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) Change in the fortune of the hero from bad to good
(B) Change in the fortune of the hero from good to bad
(C) Constancy in the fortune of the hero
(D) Fluctuations occurring in the fortune of the hero

15. What is the meaning of the term Anagnorisis as used by Aristotle in his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) The hero’s recognition of his tragic flaw
(B) The hero’s ignorance about his tragic flaw
(C) The hero’s recognition of his adversary
(D) The hero’s recognition of his tragic end

16. What is denouement?
(A) The ending of a tragedy
(B) The ending of a comedy
(C) The climax in a tragedy
(D) The climax in a comedy

17. Who was the originator of the Theory of Imitation in Literature?
(A) Longinus
(B) Aristotle
(C) Plato
(D) Horace

18. Who made a difference between ‘poetry’ and ‘poem’
(A) Coleridge
(B) Addison
(C) Arnold
(D) Eliot

19. Who was the most illustrious pupil of Plato?
(A) Aristotle
(B) Longinus
(C) Aristophanes
(D) Socrates

20. Who was the most illustrious disciple of Socrates?
(A) Sophocles
(B) Plautus
(C) Plato
(D) Critus

21. From where has the term Oedipus Complex originated?
(A) Oedipus the Rex
(B) Oedipus at Colonus
(C) Antigone
(D) Jocasta, the Queen of Thebes

22. The term Electra Complex has originated from a tragedy entitled Electra. Who is the author of his tragedy?
(A) Aeschylus
(B) Sophocles
(C) Euripides
(D) Seneca

23. Who remarked, “Spenser write no language.”
(A) Pope
(B) Arnold
(C) Dr. Jhonson
(D) Ben Jonson

24. In which the following works Plato discusses his Theory of Poetry?
(A) Apology
(B) Ion
(C) The Republic
(D) Phaedrus

25. Who is the author of the notorious book entitled The School of Abuse?
(A) Roger Ascham
(B) Stephen Hawes
(C) John Skelton
(D) Stephen Gosson

26. An Elizabethan Puritan critic denounced the poets as ‘fathers of lies’, 'schools of abuse’, and 'caterpillars of a commonwealth’. Mark him out from the following critics:
(A) William Tyndale
(B) Roger Ascham
(C) Stephen Gosson
(D) Henry Howard

27. ‘Preface to the Lyrical Ballads’ was published in
(A) 1798
(B) 1800
(C) 1802
(D) 1815

28. Philip Sidney’s Apologie for Poetrie is a defence of poetry against the charges brought against it by:
(A) Henry Howard
(B) Roger Ascham
(C) John Skelton
(D) Stephen Gosson

29. “It is not rhyming and versing that maketh a poet no more than a long gown maketh an advocate”. Whose view is this?
(A) Shakespeare’s
(B) Marlowe’s
(C) Spenser’s
(D) Sidney’s

30. What does Sidney say about the observance of the three Dramatic Unities in drama?
(A) They must be observed
(B) It is not necessary to observe them
(C) He favours the observance of the Unity of Action only
(D) Their observance depends upon the nature of the theme of the play

31. What does Ben Jonson mean by a ‘Humorous Character’?
(A) A character who is always cheerful and gay
(B) A character who is by nature melancholy
(C) A character whose temper is determined by the predominance of one out of the four fluids in the human body
(D) An eccentric person

32. 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

33. How many poets were included in Jhonson’s ‘The Lives of Most Eminent English Poets’?
(A) 48
(B) 50
(C) 52
(D) 54

34. Dryden wrote An Essay of Dramatic Poesy. Is this?
(A) An Essay
(B) A Drama
(C) A Poetical Work
(D) An Interlocution

35. In Dryden’s Essay of Dramatic Poesy there are four interlocutors representing four different ideologies. Which of them expresses Dryden’s own views?
(A) Lisideius
(B) Eugenius
(C) Neander
(D) Crites

36. What has Dryden to say about the observance of the three Classical Dramatic Unities?
(A) He advocates their strict observance
(B) He does not advocate their strict observance
(C) He says that every dramatist should decide it for himself
(D) He is silent about this issue

37. Is Dryden’s Essay of Dramatic Poesy a work of?
(A) Interpretative Criticism
(B) Legislative Criticism
(C) Comparative Criticism
(D) Textual Criticism

38. Who called Dryden the Father of English Criticism?
(A) Joseph Addison
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Coleridge
(D) Matthew Arnold

39. The term ‘collective unconscious’ is coined by
(A) Carl Jung
(B) Sigmund Freud
(C) Ernest Jones
(D) Erik Erikson

40. Poetic Diction was taken to be the standard language for poetry in:
(A) The Elizabethan Age
(B) The Neo-Classical Age
(C) The Romantic Age
(D) The Victorian Age

41. “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

42. “Be Homer’s works your study and delight.
        Read them by day and meditate by night.”
Who gives this advice to the poets?
(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Addison

43. Which of the following critics preferred Shakespeare’s Comedies to his Tragedies?
(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Dr. Johnson
(D) Addison

44. ‘Gynocriticism’ is associated with
(A) Elaine Showalter
(B) Ellen Moors
(C) Julia Kristeva
(D) Kate Millet

45. Wordsworth’s Preface to the Lyrical Ballads is believed to be the Preamble to Romantic Criticism. In which year was it published?
(A) 1798
(B) 1800
(C) 1801
(D) 1802

46. “The end of writing is to instruct, the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.” Whose view is this?
(A) Wordsworth’s
(B) Coleridge’s
(C) Dr. Johnson’s
(D) Matthew Arnold’s

47. Regarding the observance of the three Classical Unities in a play, Dr. Johnson’s view is that:
(A) Only the Unity of Time should be observed
(B) Only the Unity of Place should be observed
(C) Only the Unity of Action should be observed
(D) All the three Unities should be observed

48. Plato equated poetry with painting, and Aristotle equated it with
(A) drama
(B) music
(C) dance
(D) none

49. “Poetry is emotions recollected in tranquility.” Who has defined poetry in these words?
(A) Shelley
(B) Wordsworth
(C) Coleridge
(D) Matthew Arnold

50. Who is the writer of ‘Hamlet and Oedipus’ (1949)
(A) Carl Jung
(B) Harold Bloom
(C) Ernest Jones
(D) Erik Erikson

Answers : 1. (A) 2. (A) 3. (A) 4. (A) 5. (B) 6. (B) 7. (C) 8. (D) 9. (C) 10. (B) 11. (B) 12. (C) 13. (C) 14. (B) 15. (A) 16. (B) 17. (C) 18. (A) 19. (A) 20. (C) 21. (A) 22. (B) 23. (D) 24. (C) 25. (D) 26. (C) 27. (B) 28. (D) 29. (D) 30. (A) 31. (C) 32. (B) 33. (C) 34. (D) 35. (C) 36. (B) 37. (C) 38. (B) 39. (A) 40. (B) 41. (C) 42. (B) 43. (C) 44. (A) 45. (B) 46. (C) 47. (C) 48. (B) 49. (B) 50. (C).

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