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Free Literary Criticism MCQs with Answers

268 Literary Criticism MCQs from English Literature, each with the correct answer and a written explanation of why it is correct. Free and unlimited, with no account needed.

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268 questions · page 13 of 14

241. All works of the highest art are meant to______________?

  • A. tingle our senses
  • B. stir our intellect
  • C. restore our skills for the art
  • D. instill in us the sense of the art

Explanation: The highest art is commonly understood to engage and stimulate the intellect rather than merely produce sensory pleasure.

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Correct answer: stir our intellect

242. I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish experiment-that of looking down within the tarn-had been to deepen the first singular impression. There can be no doubt that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition- for why should I not so term it?-served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a basis. This work exemplifies ?

  • A. Unity of effect
  • B. Ratiocinactive effect
  • C. Cataleptic effect
  • D. Didactic effect

Explanation: The passage illustrates Poe's principle of unity of effect: every detail, including the narrator's growing superstition, intensifies the…

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Correct answer: Unity of effect

243. One purpose of LITERARY CRITICISM is described below: "The historical approach, for instance, might be helpful in addressing a problem in Thomas Otway's play Venice Preserv'd. Why are the conspirators, despite the horrible, bloody details of their obviously brutish plan, portrayed in a sympathetic light? If we look at the author and his time, we see that he was a Tory whose play was performed in the wake of the Popish Plot and the Exclusion Bill Crisis, and that there are obvious similarities between the Conspiracy in the play and the Popish Plot in history. The Tories would never approve of the bloody Popish Plot, but they nonetheless sympathized with the plotters for the way they were abused by the Tory enemy, the Whigs. Thus it makes sense for Otway to condemn the conspiracy itself in Vencie Preserv'd without condemning the conspirators themselves." What purpose does this prescribe to ?

  • A. To help resolve a question, problem, or difficulty in the readin
  • 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.

Explanation: The historical approach is being used to explain a difficulty in the play: why Otway sympathizes with conspirators while condemning their…

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Correct answer: To help resolve a question, problem, or difficulty in the readin

244. 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

Explanation: A formalist studies features inside the work, such as imagery, symbols, characterization, figurative language, and narrative point of…

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Correct answer: Formalist

245. 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.

Explanation: The passage sets two competing interpretations of Lord of the Flies against each other and proposes testing them against textual evidence.

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Correct answer: To help decide which is the better of two conflicting readings.

246. Who introduced in linguistics the concept similar to Saussure's Langue and Parole ?

  • A. Charles Sanders Pierce
  • B. Leonard bloom FileD.
  • C. Noam Chomsky
  • D. Edward Sapir

Explanation: Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance parallels Saussure’s langue, the underlying system, and parole, its actual use in…

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Correct answer: Noam Chomsky

247. Who introduced in linguistics the concept of Langue and Parole ?

  • A. Charles Sanders Pierce
  • B. Ferdinand de Saussure
  • C. Noam Chomsky
  • D. Edward Sapir

Explanation: Ferdinand de Saussure introduced langue for the shared system of a language and parole for individual speech acts.

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Correct answer: Ferdinand de Saussure

248. The term semiotics was introduced by______________?

  • A. Charles Sanders Pierce
  • B. Ferdinand de sauddure
  • C. Noam Chomsky
  • D. Edward Sapir

Explanation: Charles Sanders Peirce introduced the term semiotics for the general study of signs.

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Correct answer: Charles Sanders Pierce

249. The type of study which focus on the analysis of the systematic interrelation of the elements of a single language at a particular time is called________________?

  • A. Synchronic
  • B. Diachronic
  • C. Semiotic
  • D. Onomatopoeic

Explanation: A synchronic study examines how the elements of one language function together at a particular point in time.

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Correct answer: Synchronic

250. It is possible to write down spoken language and read aloud the written material. This property of language is called______________ ?

  • A. Duality of structure
  • B. Recursiveness
  • C. Displacement
  • D. Transference.

Explanation: Transference refers to the ability to shift language from one medium to another, such as converting speech into writing and reading the…

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Correct answer: Transference.

251. Using a finite set of rules a speaker can produce innumerable grammatical utterances. This property of language is called______________?

  • A. Duality of structure
  • B. Recursiveness
  • C. Displacement
  • D. TransferencE

Explanation: Recursiveness allows linguistic rules to be applied repeatedly, producing an unlimited number of grammatical sentences from finite…

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Correct answer: Recursiveness

252. The Yo__He__Ho Theory of the origin of language was advanced by ____________?

  • A. Wilhelm Wundt and Sir Richard Paget
  • B. Noire
  • C. Max__Muller
  • D. Otto Jepersen

Explanation: The Yo-he-ho theory explains language as developing from rhythmic communal work cries and is associated with Ludwig Noiré.

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Correct answer: Noire

253. Who does Shelley consider the true founders of civilized cultures and laws ?

  • A. Kings and queens
  • B. Poets and artists
  • C. Dictators and Tyrants
  • D. All people equally

Explanation: In his defence of poetry, Shelley presents poets as cultural creators whose imagination shapes moral ideas, social values, and laws.

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Correct answer: Poets and artists

254. Who refers to poetry as "an imitation of nature" ?

  • A. Percy Shelley
  • B. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • C. William Hazlitt
  • D. William Wordsworth

Explanation: William Hazlitt used the idea of poetry as an imitation of nature in his discussion of poetic art.

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Correct answer: William Hazlitt

255. Which Romantic poet would have believed that a poet needs influence from something external and transformative in order to write a strong poem ?

  • A. William Blake
  • B. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • C. Lord Byron
  • D. Percy Shelley

Explanation: Percy Shelley argued in “A Defence of Poetry” that poetry arises from an external and transformative inspiration, rather than from…

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Correct answer: Percy Shelley

256. Which Romantic poet would be the least likely to write a piece of literary criticism ?

  • A. Lord Byron
  • B. Percy Shelley
  • C. William Hazlitt
  • D. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Explanation: Hazlitt and Coleridge were major professional literary critics, and Shelley wrote the substantial critical essay A Defence of Poetry.

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Correct answer: Lord Byron

257. Elizabeth Fey refers to which poet as "a sort of poet-king Arthur" ?

  • A. William Wordsworth
  • B. William Blake
  • C. Lord Byron
  • D. Percy Shelley

Explanation: Elizabeth Fay’s description presents William Wordsworth as a central, almost legendary figure of English Romantic poetry, comparable to a…

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Correct answer: William Wordsworth

258. 'The Cambridge school' refers to a group who emerged when ?

  • A. The 1900's
  • B. The 1960's
  • C. The 1920's
  • D. The 1930's

Explanation: The Cambridge School usually refers to the contextualist school of intellectual history associated with scholars such as Quentin Skinner…

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Correct answer: The 1960's

259. With whom is the concept of "claritas" associated ?

  • A. Thomas Aquinas
  • B. Augusta Gregory
  • C. Charles Parnell
  • D. Ezra Pound

Explanation: Claritas is one of the qualities Thomas Aquinas associates with beauty, alongside integrity and proportion.

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Correct answer: Thomas Aquinas

260. According to Robert Hollander, what are the two types of allegory used by Dante ?

  • A. "Allegory of speech" and "allegory of the poets"
  • B. "Allegory of speech" and "allegory of irony"
  • C. "Allegory of speech" and "allegory of the theologians"
  • D. "Allegory of the poets" and "allegory of the theologians"

Explanation: The distinction is between the allegory of the poets, which conveys a fictional narrative with a further meaning, and the allegory of the…

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Correct answer: "Allegory of the poets" and "allegory of the theologians"
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