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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- A. The reader fills in the gaps imposed by an author's intention.
- B. The reader is sublimated beneath the author.
- C. The reader is less important than the author's context.
- D. The reader is totally subject to the author's intention.
Explanation: For Iser, a text contains gaps or indeterminacies that the reader actively completes during interpretation.
Correct answer: The reader fills in the gaps imposed by an author's intention.- A. A theory of practical actions developed by William James
- B. An idea used to guide conduct towards clear objectives
- C. A concept derived from the ancient Greek word pragma, meaning action
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Pragmatism links meaning and truth to practical consequences and useful action; William James was one of its major developers.
Correct answer: All of the above.- 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. The formulaic shift between economic and political themes
Explanation: Bakhtin's heteroglossia describes the coexistence of different voices, social registers, and kinds of speech within a literary work.
Correct answer: The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work- A. A term used to describe how texts include a variety of styles
- B. A term used to explain the use of multiple points of view in literature
- C. A term that explains resistance to a monolithic text
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Bakhtinian dialogism resists a single authoritative voice by allowing varied styles, perspectives, and competing meanings to interact…
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. Aristotle
- B. Viktor Shklovsky
- C. Cleanth Brooks
- D. Stanley Fish
Explanation: Among these choices, Aristotle is the closest source for the human-centred classical tradition that later informed liberal humanist…
Correct answer: Aristotle- A. To formulate relationships among an author, a reader, and a literary work
- B. To understand the role of sexuality, gender, race, and ethnicity in literary study
- C. To evaluate the role of historical context in the interpretation of literature
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Literary theory examines literature through several relationships, including author, reader, text, history, gender, race, and sexuality.
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. No fixed, stable meaning is possible.
- B. Language must be studied in conjunction with history in order to create meaning.
- C. There is no potential for multiple and differing meanings in a work of literature.
- D. Literature is timeless, and thus meaning does not change.
Explanation: Derrida’s deconstruction rejects the idea that words possess one permanently fixed meaning, because meaning is produced through changing…
Correct answer: No fixed, stable meaning is possible.- A. As an aesthetic object that is independent of historical context
- B. As an aesthetic object that is influenced by historical context
- C. As a historical object that is also aesthetic
- D. As a historical object that is not necessarily aesthetic
Explanation: New Critics treated the literary work as an autonomous aesthetic object whose meaning should be found through close reading rather than…
Correct answer: As an aesthetic object that is independent of historical context- A. The names of authors serve a classificatory function.
- B. The author is not a source of infinite meaning.
- C. The author may not always exist.
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Foucault’s “author function” makes the author’s name a way of classifying texts, limits the idea of the author as an unlimited source of…
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. How writers conceptualize natural environments and the representation of environmental issues in literature and culture
- B. How writers have damaged the environment
- C. How the environment can be repaired
- D. Who is responsible for damaging the environment
Explanation: Ecotheory or ecocriticism studies how literature and culture represent nature, place, and environmental problems.
Correct answer: How writers conceptualize natural environments and the representation of environmental issues in literature and culture- A. Trauma theory
- B. Ecotheory
- C. Game theory
- D. Marxist theory
Explanation: Among the listed theories, ecotheory most directly examines the relationship between literary representation and physical environments or…
Correct answer: Ecotheory- A. mirrors our physical evolution as human beings.
- B. prevents us from communicating through writing or speech.
- C. involves a constant process of deferred meaning.
- D. evolved exclusively as a function of our individual psyche.
Explanation: Derrida’s différance suggests that meaning is continually postponed because each sign gains meaning through its difference from other…
Correct answer: involves a constant process of deferred meaning.- A. Jacques Lacan
- B. Edward Said
- C. Stephen Greenblatt
- D. Plato
Explanation: Plato describes artistic representation as mimesis, or imitation, especially in his discussions of poetry and painting.
Correct answer: Plato- A. Theodor W. Adorno
- B. Claude Lévi-Strauss
- C. Julia Kristeva
- D. Jacques Derrida
Explanation: New Historicists drew on Claude Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology and its conception of culture as a system whose elements operate in…
Correct answer: Claude Lévi-Strauss- A. Sigmund Freud
- B. Carl Jung
- C. William James
- D. Theodor W. Adorno
Explanation: Theodor W. Adorno uses identity thinking for the tendency to force different objects into fixed conceptual categories.
Correct answer: Theodor W. Adorno- 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. Linguistics is too complicated to be distilled to a formula.Books & Literature
Explanation: Saussure treats language synchronically as a structured system of signs whose elements gain value through their differences from one…
Correct answer: Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements.- A. Performance is the ultimate objective of all human beings.
- B. Language is used to indicate action as well as thought.
- C. Individuals perform gender actively.
- D. Individuals develop consciousness through speech
Explanation: Austin's performativity theory distinguishes utterances that merely describe something from speech acts that do something, such as…
Correct answer: Language is used to indicate action as well as thought.- A. Women should write for and about themselves in order to counter phallocentric texts.
- B. Women should write, but they should do so only within the existent male canon.
- C. Women should primarily dedicate themselves to studying women's literature from the past.
- D. Women should be unconcerned with the struggle for identity.Philosophy
Explanation: Cixous urges women to write themselves and their experiences into language, challenging the male-centred or phallocentric literary…
Correct answer: Women should write for and about themselves in order to counter phallocentric texts.- A. Claude Lévi-Strauss
- B. Ferdinand de Saussure
- C. Viktor Shklovsky
- D. Roland Barthes
Explanation: Saussure's structural account of language provided the conceptual foundation for modern literary theory, especially structuralism.
Correct answer: Ferdinand de Saussure- A. Literary theory often depends on esoteric knowledge to be properly understood.
- B. Literary theory is employed mostly by academics.
- C. Literary theory should not be an academic focus in English departments.
- D. Literary theory is the only proper way to conceptualize literary texts.
Explanation: Ricks would reject the dogmatic claim that literary theory is the only legitimate way to understand literary texts.
Correct answer: Literary theory is the only proper way to conceptualize literary texts.