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. To connect human beings with a higher ideal
- B. To entertain those who enjoy it
- C. To criticize society through satire
- D. To bring to light social oppressions
Explanation: For Plato, art has value when it directs the soul toward truth, virtue, and the higher ideal of the Forms.
Correct answer: To connect human beings with a higher ideal- A. To rectify the double experiences of certain racial groups
- B. To reconcile cultural identity with individual identity
- C. To expand the canon to include works authored by different racial groups
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Ethnic criticism addresses racial and cultural exclusion by reconciling identities, correcting the distorted experiences of minority…
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. Both sets of critics look for an objective way to view texts.
- B. Both sets of critics study the underlying forms of texts.
- C. Both sets of critics focus on evaluating literature in a scientific manner.
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Formalism and structuralism both seek systematic, relatively objective methods and examine the underlying structures or forms of texts…
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. Suggesting that the study of literature is based on the breakdown of language into signs
- B. Arguing that language, and therefore literary texts, relies on the difference between terms and therefore constantly defers meaning.
- C. Calling into question the capacity of language to communicate
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Deconstruction examines how language depends on unstable differences between terms, so meaning is continually deferred rather than fixed.
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. New Historicism does not make strict delineations between literary and nonliterary texts.
- B. New Historicism takes a particular interest in marginalized peoples.
- C. New Historicism is interested in how texts help us understand economic realities.
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: New Historicism reads literary and nonliterary documents together and studies how texts reflect power, economics, and the experiences of…
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. An approach that emphasizes literary devices in a text
- B. An approach that emphasizes the historical context of a text
- C. An approach that emphasizes the biographical intent of a text
- D. An approach that emphasizes racial issues in a text
Explanation: Formalism concentrates on the text itself, especially its devices, structure, imagery, and patterns of language.
Correct answer: An approach that emphasizes literary devices in a text- A. To create literary subjects with which female readers can identify
- B. To critique phallocentric assumptions about literature
- C. To counter stereotypes about women
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Feminist theory challenges male-centred or phallocentric assumptions, opposes stereotypes about women, and seeks representations with…
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. Hélène Cixous
- B. Judith Butler
- C. Lucy Irigaray
- D. Mary Wollstonecraft
Explanation: Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century pioneer of women’s rights, especially through A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Correct answer: Mary Wollstonecraft- A. T.S. Eliot
- B. Jacques Lacan
- C. Jacques Derrida
- D. Stanley Fish
Explanation: The statement “there is nothing outside the text” comes from Jacques Derrida’s deconstructive theory.
Correct answer: Jacques Derrida110. Which of the following best describes the difference between literary criticism and literary theory?
- A. Literary criticism is concerned only with the meaning of a literary work, while literary theory is concerned only with the structure of a literary work.
- B. Literary criticism draws upon research derived from sources outside literature, while literary theory draws upon sources within a text.
- C. Literary criticism is concerned with how characters in a text act, while literary theory is concerned with why characters act.
- D. Literary theory is concerned with the method used to interpret a work, while literary criticism is the application of literary theory.
Explanation: Literary theory supplies concepts and methods for interpreting texts, while literary criticism applies those methods to particular works.
Correct answer: Literary theory is concerned with the method used to interpret a work, while literary criticism is the application of literary theory.- A. Women's gender is artificial, while men's gender is not.
- B. While gender is not real, the stereotypes that accompany it are true.
- C. Gender is a problematic, but essentially true, category.
- D. Gender is largely a cultural construct.
Explanation: Butler argues that gender is produced through cultural norms and repeated performances rather than being a fixed natural essence.
Correct answer: Gender is largely a cultural construct.- A. Humanism
- B. Formalism
- C. Structuralism
- D. Poststructuralism
Explanation: The phrase comes from Viktor Shklovsky's account of defamiliarization, a central idea in Russian Formalism.
Correct answer: Formalism- A. A term that describes the absence of racial others in the canon
- B. A term that describes the attempt to read homosexuality into literature
- C. A term that describes the effect of autobiography on text
- D. A term that describes the interpretation of meaning
Explanation: Hermeneutics is the theory and practice of interpreting meaning, especially in texts.
Correct answer: A term that describes the interpretation of meaning114. In her essay "The Poem as Event," Louise M. Rosenblatt sees the reader as performing what function ?
- A. The reader is acted upon by the text.
- B. The reader acts upon the text.
- C. The reader brings individual knowledge to his or her reading of the text.
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Rosenblatt’s transactional theory treats reading as an interaction: the text affects the reader, the reader actively interprets it, and…
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. The examination of structures informing our conscious experience
- B. The examination of desires informing our consciousness
- C. The examination of our unconscious experience
- D. The examination of intricate structures within our unconscious
Explanation: Phenomenology studies conscious experience as it is lived and examines the structures through which that experience is formed.
Correct answer: The examination of structures informing our conscious experience- A. The reasoning of theory is often too circular.
- B. Many theories have been pushed too far into abstraction.
- C. Many theories are no longer accepted by their parent disciplines.
- D. All of the above.
Explanation: Critics often object that theory can become circular, excessively abstract, or detached from the disciplines from which it borrowed ideas.
Correct answer: All of the above.- A. Claude Lévi-Strauss
- B. Jacques Derrida
- C. Jacques Lacan
- D. Michel Foucault
Explanation: Michel Foucault introduced the term “author function” in his essay “What Is an Author?” It describes the author as a classificatory and…
Correct answer: Michel Foucault- A. Understanding sexuality is crucial to understanding culture.
- B. Understanding homosexuality has little effect on understanding culture.
- C. Literary study is unaffected by a lack of interest in sexuality.
- D. Understanding homosexual themes in novels has become too routine
Explanation: Sedgwick argues that ideas about homosexuality and the closet are deeply connected with the organisation of modern Western culture.
Correct answer: Understanding sexuality is crucial to understanding culture.- A. They accept ideology as an essential, although sometimes problematic, part of society.
- B. They subject all ideologies to critique in order to expose biased interests.
- C. They reject the idea that ideology has real effects on social progress.
- D. They promote ideology because it helps to create a dominant social order
Explanation: Marxist theorists treat ideology as shaped by social and economic power, so they critique it to reveal whose interests it serves.
Correct answer: They subject all ideologies to critique in order to expose biased interests.- A. Cleanth Brooks
- B. Ferdinand de Saussure
- C. Karl Marx
- D. Sigmund Freud
Explanation: Ferdinand de Saussure established the linguistic model of signifier and signified that became foundational to structuralism.
Correct answer: Ferdinand de Saussure