Free Literary Movements and Periods MCQs with Answers

529 Literary Movements and Periods 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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529 questions · page 10 of 27

  • A. Sigmund Freud
  • B. Sir James Frazer
  • C. Immanuel Kant
  • D. all but C

Explanation: Freud’s theory of the unconscious and Frazer’s study of myth and ritual strongly influenced modernist writers’ views of identity, culture…

Correct answer: all but C
  • A. Eminent Victorians
  • B. Jungle Books
  • C. The Way of All Flesh
  • D. both A and C

Explanation: Strachey’s Eminent Victorians and Butler’s The Way of All Flesh challenge Victorian institutions, morality, and confidence in progress.

Correct answer: both A and C
  • A. popular; reverenced
  • B. brash; confident
  • C. radical; inventive
  • D. anxious; haunting

Explanation: The 1930s writers around Auden were generally more radical in their political and social outlook than Eliot and Pound, but were considered…

Correct answer: radical; inventive
  • A. Sigmund Freud
  • B. Sir James Frazer
  • C. Immanuel Kant
  • D. all but C

Explanation: Freud's theories of the unconscious and Frazer's comparative study of myth both reshaped modern ideas of identity, ritual, and culture.

Correct answer: all but C
  • A. its intellectual complexity
  • B. its union of thought and passion
  • C. its uncompromising engagement with politics
  • D. A and B

Explanation: Modernists admired Metaphysical poetry for joining intellectual ingenuity with strong emotion, often through elaborate conceits and…

Correct answer: A and B
  • A. Thom Gunn
  • B. Dylan Thomas
  • C. Philip Larkin
  • D. both A and C

Explanation: Philip Larkin and Thom Gunn are both associated with The Movement, whose poets generally favoured restraint, clear language, and ordinary…

Correct answer: both A and C
  • A. the emergence of a mass literate population at whom a new mass-produced literature could be directed
  • B. a new market for basic textbooks which paid better than sophisticated novels or plays
  • C. a popular thirst for the \classics,\
  • D. driving contemporary writers to the margins
  • E. none of the above

Explanation: Compulsory elementary education created a much larger reading public, allowing publishers to produce literature for mass consumption.

Correct answer: the emergence of a mass literate population at whom a new mass-produced literature could be directed
  • A. Radio announcers were permitted to speak in regional dialects and multicultural accents.
  • B. The Arts Council designated many of its resources to supporting regional arts councils.
  • C. Regional radio and television stations appeared throughout the country.
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: Regional broadcasting, the Arts Council's support for regional arts, and the growth of regional radio and television all weakened London's…

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. a poetic aesthetic vainly concerned with the way words appear on the page
  • B. an effort to rid poetry of romantic fuzziness and facile emotionalism, replacing it with a precision and clarity of imagery
  • C. an attention to alternate states of consciousness and uncanny imagery
  • D. the resurrection of Romantic poetic sensibility

Explanation: Imagism rejected Romantic vagueness and excessive emotion in favour of exact, sharply presented images and economical language.

Correct answer: an effort to rid poetry of romantic fuzziness and facile emotionalism, replacing it with a precision and clarity of imagery
  • A. Albert Einstein's theory of relativity
  • B. wireless communication across the Atlantic
  • C. the creation of the internet
  • D. the invention of the airplane

Explanation: The internet was not created in the first fifteen years of the twentieth century, developing much later from late twentieth-century…

Correct answer: the creation of the internet
  • A. gluttonous feasting
  • B. hard drinking
  • C. hunting
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: James I’s court was associated with lavish feasting, heavy drinking, and a strong interest in hunting.

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. James IV of Scotland
  • B. James VI of Scotland
  • C. Mary, Queen of Scots
  • D. Anne Boleyn

Explanation: Elizabeth I was succeeded in 1603 by James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England and began the Stuart dynasty in England.

Correct answer: James VI of Scotland
  • A. the pursuit of a more confrontational policy towards Catholic powers
  • B. the elimination of bishops
  • C. the right of congregations to choose their own leaders
  • D. the wider use of religious images in churches

Explanation: Puritans and related Protestant reformers generally opposed religious images, viewing them as remnants of Catholic practice.

Correct answer: the wider use of religious images in churches
  • A. Rachel Speght
  • B. Aemilia Lanyer
  • C. Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: All three writers hold pioneering distinctions: Speght published an early feminist polemic, Lanyer an important volume of original poetry…

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. with an absolute prerogative his father would have envied.
  • B. through a system of draconian military courts.
  • C. with deference to Parliament's legislative supremacy.
  • D. only a small area around London and Oxford.

Explanation: After the Restoration, Charles II ruled within a constitutional settlement in which Parliament’s legislative authority had to be…

Correct answer: with deference to Parliament's legislative supremacy.
  • A. All royalties from the sale of books went to the crown (hence the name).
  • B. Poets were required to have a university diploma (the original \poetic license\).
  • C. All books had to be dedicated to a noble or royal patron.
  • D. All books had to be submitted for official approval before publication.

Explanation: The licensing system required manuscripts or books to receive official approval before they could be printed and circulated.

Correct answer: All books had to be submitted for official approval before publication.
  • A. Gerrard Winstanley
  • B. Oliver Cromwell
  • C. Praisegod Barebone
  • D. George Monk

Explanation: Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector under the Instrument of Government of 1653, England's first written constitution.

Correct answer: Oliver Cromwell
  • A. the founding of the Jamestown settlement
  • B. the founding of the Plymouth colony
  • C. Henry Hudson's fruitless search for the Northwest Passage
  • D. all of the above

Explanation: All three events fall within James I's reign: Jamestown was founded in 1607, Hudson's voyage occurred in 1609, and Plymouth was founded in…

Correct answer: all of the above
  • A. Pericles
  • B. Genghis Khan
  • C. Richard Lionheart
  • D. Augustus Caesar

Explanation: James I associated himself with Augustus Caesar, the Roman ruler remembered for imperial authority, peace, and cultural patronage.

Correct answer: Augustus Caesar
  • A. John Lilburne
  • B. William Laud
  • C. Roger Williams
  • D. Oliver Cromwell

Explanation: Roger Williams argued for broad religious liberty and separation between civil government and religious belief, extending toleration…

Correct answer: Roger Williams