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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- A. Immanuel Kant
- B. John Locke
- C. David Hume
- D. Denis Diderot
Explanation: This formulation comes from Immanuel Kant's 1784 essay “An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?” Kant distinguishes living in an…
Correct answer: Immanuel Kant- A. A return to neoclassical aesthetics
- B. Disassociating painting and poetry
- C. Lavish attention to the sensuous elements of life
- D. Rejecting English poetic tradition
Explanation: Pre-Raphaelite art and poetry valued intense colour, detailed natural imagery, beauty, and sensuous experience.
Correct answer: Lavish attention to the sensuous elements of life- A. Repeal of the corn laws
- B. Opium Wars
- C. Great Exhibition
- D. French Revolution
Explanation: The French Revolution occurred in 1789, before the Victorian period began in 1837.
Correct answer: French Revolution- A. By dismissing all knowledge from outside Europe
- B. By questioning the nature of scientific method
- C. By rejecting the divine right of kings
- D. By emphasizing the idea that gathering knowledge together can lead to human improvement
Explanation: The Encyclopédie gathered and systematized knowledge so that reason and education could improve human life.
Correct answer: By emphasizing the idea that gathering knowledge together can lead to human improvement- A. A period in the 18th century that celebrated industry
- B. The revelation of religious truths through meditation
- C. The power given to absolute monarchs by God
- D. A period in which reason was celebrated as enabling human knowledge and possibly human perfection
Explanation: The Enlightenment was an eighteenth-century intellectual movement that placed reason and empirical knowledge above blind tradition.
Correct answer: A period in which reason was celebrated as enabling human knowledge and possibly human perfection- A. They raised the question of whether women should be able to vote.
- B. They allowed new colonization and imperialism efforts.
- C. They established new standards for Victorian morality.
- D. They allowed women to divorce their husbands.
Explanation: The Reform Acts mainly extended the vote to more men, but the 1832 Act’s exclusion of women helped make female suffrage a distinct…
Correct answer: They raised the question of whether women should be able to vote.- A. A debate about whether women should be able to vote
- B. A discussion of women's roles inside and outside the home
- C. A conversation about women's work as a product of the Industrial Revolution
- D. All of these answers
Explanation: The Victorian “Woman Question” covered suffrage, women’s domestic and public roles, and the growing issue of women’s employment in an…
Correct answer: All of these answers- A. Competition between European rivals forced the British to find new trading partners.
- B. Colonizers were no longer necessarily interested in reforming indigenous populations.
- C. People found ways to justify expansion by claiming national superiority.
- D. All of these answers
Explanation: Victorian imperialism was increasingly driven by rivalry, economic expansion, and claims of national or racial superiority, while the…
Correct answer: All of these answers- A. traveled to America.
- B. believed in God.
- C. emphasized the importance of human emotions as guiding behavior.
- D. rejected Newton's view of the universe.
Explanation: Both Smith's moral philosophy and Rousseau's writings gave feeling and sympathy an important role in human conduct, unlike the purely…
Correct answer: emphasized the importance of human emotions as guiding behavior.410. Radcliffe's version of the Gothic differs most from Walpole's in its use of which of the following ?
- A. The sublime
- B. The explained supernatural
- C. Its medieval settings
- D. Its use of mysterious events to spur readers' interests and emotional responses
Explanation: Radcliffe typically creates frightening events but later supplies rational explanations for them, unlike Walpole's more genuinely…
Correct answer: The explained supernatural- A. Industrial Revolution
- B. French Revolution
- C. Scientific Revolution
- D. Technological Revolution
Explanation: Shelley regarded the French Revolution as the defining political event of his age because it embodied the period's struggle against…
Correct answer: French Revolution- A. indicates her longing for the older aristocracy.
- B. suggests her commitment to the Catholic Church.
- C. is at odds with her explicit socialist politics.
- D. implies that contemporary British society has overcome the institutions leading to the horrors its characters experience.
Explanation: Radcliffe's medieval horrors make readers aware of oppressive institutions while implying that modern Britain has moved beyond them.
Correct answer: implies that contemporary British society has overcome the institutions leading to the horrors its characters experience.- A. a radical break with 18th-century rules on elevated diction.
- B. a continuity with poets such as Alexander Pope.
- C. a rejection of nature in favor of society.
- D. a defense of the use of elaborate figurative language.
Explanation: Wordsworth’s principle rejects the artificial, highly elevated diction associated with much eighteenth-century poetry and turns instead to…
Correct answer: a radical break with 18th-century rules on elevated diction.- A. There should be more missionary work in less civilized parts of the world.
- B. Concerts in the parks that were attended by ordinary people should be banned.
- C. Civil servants should talk more openly and publicly about their moral work.
- D. Members of the Jewish and Catholic faiths should be excluded from public office.
Explanation: Victorian moral reform was linked with evangelical ideas, including the duty to spread Christianity and British moral values abroad.
Correct answer: There should be more missionary work in less civilized parts of the world.415. Which of the following best characterizes Wordsworth's attitude towards the French Revolution ?
- A. He thought it did not go far enough in granting women rights.
- B. He opposed it in favor of supporting the king and the ancien régime.
- C. He favored its democratic impulses but was appalled by its destructive nature.
- D. He did not think it concerned him and his relationship to nature.
Explanation: Wordsworth initially welcomed the Revolution’s promise of liberty and democratic reform, but the violence of the Reign of Terror deeply…
Correct answer: He favored its democratic impulses but was appalled by its destructive nature.- A. Reason over emotions
- B. The necessity for an aristocracy
- C. The power of feelings
- D. A sense of adventure
Explanation: Both Gothic and sentimental fiction give unusual importance to intense emotion, including fear, pity, grief, and sympathy.
Correct answer: The power of feelings- A. always fighting for good against evil.
- B. fortunate in always coming out victorious.
- C. nearly superhuman in his powers but tortured by a psychological weight.
- D. devoted to religion above all things
Explanation: The Byronic hero is powerful, charismatic and often rebellious, but is inwardly burdened by guilt, alienation or psychological suffering.
Correct answer: nearly superhuman in his powers but tortured by a psychological weight.- A. A refusal to emphasize the innate goodness of humanity
- B. An emphasis on the power of sympathy to allow individuals to feel others' pain and joy
- C. A sense of awe in the power of the natural world
- D. A parody of the interest in emotion that developed out of the Enlightenment interest in reason
Explanation: Sentimentalism values emotional sensitivity and the power of sympathy, especially the ability to share another person's suffering or joy.
Correct answer: An emphasis on the power of sympathy to allow individuals to feel others' pain and joy- A. It regarded human beings as social creatures who could create meaningful lives only in association with other social beings.
- B. Its major premise was that every existing thing in the universe had its "place" in a divinely planned hierarchical order which was pictured as a chain, vertically extended.
- C. It could only be achieved through faith in God's grace.
- D. Both A and BTry Science Kits
Explanation: The Great Chain of Being imagined every creature and object as occupying a divinely arranged rank, extending vertically from the lowest…
Correct answer: Its major premise was that every existing thing in the universe had its "place" in a divinely planned hierarchical order which was pictured as a chain, vertically extended.- A. Catholicism
- B. Medieval Europe
- C. Classical antiquity
- D. Protestantism
Explanation: Renaissance humanism looked back to the languages, texts and ideals of Greece and Rome, treating classical antiquity as a major source of…
Correct answer: Classical antiquity