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Literary Theory and Criticism Mcqs
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M.A English (Literature)
Literary Theory and Criticism
1. Who was the first literary critic
who said that 'Art is twice
removed from reality'?
(A) Plato
(B) Aristotle
(C) Longinus
(D) Horace
2. Who proposed that poets should
be banished from the ideal
Republic?
(A) Plato in his Republic
(B) Aristotle in his Poetics
(C) Sir Philip Sidney in his Arcadia
(D) Sir Thomas More in his Utopia
3. What is the meaning of the term
'Hamartia' as used by Aristotle in
his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) Tragic end of the tragedy
(B) Working of fate against the
hero
(C) A weak trait in the character
of the hero
(D) A strong quality in the
character of the hero
4. What is the meaning of the term
'Peripeteia' as used by Aristotle in
his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) Change in the fortune of the
hero from bad to good
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(B) Change in the fortune of the
hero from good to bad
(C) Constancy in the fortune of the
hero
(D) Fluctuations occurring in the
fortune of the hero
5. What is the meaning of the term
Anagnorisis' as used by Aristotle in
his Theory of Tragedy?
(A) The hero's recognition of his
tragic flaw
(B) The hero's ignorance about his
tragic flaw
(C) The hero's recognition of his
adversary
(D) The hero's recognition of his
tragic end
6. What is 'denouement'?
(A) The ending of a tragedy
(B) The ending of a comedy
(C) The climax in a tragedy
(D) The climax in a comedy
7. Ars Poetica is the most important
critical work of:
(A) Ovid
(B) Virgil
(C) Horace
(D) Longinus
8. How many principal sources of
Sublimity are there according to
Longinus?
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(A) Three sources (C) He favours the observance of

(B) Four sources the unity of action only
(C) Five sources (D) Their observance depends
(D) No definite number of sources upon the nature of the play
concerned
9. Who is the author of the
notorious book entitled The 13. "It is not rhyming and versing that
School of Abuse? maketh a poet, no more than a
(A) Roger Ascham long gown maketh an advocate."
(B) Stephen Hawes Whose opinion is this?
(C) John Skelton (A) Shakespeare's
(D) Stephen Gosson (B) Marlowe's
(C) Spenser's
10. Some Elizabethan Puritan critics (D) Sidney's
denounced poets as 'fathers of
lies' and caterpillars of a 14. What does Ben Jonson mean by a
commonwealth'. Who was he who 'Humorous' character?
used these offensive terms? (A) A character who is always
(A) William Tyndale cheerful and gay
(B) Roger Ascham (B) A character who is by nature
(C) Stephen Gosson melancholy
(D) Henry Howard (C) A character whose temper is
determined by one of the four
11. Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie is a liquids in the human body
defence of poetry against the (D) An eccentric person
charges brought against it by:
(A) Henry Howard 15. Which of the following is the
(B) Roger Ascham critical work of Ben Jonson?
(C) John Skelton (A) Discourse of English Poetrie
(D) Stephen Gosson (B) Discoveries.
(C) Arte of English Poesie
12. What does Sidney say about the (D) Apologie for Poetrie
observance of the three Dramatic
Unities in drama? 16. Dryden wrote An Essay of
(A) They must be observed Dramatic Poesy. Is this:
(B) It is not necessary to observe (A) An Essay
them (B) A Drama

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(C) A Poetical Work
(D) An Interlocution
17. In Dryden's Essay of Dramatic
Poesy there are four speakers
representing four different
ideologies. Which of them
expresses Dryden's own views?
(A) Lisideius
(B) Eugenius
(C) Neander
(D) Crites
18. What has Dryden to say about the
observance of the three Classical
Dramatic Unities?
(A) He advocates their strict
observance
(B) He does not advocate their
strict observance
(C) He says that every dramatist
should decide it for himself
(D) He is silent about this issue
19.
19. Is Dryden's Essay of Dramatic
Poesy a work of:
(A) Interpretative criticism
(B) Legislative criticism
(C) Comparative criticism
(D) Textual criticism
20. Who called Dryden the father of
English criticism?
(A) Joseph Addison
(B) Dr. Johnson
(C) Coleridge
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(D) Matthew Arnold
21. Poetry was generally written in
'Poetic diction' by:
(A) The Elizabethan poets
(B) The Neo-classical poets
(C) The Romantic poets
(D) The Victorian poets
22. "The tragi-comedy, which is the
product of the English theatre, is
one of the most monstrous
inventions that ever entered into
a poet's thoughts." Whose view is
this?
(A) John Dryden
(B) Alexander Pope
(C) Joseph Addison
(D) Dr. Johnson
23. "Be Homer's works your study
and delight.
Read them by day, and meditate
by night."
Who gives this advice to the
poets?
(A) Sidney
(B) Dryden
(C) Pope
(D) Ben Jonson
24. Which of the following critics
preferred Shakespeare's Comedies
to his Tragedies?
(A) Dryden
(B) Pope
(C) Dr. Johnson
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(D) Addison (D) Matthew Arnold

25. Wordsworth's Preface to the 29. "There neither is, nor can be, any
Lyrical Ballads is believed to be the essential difference between the
Preamble to Romantic Criticism. In language of prose and metrical
which year was it published? composition." Who holds this
(A) 1798 view?
(B) 1800 (A) Wordsworth
(C) 1801 (B) Coleridge
(D) 1802 (C) Hazlitt
(D) Lamb
26. "The end of writing is to instruct;
the end of poetry is to instruct by 30. "I write in metre because I am
pleasing." Whose view is this? about to use a language different
(A) Wordsworth's from that of prose." Who says
(B) Coleridge's this?
(C) Dr. Johnson's (A) Wordsworth
(D) Matthew Arnold's (B) Coleridge
(C) Shelley
27. Regarding the observance of the (D) Keats
three Classical Unities in a play,
Dr. Johnson's view is that: 31. Which of the following critics has
(A) Only the unity of Time should most elaborately discussed the
be observed Concept of Imagination?
(B) Only the unity of Place should (A) Walter Pater
be observed (B) John Ruskin
(C) Only the unity of Action (C) S. T. Coleridge
should be observed (D) Freud
(D) All the three unities should be
observed 32. Who defines poetry "as a criticism
of life under the conditions fixed
28. "Poetry is emotions recollected in for such a criticism by the laws of
tranquillity." Who has defined poetic truth and poetic beauty"?
Poetry in these words? (A) Coleridge
(A) Shelley (B) Shelley
(B) Wordsworth (C) Walter Pater
(C) Coleridge

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(D) Matthew Arnold single sentence "?

(A) T. S. Eliot
33. Who says that "poets are the (B) George Bernard Shaw
unacknowledged legislators of the (C) John Galsworthy
world?" (D) John Masefield
(A) Shelley
(B) Walter Pater 38. In whose opinion "Poetry is the
(C) Matthew Arnold most highly organised form of
(D) T. S. Eliot intellectual activity?"
(A) G. B. Shaw
34. Who has divided Literature into (B) W. B. Yeats
two broad divisions-Literature of (C) T. S. Eliot
power and Literature of (D) D. H. Lawrence
knowledge?
(A) T. S. Eliot 39. What is common amongst these
(B) F. R. Leavis three critical expressions?
(C) De Quincey 'Objective correlative'
(D) Matthew Arnold 'Dissociation of sensibilities'
'Unification of sensibilities'
35. Who gave the concept of "Art for (A) All the three come from T. S.
Art's sake'? Eliot
(A) Walter Pater (B) All the three come from I. A.
(B) F. R. Leavis Richards
(C) T. S. Eliot (C) All the three come from F. R.
(D) John Keats Leavis
(D) All the three come from
36. Who gave the concept of "Art for William Empson
life's sake'?
(A) T. S. Eliot 40. Who is believed to be the pioneer
(B) Wordsworth of the so-called New Criticism?
(C) Matthew Arnold (A) John Crowe Ransom
(D) Tennyson (B) F. R. Leavis
(C) I. A. Richards
37. Who said, "For art's sake alone I (D) T. S. Eliot
would not face the toil of writing a

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