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Unit –VIII : Literary Criticism
1.
In “Tradition and the Individual Talent” T. S. Eliot uses the analogy of the catalyst to elucidate his theory of impersonal poetry. He cites the example of a filament of platinum and, in the poetic process this is equivalent to —
(1) the language of the poet
(2) the mind of the poet
(3) the soul of the poet
(4) the life of the poet
Correct answer: (2) the mind of the poet.
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Explanation: In “Tradition and the Individual Talent” Eliot compares the poetic mind to a catalytic filament — it brings about the poetic synthesis without being simply a repository of private feeling. Eliot’s argument emphasizes depersonalization: the poet’s mind (as catalyst) combines experience and tradition to produce the poem, rather than simply expressing the poet’s subjective soul or life. The language is the medium, but the analogy points to the poet’s mind as the catalytic agent.
2.
What is practical criticism ?
(1) The close analysis of literary texts in such a way as to bring out their political meaning.
(2) A movement which wished to make literary criticism more relevant.
(3) The close analysis of poems without taking account of any external information.
(4) The study of ambiguity.
Correct answer: (3) The close analysis of poems without taking account of any external information.
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Explanation: Practical Criticism (I. A. Richards’ influential approach) foregrounds close, intratextual reading — focusing on the poem itself (form, imagery, diction, structure) rather than on the author’s biography, historical context, or external documents. Options (1) and (2) misstate the method’s aims; (4) is related (practical critics do handle ambiguity) but is not a definition.
3.
Which of the following does NOT describe some of the practices/beliefs of feminist literary criticism ?
(1) Feminist criticism recuperates female writers ignored by the canon.
(2) Feminist literary critics offer a criticism of the construction of gender.
(3) Feminist literary critics argue that the traditional canon is justified.
(4) Feminist literary critics mostly reject the essentialising of ‘male’ and ‘female’.
Correct answer: (3) Feminist literary critics argue that the traditional canon is justified.
J-30-16-III _English
Explanation: Feminist criticism typically challenges the traditional canon (it does not justify it), seeks to recover women writers, interrogates gender as a social/ideological construction, and resists essentialist binaries. So (3) is the false statement.
4.
One of the key terms in Michel Foucault’s work is “discourse.” This is best described as —
(1) the power of persuasion in all articulations.
(2) the selective language powerful people use.
(3) conceptual frameworks which enable some modes of thought and deny or severely constrain certain others.
(4) the ability to suggest transcendental levels of meaning in an utterance.
Correct answer: (3) conceptual frameworks which enable some modes of thought and deny or severely constrain certain others.
J-30-16-III _English
Explanation: Foucault’s discourse refers to systems of statements, practices and institutions that determine what is thinkable, sayable, and knowable in a given epoch — i.e., discursive formations that enable and constrain knowledge and power. Option (3) captures that notion; the other choices are narrower/misleading.
5.
In literary studies structuralism promotes —
(1) new interpretations of literary works.
(2) the view that literature is one signifying practice among others.
(3) a systematic account of literary archetypes.
(4) unstable structures of systems of signification.
Correct answer: (2) the view that literature is one signifying practice among others.
J-30-16-III _English
Explanation: Structuralism treats literary texts as systems of signs governed by rules and relations; it situates literature as a kind of signifying practice (like myths, kinship, language) that can be analyzed in terms of structures. While (1) and (3) are related effects or emphases, (2) best captures the comparative, semiotic thrust of structuralist thought.
6.
In the 1940’s, a critic and a philosopher produced two influential and controversial papers called “The Intentional Fallacy” and “The Affective Fallacy”. Identify them.
(a) Cleanth Brooks (b) Monroe C. Beardsley (c) William K. Wimsatt Jr. (d) R. P. Blackmur
Code: (1) (a) & (b) (2) (b) & (d) (3) (b) & (c) (4) (c) & (d)
Correct answer: (3) (b) & (c) — Monroe C. Beardsley and W. K. Wimsatt Jr.
J 03018 Paper II English
Explanation: W. K. Wimsatt Jr. and Monroe C. Beardsley authored the influential essays “The Intentional Fallacy”(1946) and “The Affective Fallacy” (1949). These essays were foundational to New Critical approaches that warned against using authorial intention or reader reaction as primary criteria for textual meaning.
7.
In “Tradition and the Individual Talent”, according to T. S. Eliot, the term “Traditional” usually means —
(1) something positive
(2) something negative
(3) something historical
(4) something old
Correct answer: (3) something historical.
J-30-16-II _English
Explanation: Eliot’s tradition is not mere antiquarianism or a nostalgic “oldness.” For Eliot, tradition implies a historical sense — the living relation of the present work to the whole past of literature and the way new works modify that tradition. Thus “historical” best captures Eliot’s sense.
8.
Which of the following New Critics put forward the idea of the “heresy of paraphrase”?
(1) Allen Tate
(2) Cleanth Brooks
(3) W. K. Wimsatt Jr.
(4) Monroe C. Beardsley
Correct answer: (2) Cleanth Brooks.
N 03017 Paper II English
Explanation: Cleanth Brooks argued that the poem’s meaning is not reducible to a paraphrasable set of propositions — the “heresy of paraphrase” expresses the New Critical view that a poem’s formal complexities resist simple paraphrase; paraphrase loses the interplay of tensions a poem enacts.
9.
Northrop Frye’s influential work, Anatomy of Criticism, includes, as the subtitle indicates, four essays. Which of the following is NOT one among them?
(1) “Archetypal Criticism: Theory of Myths”
(2) “Typological Criticism: Theory of Types”
(3) “Historical Criticism: Theory of Modes”
(4) “Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols”
Correct answer: (4) “Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols”.
N 03017 Paper II English
Explanation: Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism comprises four essays titled: “Theory of Modes,” “Theory of Symbols,” “Theory of Myths,” and “Archetypal Criticism/ Theory of Genres” (variously worded across editions). But “Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols” as worded here is not one of Frye’s named essays — so (4) is the odd one out.
10.
Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets combines the following except —
(1) analytical criticism
(2) literary history
(3) personal biography
(4) Socratic dialogue
Correct answer: (4) Socratic dialogue.
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Explanation: Johnson’s Lives is a fusion of literary criticism (evaluations of poetry), historical overview, and biographical detail. It is not written as a Socratic dialogue (which is a philosophical conversational form), so (4) is not a component.
11.
Which of the following is NOT Jacques Derrida’s work?
(1) Of Spirit: Heidegger and the Question
(2) The Transcendence of the Ego
(3) Of Grammatology
(4) The Work of Mourning
Correct answer: (2) The Transcendence of the Ego.
J-30-16-II _English
Explanation: Of Grammatology and Of Spirit are Derrida’s works; The Work of Mourning (a collection) also relates to Derrida. The Transcendence of the Ego is by Husserl (or at least associated philosophically with phenomenology), not Derrida — so (2) is correct here.
12.
Which of the following best describes the critical reception question recorded in the files: “Who among the following dismissed Ulysses as ‘a misfire’?”
(1) Virginia Woolf
(2) Wyndham Lewis
(3) E. M. Forster
(4) D. H. Lawrence
Correct answer: (2) Wyndham Lewis.
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Explanation: Wyndham Lewis was a vocal contemporary critic of some modernist experiments and is recorded in criticism history as having called Ulysses a “misfire.” This is a receptional/historical criticism item (how critics responded).