A TO Z Literary Principles from History of English Literature: Note 64

A Set of 26 Objective Questions & Answers

UGC NET ENGLISH QUESTION BANK

(ALL THE ANSWERS ARE COLOURED. I HAVE TRIED TO GIVE LOGIC BEHIND ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS. WITHOUT SYLLOGISTIC FORMAT YOU NEED AN ELFIN TOWER TALL HEAD.)  

1. Which of Dickens’ novels opens with the words “It was the best of times, it was the

worst of times ....”. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(A) A Tale of Two Cities (B) Oliver Twist

(C) Pickwick Papers (D) Hard Times

** “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.”- A Tale of Two Cities**

2. The term “The Fleshly School of Poetry” is associated with the :

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(A) Chartists (B) Pre-Raphaelites

(C) Symbolists (D) Imagists

** Robert Williams Buchanan (1841 - 1901), THE British poet, novelist, and dramatist while referring to Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Morris, Dante Gabreil Rossetti, and others in Contemporary Review used the term “The Fleshly School of Poetry” for the first time. **

3. The line “The sea is calm tonight” occurs in : Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(A) Tennyson’s “Maude” (B) Arnold’s “Thyrsis”

(C) Tennyson’s “The Lotos-Eaters” (D) Arnold’s “Dover Beach”

4. The right sequence of these “gothic novel”, is:

(A) The Castle of Otranto;   The Champion of Virtue;   The Mysteries of Udolpho ;   Ambrosio, or the Monk ;  The Fatal Revenge ;   Frankenstein

(B) The Mysteries of Udolpho ;   Ambrosio, or the Monk ;  The Fatal Revenge ;   Frankenstein ; The Castle of Otranto;   The Champion of Virtue   

 (C) The Castle of Otranto;   The Champion of Virtue; Frankenstein;   The Mysteries of Udolpho ;   Ambrosio, or the Monk ;  The Fatal Revenge

 (D) The Champion of Virtue;   The Mysteries of Udolpho ;   Ambrosio, or the Monk ;  The Fatal Revenge ;   Frankenstein ; The Castle of Otranto   

** The Castle of Otranto (1764);   The Champion of Virtue (1777);   The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794);   Ambrosio, or the Monk (1796);  The Fatal Revenge (1807);   Frankenstein (1818).**

5. The gap-toothed character in “prologue” to The Centerbury Tales is :

(A) The Prioress (B) the Nun

(C) The Wife of Bath (D) the Narrator Read more: The Prologue to Canterbury Tales: a Picture Gallery of 14th Century

                                            

** The gaily attired buxom Wife of Bath; somewhat deaf, gap-teeth, large hips hidden by her clothing is an abiding interest among the pilgrims. She always wanted front row in church and to be first at any offering. She wore a heavy (10 lbs) head dress, red stockings, and new shoes. Being a impassioned traveler she went on other famous pilgrimages – Jerusalem, Rome, Boulogne, Compo Stella, and Cologne. Most interestingly she is a new kind of feminine identity where she is independent minded, opposed to patriarchal control. Her episode of pilgrimage also can be termed as husband hunting campaign.  **

6. Which of the following is not a Revenge Tragedy? Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(A) Duchess of Malfi (B) Volpone

(C) Hamlet (D) Gorboduc

7. Which of the following statement is wrong?

(A) Miracle plays are based on the lives of all those dealing with legends of the saints.

 (B) Mystery plays draw their subject matter from Gospel events.

(C) The characters of the morality play are personifications of such abstractions as flesh, gluttony, lechery, sloth, pride, envy, hope, charity, riches, and strength.

 (D) The   Corpus Christi play are related to Miracle plays

8. Mach the List I and List II

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    List I characters                           List II books

(A) Joseph K.                   i A Tale of Two Cities

(B) Sydney Carton          ii A Farewell to Arms

(C) Frederic Henry          iii The Great Gatsby

(D) Nick Carraway          iv The Trial

1. A-i, B-iv, C- ii, D-iii

2. A-ii, B-iv, C-iii, D-i

3. A-iii, B-ii, C-iv, D-i

4. A-iv, B-i, C-ii, D-iii

9. Read the statement and answer the questions that follow: Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(A) The story of Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart takes place in the Nigerian village of Umuofia in the late 1880s, before missionaries and other outsiders have arrived.

(B) The Ibo tribe who are also known as the Igbo defines itself through the age-old traditions it practices in Things Fall Apart.

(C) Things Fall Apart was published in 1958 just prior to Nigerian independence, but it depicts precolonial Africa and the conflict of cultures, tribal and Christianity. Achebe felt it was important to portray Nigerians as they really were—not just provide a shallow description of them as other authors had.

(D) Missionaries arrived and introduced Christianity. Many tribesmen converted to the new religion. However, this forms the later part of the story.

Which of the following sequence of the statements is right for comprehensive and logical paragraph:

I. (C)- (A) -(B)- (D)

II. (A)- (B) -(D)- (C)

III. (B)- (D)- (C) -(A)

IV. (D) -(C) -(A) -(B)

10. Which of the following statements best describes JM Coetzee’s Disgrace?

(A) It is a murder mystery set inpost-apartheid South Africa. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(B) It is a complex narrative of sin and redemption which involves both White and Black South Africans.

(C) The protagonist David Lurie is a priest who brings disgrace to his calling.

(D) Coetze has a schematic and reductive view on the relations between Whites and the Blacks in South Africa.

** These are few immortal words from the novel: “What comes after the end of roaming? He sees himself, white-haired, stooped, shuffling to the corner shop to buy his half-litre of milk and half-loaf of bread; he sees himself sitting blankly at a desk in a room full of yellowing papers, waiting for the afternoon to peter out so that he can cook his evening meal and go to bed. The life of a superannuated scholar, without hope, without prospect: is that what he is prepared to settle for?” **

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11. Which of the following statements is not true of Mahesh Dattani’s Final Solutions?

(A) The play centres around a middle class Hindu family during a communal riot.

(B) It challenges communalism.

(C) It is concerned with homosexual relationship.

(D) It promotes religious pluralism in South Asia.

12. Edmund Burke denounced the French Revolution in :

(A) Political Philosophy

(B) A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the

Beautiful

(C) Reflections

(D) The Annual Register Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

** In 1790 Irish-born British political philosopher and statesman Edmund Burke publishes an influential critique of the French Revolution, Reflections on the Revolution in France. The text, which denounces the revolutionary overthrow of the French government, seemingly contradicts Burke’s earlier support of the American War of Independence (1775-1783). **

13. Horace Walpole’s novel The Castle of Otranto tells the story of

(A) A defiant and heartless tyrant who kills his own son mercilessly.

(B) An usurper and a tyrant who kills his own daughter by mistake.

(C) A castle that collapses and crushes the young and sickly prince to death.

(D) A tyrant who retires to a monastery at the end and lives happily ever after with his queen.

**The novel also falls in the genre known as the Gothic romance novel. English novelist Horace Walpole sets his story in a gloomy castle with secret underground passageways, haunted rooms, and apparitions.**

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14. The author of Ars Poetica is :

(A) Plato (B) Horace (C) Virgil (D) Aristotle

** I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.-Horace **

15. The line “A man can be destroyed but not defeated” appears in :

(A) For Whom the Bell Tolls (B) The Old Man and the Sea

(C) The Snows of Kilimanjaro (D) The Sun also Rises

16. The term “Negritude” was coined by :

(A) Frantz Fanon and Homi Bhabha

(B) Ngugi Wa’ Thiongo and Wole Soyinka

(C) Ainee Cesaire and Leopold Senghor Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(D) K. Alfred Memi and Chinua Achebe

** Leopold Senghor (1906-2001), president of Senegal (1960-1981), and an internationally respected poet, philosopher, and theoretician. A French-speaking African intellectual, Senghor defended and promoted the cultural heritage of Africans, developing the idea of négritude. He led the movement for Senegal’s independence and was elected the nation’s first president.

Aimé Césaire, born in 1913, Martinican poet, playwright, and political leader, known as a founder of négritude, a movement among black French-language writers that glorified traditional African culture and identity. **

17. Who among the following is called “A New England Poet” :

(A) Robert Frost (B) Edwin Arlington Robinson

(C) William Carlos Williams (D) Allen Ginsberg

18. Epic theater and Verfremdungseffekt in concept can be found in the drama of

 (A) Irwin Piscator (B) Antonin Artaud

(C) Peter Brook (D) Bertolt Brecht

19. According to Bakhtin the idea of the Carnivalesque represents the following characteristics except :

(A) A liberation from the prevailing truth and established order

(B) A harking back to the past

(C) Emphasis on play, parody, pleasure and the body

(D) The suspension of all hierarchical rank, principles, norms and prohibitions

 20. Margaret Atwood’s Survival is :

(A) a critical assessment of Canadian writing

(B) a thematic guide to Canadian literature Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

(C) a critique of Canadian polity

(D) a exposition of Canadian history

21. Which of the following statements is not true of Patrick White?

(A) He is remembered today for his epic and psychological narrative art.

(B) He is the only Australian to receive the Nobel Prize in literature.

(C) He pioneered a new fictional landscape and introduced a new continent in literature.

(D) His style is noted for lucidity and simplicity. Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

I.        ** Patrick Victor Martindale White (1912-1990)- Australian author and Nobel laureate.

II.        His novels are Rich in symbolism and allegory.

III.      They deal with the individual's search for meaning in a harsh, potentially brutal country searching for its own self-definition.  

IV.       White in 1973 became the first Australian awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

V.        He was cited for his “epic and psychological narrative art which has introduced a new continent into literature.”

VI.      His highly original writing style has been praised by critics for its oblique yet forceful descriptive power. **

22. In the Literature of Romanticism there was a widespread frustration with visions experienced in dreams, in nightmares and other altered states.

The following list contains poems which illustrate this theme, with one exception. Identify the exception

(A) “Kubla Khan”

(B) “Confessions of an English Opium Eater”

(C) “The Ruined Cottage”

(D) “The Fall of Hyperion”

23.  The book was for many years banned for obscenity in Britain and the United States. The central character is a Catholic Jew in Ireland. The author claimed that the book is meant to make you laugh. Which is this book?

(A) The Picture of Dorian Grey

(B) Herzog

(C) Portnoy’s Complaint

(D) Ulysses

** Portnoy’s Complaint is devoted primarily to the sexual activities of its central character, Alexander Portnoy, and is delivered as a monologue by Portnoy from his psychiatrist’s couch. Its tormented narrator, guilt-ridden and sex-obsessed, is seen by Roth as the product and victim of an overly possessive Jewish mother. Portnoy’s mother is generally conceded to be one of the outstanding comic creations in modern fiction.   Roth’s fiction took a darker turn, questioning not only the causes of personal unhappiness but also the psychoanalytic terms by which it is addressed in modern culture.  The character who appears most frequently in Roth’s novels is the writer Nathan Zuckerman, through whom Roth can explore the problems of the writer as well as the tragicomic aspects of Jewish assimilation in the United States. A number of critics have identified Zuckerman as Roth’s alter ego (alternative personality).**

24. The rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet is : abab, cdcd, efef, gg

25. Using “the Bench” for the judiciary is an example of :

(A) metaphor (B) irony (C) Synecdoche (D) metonymy Read More about A to Z (Objective Questions)

26. A.S. Byatt in her famous award winning novel of 1990 contrasts past and present involving a search for a Victorian poet’s past illuminating a contemporary university researcher’s life and times. Which is the novel?

(A) The Virgin in the Garden

(B) Possession

(C) Babel Tower

(D) Still Life

** A.S. Byatt’s Possession was her breakthrough as a novelist. Its protagonists are two academics who become romantically involved during their research into a 19th-century love affair. The two love stories are compared and contrasted.  **

  Compiled and Solved by Ardhendu De

Ref: 1. History of English Literature- Albert     

        2. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature

        3. UGC NET OLD QUESTION PAPERS