100 Literary Criticism MCQs for UGC NET English with Detailed Explanations
Most Important Practice Set
Introduction
Preparing for the UGC NET English examination requires a strong understanding of Literary Criticism and Theory. Questions from criticism frequently appear in Paper II, covering major critics, theories, schools of thought, and important literary texts.
This comprehensive practice set includes 100 multiple-choice questions with answers and explanations designed especially for UGC NET English aspirants. These questions cover:
- Classical Criticism
- Neo-classicism
- Romantic Criticism
- Modern Criticism
- Structuralism & Post-Structuralism
- Feminism
- Marxism
- Psychoanalysis
- Postcolonial Theory
- Reader-Response Theory
- New Criticism
- Cultural Studies
Use this set for revision, mock practice, and conceptual clarity.
Literary Criticism MCQs for UGC NET English
1. Who wrote The Poetics?
a) Plato
b) Aristotle
c) Longinus
d) Horace
Answer:
b) Aristotle
Explanation:
Poetics was written by Aristotle and is considered the foundation of Western literary criticism.
2. According to Aristotle, tragedy should evoke:
a) Irony and satire
b) Catharsis
c) Alienation
d) Ambiguity
Answer:
b) Catharsis
Explanation:
Aristotle believed tragedy purges emotions of pity and fear through catharsis.
3. Who proposed the theory of “mimesis”?
a) T.S. Eliot
b) Plato
c) Derrida
d) Arnold
Answer:
b) Plato
Explanation:
Plato described literature as imitation or “mimesis.”
4. “Sweetness and Light” is associated with:
a) I.A. Richards
b) Matthew Arnold
c) Cleanth Brooks
d) F.R. Leavis
Answer:
b) Matthew Arnold
Explanation:
Matthew Arnold used the phrase to describe ideal culture and refinement.
5. Who wrote The Defence of Poesy?
a) Sidney
b) Dryden
c) Johnson
d) Coleridge
Answer:
a) Sidney
Explanation:
The Defence of Poesy is an important Renaissance critical work by Philip Sidney.
6. “Negative Capability” was coined by:
a) Keats
b) Shelley
c) Coleridge
d) Wordsworth
Answer:
a) Keats
Explanation:
John Keats introduced the idea of accepting uncertainty and mystery.
7. Who introduced the concept of “Objective Correlative”?
a) Eliot
b) Richards
c) Empson
d) Frye
Answer:
a) Eliot
Explanation:
T. S. Eliot stated that emotions in art should be conveyed through objective situations or symbols.
8. “Dissociation of Sensibility” is related to:
a) Arnold
b) Eliot
c) Leavis
d) Coleridge
Answer:
b) Eliot
Explanation:
Eliot argued that thought and feeling became separated after the metaphysical poets.
9. Who wrote Practical Criticism?
a) I.A. Richards
b) Eliot
c) Brooks
d) Frye
Answer:
a) I.A. Richards
Explanation:
Practical Criticism introduced close textual analysis.
10. “Intentional Fallacy” is associated with:
a) Structuralism
b) Reader-response theory
c) New Criticism
d) Marxism
Answer:
c) New Criticism
Explanation:
New Critics argued that authorial intention should not determine meaning.
11. Who wrote Anatomy of Criticism?
a) Frye
b) Brooks
c) Leavis
d) Barthes
Answer:
a) Frye
Explanation:
Anatomy of Criticism was written by Northrop Frye.
12. “The Death of the Author” was proposed by:
a) Barthes
b) Foucault
c) Derrida
d) Lacan
Answer:
a) Barthes
Explanation:
Roland Barthes argued that readers create meaning independently of the author.
13. Structuralism is primarily influenced by:
a) Linguistics
b) Psychology
c) Sociology
d) Anthropology
Answer:
a) Linguistics
Explanation:
Structuralism developed from linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure.
14. Who developed Deconstruction?
a) Derrida
b) Lacan
c) Foucault
d) Althusser
Answer:
a) Derrida
Explanation:
Jacques Derrida introduced Deconstruction to challenge fixed meanings.
15. “There is nothing outside the text” is associated with:
a) Barthes
b) Derrida
c) Eliot
d) Leavis
Answer:
b) Derrida
Explanation:
Derrida emphasized textual instability and interpretive multiplicity.
Feminist Criticism MCQs
16. Who wrote A Room of One’s Own?
a) Elaine Showalter
b) Virginia Woolf
c) Simone de Beauvoir
d) Judith Butler
Answer:
b) Virginia Woolf
Explanation:
A Room of One's Own argues for women’s intellectual freedom.
17. “The Second Sex” was written by:
a) Woolf
b) Kristeva
c) Beauvoir
d) Cixous
Answer:
c) Beauvoir
Explanation:
The Second Sex is a foundational feminist text.
18. Gynocriticism is associated with:
a) Showalter
b) Millett
c) Butler
d) Spivak
Answer:
a) Showalter
Explanation:
Elaine Showalter proposed gynocriticism focusing on women writers.
19. “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” was said by:
a) Woolf
b) Butler
c) Beauvoir
d) Kristeva
Answer:
c) Beauvoir
Explanation:
This statement highlights gender as a social construct.
20. Who wrote Sexual Politics?
a) Millett
b) Woolf
c) Butler
d) Moi
Answer:
a) Millett
Explanation:
Sexual Politics critiques patriarchy in literature.
Marxist Criticism MCQs
21. Marxist criticism is based on the ideas of:
a) Freud
b) Marx
c) Saussure
d) Lacan
Answer:
b) Marx
Explanation:
Karl Marx emphasized class struggle and material conditions.
22. “Base and Superstructure” belongs to:
a) Feminism
b) Marxism
c) Structuralism
d) Psychoanalysis
Answer:
b) Marxism
Explanation:
Economic base shapes ideological superstructure.
23. Who wrote The German Ideology?
a) Marx and Engels
b) Lenin and Trotsky
c) Althusser and Gramsci
d) Lukács and Adorno
Answer:
a) Marx and Engels
Explanation:
The German Ideology outlines historical materialism.
24. “Hegemony” is associated with:
a) Gramsci
b) Lukács
c) Lenin
d) Eagleton
Answer:
a) Gramsci
Explanation:
Antonio Gramsci explained cultural dominance through hegemony.
25. Who wrote Marxism and Literary Criticism?
a) Eagleton
b) Althusser
c) Jameson
d) Williams
Answer:
a) Eagleton
Explanation:
Marxism and Literary Criticism is a major introduction to Marxist literary theory.
Psychoanalytic Criticism MCQs
26. Psychoanalytic criticism originates from:
a) Freud
b) Jung
c) Lacan
d) Adler
Answer:
a) Freud
Explanation:
Sigmund Freud introduced psychoanalysis.
27. “Oedipus Complex” was proposed by:
a) Jung
b) Lacan
c) Freud
d) Adler
Answer:
c) Freud
Explanation:
Freud used the concept to explain unconscious desires.
28. Lacan linked the unconscious with:
a) Myth
b) Language
c) Politics
d) History
Answer:
b) Language
Explanation:
Jacques Lacan said the unconscious is structured like language.
29. “Id, Ego, Superego” belongs to:
a) Jungian theory
b) Structuralism
c) Freudian theory
d) Reader-response theory
Answer:
c) Freudian theory
Explanation:
These are Freud’s three models of the psyche.
30. Archetypal criticism is associated with:
a) Frye
b) Jung
c) Richards
d) Brooks
Answer:
b) Jung
Explanation:
Carl Jung introduced collective unconscious and archetypes.
Postcolonial Criticism MCQs
31. Who wrote Orientalism?
a) Said
b) Spivak
c) Bhabha
d) Fanon
Answer:
a) Said
Explanation:
Orientalism critiques Western representations of the East.
32. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” was written by:
a) Said
b) Bhabha
c) Spivak
d) Fanon
Answer:
c) Spivak
Explanation:
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak questioned marginalized representation.
33. Hybridity is associated with:
a) Bhabha
b) Said
c) Fanon
d) Cesaire
Answer:
a) Bhabha
Explanation:
Homi K. Bhabha introduced hybridity in colonial discourse.
34. “Black Skin, White Masks” was written by:
a) Fanon
b) Said
c) Spivak
d) Achebe
Answer:
a) Fanon
Explanation:
Black Skin, White Masks examines colonial psychology.
35. Postcolonial criticism mainly studies:
a) Mythology
b) Colonial power relations
c) Meter
d) Grammar
Answer:
b) Colonial power relations
Explanation:
It studies empire, identity, race, and representation.
Reader-Response Theory MCQs
36. Reader-response theory focuses on:
a) Author
b) Historical context
c) Reader
d) Structure
Answer:
c) Reader
Explanation:
Meaning is created through the reader’s interpretation.
37. “Implied Reader” is associated with:
a) Iser
b) Fish
c) Jauss
d) Booth
Answer:
a) Iser
Explanation:
Wolfgang Iser proposed the implied reader concept.
38. Stanley Fish is known for:
a) Archetypes
b) Interpretive communities
c) Dialogism
d) Hegemony
Answer:
b) Interpretive communities
Explanation:
Stanley Fish argued meaning depends on interpretive communities.
39. Reception theory is associated with:
a) Jauss
b) Frye
c) Brooks
d) Derrida
Answer:
a) Jauss
Explanation:
Hans Robert Jauss emphasized readers’ historical horizons.
40. Reader-response criticism emerged strongly in:
a) 18th century
b) 19th century
c) 20th century
d) Renaissance
Answer:
c) 20th century
Explanation:
It became influential during modern literary theory movements.
New Criticism MCQs
41. New Criticism emphasizes:
a) Biography
b) Close reading
c) Politics
d) Sociology
Answer:
b) Close reading
Explanation:
Textual analysis without external context is central to New Criticism.
42. “Heresy of Paraphrase” belongs to:
a) Brooks
b) Eliot
c) Richards
d) Frye
Answer:
a) Brooks
Explanation:
Cleanth Brooks argued poetry cannot be reduced to paraphrase.
43. Who wrote The Well Wrought Urn?
a) Brooks
b) Richards
c) Leavis
d) Empson
Answer:
a) Brooks
44. Seven types of ambiguity were proposed by:
a) Empson
b) Eliot
c) Frye
d) Richards
Answer:
a) Empson
Explanation:
Seven Types of Ambiguity explores multiple meanings in poetry.
45. F.R. Leavis founded:
a) Scrutiny
b) Transition
c) Blast
d) Criterion
Answer:
a) Scrutiny
Explanation:
F. R. Leavis edited the influential journal Scrutiny.
Structuralism & Post-Structuralism MCQs
46. Signifier and signified were proposed by:
a) Saussure
b) Barthes
c) Derrida
d) Lacan
Answer:
a) Saussure
47. Binary oppositions are central to:
a) Structuralism
b) Marxism
c) Feminism
d) Ecocriticism
Answer:
a) Structuralism
48. “Différance” is a concept by:
a) Barthes
b) Derrida
c) Foucault
d) Kristeva
Answer:
b) Derrida
49. Michel Foucault studied:
a) Power and discourse
b) Meter
c) Catharsis
d) Archetypes
Answer:
a) Power and discourse
50. Roland Barthes distinguished between:
a) Text and context
b) Readerly and writerly texts
c) Epic and tragedy
d) Poetry and prose
Answer:
b) Readerly and writerly texts
51. Who wrote Tradition and the Individual Talent?
a) Matthew Arnold
b) T.S. Eliot
c) I.A. Richards
d) Coleridge
Answer:
b) T.S. Eliot
Explanation:
Tradition and the Individual Talent emphasizes the relationship between individual creativity and literary tradition.
52. “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” was said by:
a) Shelley
b) Keats
c) Wordsworth
d) Coleridge
Answer:
c) Wordsworth
Explanation:
William Wordsworth defined poetry this way in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.
53. “Willing suspension of disbelief” was coined by:
a) Keats
b) Coleridge
c) Arnold
d) Eliot
Answer:
b) Coleridge
Explanation:
Samuel Taylor Coleridge used the phrase to describe readers accepting imaginative fiction temporarily.
54. Longinus wrote:
a) The Republic
b) On the Sublime
c) Poetics
d) Ars Poetica
Answer:
b) On the Sublime
Explanation:
On the Sublime discusses greatness and emotional elevation in literature.
55. Horace emphasized:
a) Catharsis
b) Alienation
c) Delight and instruction
d) Defamiliarization
Answer:
c) Delight and instruction
Explanation:
Horace believed literature should both entertain and educate.
56. Russian Formalism focused on:
a) History
b) Literariness
c) Feminism
d) Psychoanalysis
Answer:
b) Literariness
Explanation:
Russian Formalists studied what makes a text specifically literary.
57. Viktor Shklovsky proposed:
a) Hybridity
b) Dialogism
c) Defamiliarization
d) Archetypes
Answer:
c) Defamiliarization
Explanation:
Viktor Shklovsky argued literature makes familiar things appear strange.
58. Bakhtin is associated with:
a) Deconstruction
b) Dialogism
c) Structuralism
d) Ecocriticism
Answer:
b) Dialogism
Explanation:
Mikhail Bakhtin emphasized multiple voices and perspectives in texts.
59. Ecocriticism studies:
a) Mythology
b) Environment in literature
c) Psychoanalysis
d) Narratology
Answer:
b) Environment in literature
Explanation:
Ecocriticism examines the relationship between literature and nature/environment.
60. Queer theory questions:
a) Religious beliefs
b) Fixed gender identities
c) Economic systems
d) Linguistic signs
Answer:
b) Fixed gender identities
Explanation:
Queer theory challenges rigid definitions of gender and sexuality.
61. Julia Kristeva proposed:
a) Hybridity
b) Intertextuality
c) Deconstruction
d) Ambiguity
Answer:
b) Intertextuality
Explanation:
Julia Kristeva suggested texts are interconnected with other texts.
62. Louis Althusser introduced:
a) Ideological State Apparatuses
b) Catharsis
c) Objective correlative
d) Gynocriticism
Answer:
a) Ideological State Apparatuses
Explanation:
Louis Althusser explained how institutions spread ideology.
63. Raymond Williams is associated with:
a) New Criticism
b) Cultural Materialism
c) Reader-response theory
d) Structuralism
Answer:
b) Cultural Materialism
Explanation:
Raymond Williams connected literature with culture and society.
64. New Historicism is linked with:
a) Greenblatt
b) Brooks
c) Fish
d) Empson
Answer:
a) Greenblatt
Explanation:
Stephen Greenblatt pioneered New Historicism.
65. Harold Bloom proposed:
a) Hybridity
b) Anxiety of Influence
c) Différance
d) Semiotics
Answer:
b) Anxiety of Influence
Explanation:
Harold Bloom discussed poets’ struggle with predecessors.
66. Who wrote The Mirror and the Lamp?
a) Abrams
b) Frye
c) Eliot
d) Arnold
Answer:
a) Abrams
Explanation:
The Mirror and the Lamp studies Romantic literary theory.
67. “Touchstone Method” belongs to:
a) Eliot
b) Arnold
c) Richards
d) Brooks
Answer:
b) Arnold
Explanation:
Matthew Arnold suggested comparing works with great literary passages called touchstones.
68. Aristotle considered epic ______ tragedy.
a) superior to
b) inferior to
c) equal to
d) unrelated to
Answer:
b) inferior to
Explanation:
Aristotle regarded tragedy as more unified and artistically superior.
69. Plato banished poets from:
a) Athens
b) Ideal Republic
c) Academy
d) Sparta
Answer:
b) Ideal Republic
Explanation:
In The Republic, Plato criticized poetry for misleading people.
70. “Objective criticism” is linked with:
a) Frye
b) Eliot
c) Arnold
d) Leavis
Answer:
a) Frye
Explanation:
Northrop Frye aimed for a systematic and objective approach to criticism.
71. Semiotics studies:
a) Dreams
b) Signs
c) Gender
d) Myths
Answer:
b) Signs
Explanation:
Semiotics analyzes sign systems and meaning-making processes.
72. Who wrote Mythologies?
a) Derrida
b) Barthes
c) Lacan
d) Foucault
Answer:
b) Barthes
Explanation:
Mythologies analyzes cultural myths in modern society.
73. Lacan’s “Mirror Stage” refers to:
a) Literary realism
b) Formation of self-identity
c) Narrative technique
d) Historical consciousness
Answer:
b) Formation of self-identity
Explanation:
Lacan explained how infants recognize themselves through mirror identification.
74. Feminist criticism opposes:
a) Colonialism
b) Patriarchy
c) Capitalism
d) Feudalism
Answer:
b) Patriarchy
Explanation:
Feminist criticism challenges male dominance and gender inequality.
75. Edward Said criticized:
a) Existentialism
b) Eurocentrism
c) Realism
d) Formalism
Answer:
b) Eurocentrism
Explanation:
Edward Said criticized Western stereotypes about the East.
76. “Death of Metanarratives” belongs to:
a) Lyotard
b) Derrida
c) Barthes
d) Kristeva
Answer:
a) Lyotard
Explanation:
Jean-Francois Lyotard described postmodern skepticism toward grand narratives.
77. Postmodernism values:
a) Unity
b) Fragmentation
c) Stability
d) Certainty
Answer:
b) Fragmentation
Explanation:
Postmodernism embraces multiplicity, discontinuity, and uncertainty.
78. Terry Eagleton is primarily a:
a) Feminist critic
b) Marxist critic
c) Structuralist
d) Psychoanalyst
Answer:
b) Marxist critic
Explanation:
Terry Eagleton is known for Marxist literary criticism.
79. Cleanth Brooks belongs to:
a) Structuralism
b) Feminism
c) New Criticism
d) Postcolonialism
Answer:
c) New Criticism
Explanation:
Brooks emphasized close reading and textual unity.
80. Archetypal criticism studies:
a) Universal symbols
b) Historical facts
c) Political ideology
d) Narrative voice
Answer:
a) Universal symbols
Explanation:
Archetypal criticism examines recurring myths and symbols.
81. The Chicago School is known for:
a) Deconstruction
b) Neo-Aristotelian criticism
c) Reader-response theory
d) Psychoanalysis
Answer:
b) Neo-Aristotelian criticism
Explanation:
The Chicago School revived Aristotelian critical principles.
82. Deconstruction rejects:
a) Language
b) Fixed meaning
c) Literature
d) Interpretation
Answer:
b) Fixed meaning
Explanation:
Deconstruction emphasizes instability and multiple meanings.
83. Freud emphasized:
a) Rationality
b) Unconscious mind
c) Social class
d) Mythology
Answer:
b) Unconscious mind
Explanation:
Freud believed unconscious desires shape human behavior.
84. Who wrote Culture and Anarchy?
a) Arnold
b) Eliot
c) Richards
d) Leavis
Answer:
a) Arnold
Explanation:
Culture and Anarchy discusses culture and society.
85. “Affective Fallacy” belongs to:
a) Structuralism
b) New Criticism
c) Marxism
d) Feminism
Answer:
b) New Criticism
Explanation:
New Critics rejected judging literature solely by emotional response.
86. Reader-response criticism rejects:
a) Multiple meanings
b) Single fixed meaning
c) Reader participation
d) Interpretation
Answer:
b) Single fixed meaning
Explanation:
Meaning changes according to readers and contexts.
87. New Historicism combines literature with:
a) Biology
b) History
c) Psychology
d) Linguistics
Answer:
b) History
Explanation:
It studies literature within historical and cultural contexts.
88. The term “logos” means:
a) Poetry
b) Reason/word
c) Myth
d) Drama
Answer:
b) Reason/word
Explanation:
In Greek philosophy, “logos” refers to reason or discourse.
89. Saussure divided language into:
a) Speech and writing
b) Langue and parole
c) Syntax and semantics
d) Sign and symbol
Answer:
b) Langue and parole
Explanation:
Langue refers to the language system, while parole means actual speech.
90. Who wrote Of Grammatology?
a) Derrida
b) Barthes
c) Lacan
d) Foucault
Answer:
a) Derrida
Explanation:
Of Grammatology is a foundational text of deconstruction.
91. “The Madwoman in the Attic” was written by:
a) Gilbert and Gubar
b) Woolf and Beauvoir
c) Butler and Kristeva
d) Spivak and Cixous
Answer:
a) Gilbert and Gubar
Explanation:
The Madwoman in the Attic studies women writers in literature.
92. Who introduced “stream of consciousness” as a psychological concept?
a) Freud
b) Jung
c) William James
d) Lacan
Answer:
c) William James
Explanation:
William James coined the term in psychology.
93. “Carnivalesque” belongs to:
a) Bakhtin
b) Barthes
c) Frye
d) Leavis
Answer:
a) Bakhtin
Explanation:
Bakhtin used the concept to describe subversive festive culture.
94. Which theory studies class conflict?
a) Feminism
b) Structuralism
c) Marxism
d) Formalism
Answer:
c) Marxism
Explanation:
Marxist criticism examines economic and class relations.
95. “The anxiety of influence” concerns:
a) Colonial power
b) Poets struggling with predecessors
c) Gender identity
d) Reader interpretation
Answer:
b) Poets struggling with predecessors
Explanation:
Bloom argued strong poets compete with earlier writers.
96. The Yale School is associated with:
a) Feminism
b) Deconstruction
c) Marxism
d) Ecocriticism
Answer:
b) Deconstruction
Explanation:
The Yale School popularized deconstruction in America.
97. “Against Interpretation” was written by:
a) Sontag
b) Kristeva
c) Butler
d) Spivak
Answer:
a) Sontag
Explanation:
Against Interpretation criticizes excessive interpretation.
98. Post-structuralism questions:
a) Stable structures
b) Poetry
c) Metaphor
d) History
Answer:
a) Stable structures
Explanation:
Post-structuralists reject absolute certainty and stable meaning.
99. “Textuality” is emphasized in:
a) Post-structuralism
b) Romanticism
c) Classicism
d) Realism
Answer:
a) Post-structuralism
Explanation:
Texts are seen as open-ended and endlessly interpretable.
100. Literary criticism mainly aims to:
a) Destroy literature
b) Interpret and evaluate literature
c) Ignore meaning
d) Simplify grammar
Answer:
b) Interpret and evaluate literature
Explanation:
Literary criticism deepens understanding and appreciation of literary works.
- New Criticism
- Feminism
- Postcolonialism
- Structuralism
- Marxism
- Psychoanalysis
- Key concepts
- Important quotations
- Major theorists
- Literary movements
