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MA English Literature Literary Theory — practice questions

Explore 31 free Literary Theory questions in MA English Literature English Literature. Open each question or exercise to read its content, reference answers and available explanation.

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Literary Theory questions and exercises with answers

Showing questions 1–30 of 31.

Postmodernism in literature is typically distinguished from High Modernism by:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle defines tragedy as an imitation of an action that is:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle says tragedy uses language 'embellished with each kind of':Read the answer and worked solution →In Aristotle, tragedy effects 'the proper purgation of':Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's six parts of tragedy are:Read the answer and worked solution →In Aristotle's hierarchy, the FIRST and most important element of tragedy is:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle ranks Character in Aristotle's six parts as:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's term for the tragic hero's error or frailty is:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's ideal tragic protagonist is a man who is:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's principle that a plot 'must imitate one action and that a whole' names which classical 'unity'?Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle defines 'Reversal of the Situation' (peripeteia) as:Read the answer and worked solution →'Recognition' (anagnorisis), per Aristotle, is:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle says the BEST form of Recognition occurs:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle treats Plot's role in tragedy by analogy as:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's emotions of catharsis (pity and fear) are aroused by:Read the answer and worked solution →Unity of action, in Aristotle, concerns:Read the answer and worked solution →New Criticism advocates close reading focused on:Read the answer and worked solution →Structuralism analyses literary works as systems of:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's six parts of tragedy include Diction, Thought, Spectacle, and which other paired components?Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's distinction between vice/depravity and hamartia matters because:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's 'Poetics' defines which genre?Read the answer and worked solution →Tragedy effects the purgation of pity and:Read the answer and worked solution →'Hamartia' means:Read the answer and worked solution →'Peripeteia' means:Read the answer and worked solution →'Anagnorisis' means:Read the answer and worked solution →Aristotle's six parts of tragedy include all EXCEPT:Read the answer and worked solution →Russian Formalism is associated with the concept of:Read the answer and worked solution →Edward Said's 'Orientalism' belongs to which school?Read the answer and worked solution →New Criticism advocates:Read the answer and worked solution →Reader-Response criticism locates meaning in the act of:Read the answer and worked solution →

Worked practice questions

Postmodernism in literature is typically distinguished from High Modernism by:

  1. Religious orthodoxy
  2. Playful self-reference and unstable narrative authority
  3. Neo-classical decorum
  4. Strict allegorical structure
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Correct answer: B. Playful self-reference and unstable narrative authority

1. Postmodernism extends Modernist fragmentation into self-aware textual play. 2. It tends to dissolve the totalising ambition of High Modernism. 3. The Modern + Postmodern bucket presupposes this critical distinction. _Source: Coverage brief — Modernist canon — "Modern + Postmodern (literary period)"_

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Aristotle defines tragedy as an imitation of an action that is:

  1. Light, partial, and of any magnitude
  2. Serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude
  3. Comic and brief
  4. Pastoral and private
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Correct answer: B. Serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude

1. This is Aristotle's canonical definition of tragedy. 2. 'Serious' distinguishes tragedy from comedy. 3. 'Magnitude' marks the action's structural completeness. _Source: Project Gutenberg #1974 — Aristotle's Poetics — "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude"_

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Aristotle says tragedy uses language 'embellished with each kind of':

  1. Political slogan
  2. Religious doctrine
  3. Artistic ornament
  4. Vernacular slang
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Correct answer: C. Artistic ornament

1. The text uses 'artistic ornament' for the diction-music-spectacle apparatus. 2. The phrase covers metre, song, and figurative embellishment. 3. It signals that tragedy is a composite art form. _Source: Project Gutenberg #1974 — Aristotle's Poetics — "in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament"_

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More English Literature topics

ShakespeareIndian English LiteratureAmerican LiteratureTagoreModernismWhitmanLiterary HistoryWordsworth's Preface