December, 2021 MEG-05 : LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY
Note : Answer any five of the following questions in your own words as far as possible. Each question carries 20 marks.
1. Comment on Aristotle’s views on mythos and ethos in The Poetics.
2. How does Romanticism differ from Classicism of literary criticism ?
3. Discuss Cleanth Brook’s ideas on nature and the function of irony in poetry.
4. How do Marx and Engels interpret literature ? Give examples.
5. How does Simone de Beauvoir demonstrate bias against women as man’s “other” ? Give examples.
6. What are the main ideas of Barthes in “From Work to Text” ?
7. Write short notes on any two of the following : 10 each
(a) Alamkara
(b) Sphota
(c) Structuralism
(d) Reader response theory
(e) Mikhail Bakhtin
June, 2022 MEG-05 :
: Answer question no. 1 and any four of the remaining questions. Each question carries 20 marks.
1. Write short notes on any two of the following in around 200 words each :
(a) Plato (b) Sir Philip Sidney (c) Structuralism (d) Feminist Criticism (e) Sphota
2. Why do you think there was a tremendous insistence on emotional experience in classical aesthetics ? Discuss with reference to classical criticism.
3. ‘‘Every great poet is a teacher. I wish to be considered a teacher or as nothing.’’ Comment on Wordsworth’s ‘Preface’ to the Lyrical Ballads in the light of the quotation.
4. Assess John Crowe Ransom as a literary critic. 20 5. What does Roland Barthes mean by ‘the death of the author’ ? Do you agree with his views ? Provide reasons for your answer.
6. Discuss the role of superstructure in Marxist criticism. Do you think literature is an important part of the superstructure ?
7. Analyse the strengths and limitations of Woolf’s theory with reference to class or gender.
8. How are ‘lack’ and ‘desire’ closely connected in Lacan’s theory ?
Dec 2022:
1) Short Notes:
a)Roman Jackobson
b)Michel Foucault
c)Northrope Frye
d)Critical Theory
e)Dhvani
2) Attempt a critique of the role of dance in ancient Greek theatre.
3) What effect did the Romantic stress on individuality and spontaneity of expression have on their choice of poetc forms?
4) What do you understand by Intentional Fallacy?
5) Discuss the problems faced by feminist theories using Kamla Das’s An Introduction.
6) Analyse the limitations of deconstruction as amethod of critical inquiry
7) How do you think postmodernism differs from postmodernism?
8) Do you think Focualt’s views on discourse and power influences Said’s Orientalism?
June, 2023
Note : Answer any five of the following questions in approximately 500 words each and in your own words as far as possible. All questions carry equal marks.
1. Bring out Plato’s criticism of the role of artists in his concept of the Ideal State.
2. Discuss the position of imagination and emotions as opposed to rationality in Romantic poetry.
3. Identify some of the important principles of criticism according to I. A. Richards.
4. Bring out the Marxian concept of ‘purpose’ in Literature.
5. How does The Second Sex mark a shift in literary criticism ? Discuss.
6. Evaluate Derrida’s concept of Deconstruction and his resistance to it.
7. Write short notes on any two of the following :
(i) Aucitya
(ii) Sphota
(iii) Catharsis
(iv) Hamartia
(v) Primary and Secondary Imagination
December, 2023
Note : Answer any five of the following questions in approximately 500 words each in your own words as far as possible. All questions carry equal marks.
1. Discuss Plato’s hostility towards Poets and Dramatists.
2. Describe Coleridge’s idea of a good poet. Give examples.
3. Discuss the importance of I.A. Richards for the new critics.
4. To what extent is ideology central to literature, according to Marxist critics ?
5. Write briefly on the importance of Freud in a study of literature.
6. Critically analyse Elaine Showalter’s essay, ‘Feminine Criticism in the Wilderness’.
7. Write short notes on any two of the following :
(i) Mimesis
(ii) Stream of consciousness
(iii) Opsis and Aristotle
(iv) Dhvani
(v) Rasa
June, 2024
Question No. 1 is compulsory. Attempt any four of the remaining questions. Each question carries 20 marks.
1. Write short notes on any two of the following in around 200 words each :
(a) Literature as history
(b) Aristotle
(c) Marxism
(d) A Room of One’s Own
(e) Sruti in Indian Aesthetics
2. ‘To be instructive, Drama cannot be spectacular.’ Discuss with reference to Plato and Aristotle.
3. Assess Coleridge’s critique of Wordsworth’s theory of poetic diction. To what extent does the poet become different from the common man ?
4. Eliot emphasises the relationship between sound knowledge of history and good poetry. Discuss T. S. Eliot’s essay to illustrate.
5. Literature inevitably brings to surface the oppressive nature of structures like religion, family and the state. How important is the writer’s ideology in this context ?
6. Discuss some of the issues set out by feminist theories with reference to ‘An Introduction’ by Kamala Das.
7. Bring out the importance of Elaine Showalter’s critical model for understanding literature and society.
8. How is Orientalism an additional approach to the understanding of literature ? Trace its origin and applicability.
June, 2021
MEG-05 : LITERARY CRITICISM AND THEORY
Note : Answer any five of the following questions in your own words as far as possible.
1.Comment on Plato’s views on poetry.
2. Attempt a critique of Romanticism.
3. ‘‘Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.’’ Comment.
4. How do Marxists understand literature ? Support your points with suitable examples.
5. Assess the contribution of Mary Wollstonecraft to the emancipation of women.
6. Evaluate either Freud’s or Lacan’s contribution to the understanding of literature.
7. Write short notes on any two of the following :
(a) Rasa
(b) Aucitya
(c) Hamartia
(d) Death of the Author
(e) Matthew Arnold as a Critic
June, 2011
Question No. 1 is compulsory. Answer five questions
in all. All questions carry equal marks.
1. Write short notes of about 250 words each on
any four of the following :
(a) Concept of mimesis
(b) Sphota
(c) Objective correlative
(d) Postmodernism
(e) 'Feminist criticism in wilderness'
(f) Literature and ideology
5x4=20
2. Write a note on Catharsis in tragedy.
3. How does Coleridge deal with distinction between Fancy and Imagination ?
4. What are the common features of the critics associated with 'New criticism' ?
5. Evaluate gyno criticism against any one other critical mode.
6. Attempt a critical evaluation of the theory of structuralism.
7. Evaluate the salient features of post - colonialism. 20
8. Comment on the beginnings in new historicism in literary criticism.
December, 2011 Attempt question no. 1 and any four of the remaining
questions.
1. Explain any two of the following passages with
reference to their context supplying brief critical
comments where necessary. 10+10
(a) Now, God has produced only that one real
bed. The restriction to only one might have
been his own choice, or it might just be
impossible for him to make more than one.
But God never has, and never could, create
two or more such beds.
(b) Poets, according to the circumstances of the
age and nation in which they appeared,
were called, in the earlier epochs of the
world, legislators or prophets : a poet
essentially comprises and unites both these
characters.
(c) If this figure seems somewhat high flown.
Let us borrow an analogy from another
art : the poem is like a little drama. The
total effect proceeds from all the elements
in the drama, and in a good poem, as in a
good drama, there is, no waste emotion and
there are no superfluous parts.
(d) The first of these modes, righteous angry,
and admonitory, they compared to The Old
Testament, 'looking for the sins and errors
of the past'. The second mode, disinterested
and seeking 'the grace of imagination', they
compared to the New Testament. Both are
necessary, they concluded, for only the
jeremiahs of ideology can lead us out of the
'Egypt of female servitude' to the promised
land of humanism.
2. Comment upon Aristotle's views on 'mythos' and 'ethos' in Greek tragedy.
3. 'To generalise is to be an idiot. To particularise is the lone distinction of merit'. In the light of William
Blake's observation comment on the Romantic
epistemology.
4. What does Ransom mean when he advocates Criticism
5. How do Marx and Engels interpret literature ?
6. Analyse the components of Beauvoir's thesis to indicate (a) its strengths (b) its limitations.
7. Discuss the strengths and limitations of 20
deconstruction as a method of critical inquiry.
June, 2012 Answer question no. 1 and any four of the remaining
questions.
1. Explain any two of the following passages with
reference to their context supplying brief critical
comments where necessary :
(a) If, then, Tragedy is superior to Epic poetry
in all these respects, and, moreover, fulfils
its specific function better as an art - for each
art ought to produce not any chance
pleasure, but the pleasure proper to it, as
already stated-it plainly follows that tragedy
is the higher art, as attaining its end more
perfectly.
(b) The IMAGINATION then I consider either
as primary or secondary. The primary
IMAGINATION I hold to be the living
Power and prime Agent of all human perception and as a repetition in the finite
mind of the eternal act of creation in the
infinite I AM.
(c) Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation
are directed not upon the poet but upon
the poetry.
(d) The only teaching worthy of the name is
scholarly, not personal, analogies between
teaching and various aspects of show
business or guidance counselling are more
often than not excuses for having abdicated
the task.
2. What are the reasons for the artist to be kept away from the ideal state of plato ?
3. What roles do spontaneity, emotion and personality have in Wordsworth's theory of
poetry ?
4. What do you understand by 'The Affective Fallacy ' ?
5. Critically appraise the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels about class relations and class
ideology.
6. Examine Virginia Woolf's attitude to the canon i,e., ancestors in women's writings.
7. Present a deconstructive analysis of John Donne's 20
'The Cannonization'.
December, 2012
1. Write short notes of about 250 words each on any
four of the following. 5x4=20
(a) Catharsis
(b) Auchitya
(c) Superstructure
(d) 'Pleasure' and 'instruction' as ends of
literature
(e) Irony
(f) 'Second Sex'
2. What is the difference between Plato's approach and Aristotle's approach to 'imitation'?
3. Consider Wordsworth's 'Preface to Lyrical Ballads' as the manifesto of Romantic Literature.
4. Assess two of the seminal critical concepts formulated by T.S. Eliot.
5. Give reasons for Elaine Showalter's discontent with existing feminist criticism.
6. What is the process of 'deconstructing' a text ? Elaborate.
7. Show how literary criticism and theory have developed a materialistic dimension based on
Marxism.
8. Analyze the historical importance of Post-colonialism for the Third World.
June, 2013
1. Write short notes of about 250 words each on
any four of the following :
(a) Plot
(b) Alamkara
(c) Base
(d) Poetic diction
(e) Intentional fallacy
(f) Patriarchy
2. Write a critical note or 'mimesis' as the theory of representation in Classical criticism.
3. Compare the theories of imagination as presented by Shelley and Coleridge.
4. How does the New Criticism make use of the model of 'practical criticism' initiated by
I.A. Richards?
5. Draw out the ideologies set forth by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf as pioneer
feminists.
6. Examine the approaches of Structuralism and Deconstruction to the theory of sign-system.
7. Assess the impact of Marxism on subsequent literary/critical theories in the 20th century.
8. Trace the emergence of cultural studies with 20
reference to the theories of Edwards Said, Spivak
and Bhabha.
December, 2013
1. Write short notes (250 words each) on any four
of the following :
(a) theory
(b) immediagte context
(c) literature
(d) ideology
(e) poetic diction
(f) rasa
2. How does Aristotle meet plato's criticism of poets ?
3. Discuss the Romantic theory of art.
4. Evaluate Cleanth Brooks as a New Critic.
5. How does literature represent the social conditions and social structure ?
6. Explain the term gynocritic and give two examples.
7. Discuss deconstruction as a method of critical reading of a text.
8. In what ways does postmodernism differ from modernism ?
June, 2014
(a) Linguistic sign
(b) Gyno texts
(c) The communication chain
(d) Purgation
(e) Free play of signs
(f) Dhwani
2. Discuss tragic failing and explain how it leads to tragedy.
3. Evaluate P. B. Shelley as a romantic critic
4. What is meant by 'intentional fallacy? How would you respond to this concept of the
New Critics?
5. In what sense is literature a form of Propaganda?
6. Evaluate Virginia Woolf as a feminist critic.
7. How does Derrida analyse the concept of the sign to show that there can be no
determinacy in meaning?
8. Discuss lacan's main contribution to critical theory.
December, 2014
(a) Catharsis
(b) Myth
(c) Poetic diction
(d) Superstructure
(e) Individual talent
(f) Gender
2. For Plato, the term 'imitation' (mimesis) carries a
negative connotation : to imitate is to produce a
copy, a version that is less than the original.
Comment.
3. Discuss Coleridge's theory of 'Imagination'.
4. "Writers are unable to see the truth about their
societies because they are caught up in the 'false
consciousness' of ideology." Examine the
statement in the context of the Marxist view of
literature.
5. Write a critical note on "The Death of the
Author".
6. In placing woman as the 'other' of man, Simone
de Beauvoir critically examines the issue of
`alterity' in the context of women's identity.
Substantiate your answer with reference to
Beauvoir's The Second Sex.
7. "The general characteristics of reading in
post-colonial criticism is that a text is 'read back'
from the perspective of the colonized." Comment
critically on the statement.
8. Explain the concept of a structure and discuss
the notion of a stable centre.
June, 2015
(a) Ethos
(b) Hamartia
(c) Emotions recollected in tranquillity
(d) Objective correlative
(e) Mode of production
(f) Signifier
2. Discuss Aristotle's theory of tragedy and its
different elements.
3. In higher poetry, we look for "the wisdom of the
heart and the grandeur of the imagination".
Examine the statement in the context of
Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads.
4. Critically examine the role of ideology in litefary
production following the Marxist critical theory.
5. Evaluate Elain Showalter's `gynocriticism' and
its value in the context of feminist criticism.
6. What is 'deconstruction' ? Is 'deconstruction' an
effective tool for analysing a literary text ? Give a
reasoned answer.
7. Discuss critically the seminal issues that
Post-Colonial theory addresses.
8. Critically examine Wimsatt's concept of
"The Intentional Fallacy".
December, 2015
1. Explain briefly any three elements of Tragedy
according to Aristotle.
2. Elaborate the basic distinction between Fancy
and Imagination as brought out by Coleridge in
Biographia Literaria.
3. Comment briefly on any four obstacles to proper
response that I.A. Richards catalogues in
Practical Criticism.
4. Write a short essay showing how Marxism has
influenced many critics in the 20 the century.
Illustrate your answer with suitable examples.
5. Feminist theories do not give sufficient attention
to class conflict in society. Discuss.
6. Drama as a form lends itself well to the
deconstruction approach. Discuss with reference
to a drama text in your course.
7. Critically interpret Edward Said's concept of
Orientalism.
8. What according to Matthew Arnold is the
function of criticism ? Elucidate.
December, 2016
1. Write a critical note on Aristotle's concept of
tragedy.
2. Evaluate Wordsworth's 'Preface' to the Lyrical
Ballads (1800) as, an attack on the "inane
phraseology" of many 18thcentury writers.
3. The 'truth which the poet utters' according to
Cleanth Brooks, 'can be approached only in terms
of paradox'. Do you agree ? Supply reasons for
your answer.
4. Explain Marx's idea of dialectical materialism.
How does it help us in understanding literature ?
5. Assess Mary Wollstonecraft's contribution to
Women's rights and their education.
6. Comment on the implications of The Death of
the Author' by Roland Barthes.
7. How are 'lack' and 'desire' closely connected in
Lacan's theory ?
8. Write short notes on any two of the
following :
(a) Sruti
(b) Dhvani
(c) Mimesis
(d) Paradox
June, 2017
1. Discuss Aristotle's view of the plot in tragedy.
2. What role does Shelley assign to poets in the
nineteenth century ? Explain.
3. What according to John Crowe Ransom are the
"duties" of a critic ? Explain.
4. Explain with the help of suitable examples, the
Marxian concept of base and superstructure.
5. Evaluate Elaine Showalter's contribution to
feminist criticism.
6. What according to Barthes is the difference
between 'work' and 'text' ? Explain.
7. Briefly introduce two major post-colonial critics
and their contribution to our understanding of
literature.
8. Write short notes on any two of the
following
(a) Signifier
(b) Irony
(c) Alamkara
(d) Rasa
December, 2017
1. Why does Plato declare the role of the poet as
subversive ?
2. What does Wordsworth think of the distinction
between the language of prose and metrical
composition ?
3. Write short notes on any two of the
following :
(a) Tragic Hero
(b) Hamartia
(c) Sphota
(d) Alamkara
(e) Sruti
(f) Objective Correlative
4. Discuss the ideas expressed by Cleanth Brooks in
his essay "Irony as a Principle of Structure".
5. Write a critical note on the essentials of Marxist
literary theory OR Freudian psychoanalysis.
6. Comment on the significance of the title The
Second Sex.
7. Why does Derrida resist definitions ? Give
reasons for your answer.
8. What is Raymond Williams' contribution to
Cultural Studies ?
June, 2018
(a) On the Sublime
(b) Mikhail Bakhtin
(c) Deconstruction
(d) Resistance to Theory
(e) Rasa
2. Enumerate the six elements of tragedy according
to Aristotle and explain any two of them with
suitable examples.
3. Briefly outline Wordsworth's theory of poetic
diction with special reference to the 'Preface' to
the Lyrical Ballads.
4. Bring out the features of New Criticism.
5. Explain in your own words Marx's views of the
base — superstructure relationship. How does an
artist become conscious of it in his/her creations ?
6. State Roland Barthes' ideas on 'work' and 'text'
in his essay 'From Work to Text'.
7. What are the major concerns of postcolonial
theorists ?
December, 2018
(a) Signifier and Signified
(b) Apology for Poetry
(c) Structuralism
(d) Russian Formalists
(e) Dhvani
2. Discuss 'mimesis' in the light of Plato and
Aristotle's postulations.
3. Romantics assert that "imagination transcends
reason". Discuss.
4. Evaluate I.A. Richards's contribution to literary
criticism.
5. Discuss the major concerns of feminist theory.
6. Examine how Waiting for Godot problematizes
the meaninglessness of life.
7. Attempt a critique of Midnight's Children as a
postmodernist text.
June, 2019
1. Explain how Aristotle argues in favour of "drama as a larger and higher form of art".
2. Give an account of Sphota theory as explained by Sanskrit theoreticians.
3. Critically examine Wordsworth's view that "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings".
4. What according to John Crowe Ransom is the role of the literary critic in the modern world ?
Explain.
5. Attempt a short essay on the relation between literature and ideology.
6. 'From the tyranny of man... the greater number of female follies proceed.' In the light of this
statement evaluate Mary Wollstonecraft's
thoughts on women.
7. How does Roland Barthes differentiate a 'Work' from a 'Text' ? Explain in your own words.
8. What are Foucault's views on discourse and power ?
December, 2019
Explain how Plato views art as twice removed
from reality.
2. Attempt a critique of 'Rasa' as understood in
ancient Indian literature.
3. Critically examine S.T. Coleridge's views on the
esemplastic power of the poetic imagination.
4. 'New criticism' emphasizes the text, not the
background. Comment.
5. What is superstructure in Marxist criticism ?
Provide examples of superstructures. How do
they function ?
6. Evaluate Elaine Showalter's contribution to
feminist criticism.
7. Analyse John Donne's The Canonization' with
the tools of 'Deconstruction'.
8. What does Spivak mean by `Subalternity' ?
Explain with examples.
June, 2020
(a) Structuralism
(b) Poetry as inspiration
(c) Fancy and Imagination
(d) Simone De Beauvoir
2. Literary criticism has a social function. Discuss.
3. Explain in your own words Aristotle's theory of
mimesis.
4. Briefly explain 'The intentional fallacy' and
`The affective fallacy'.
5. What is meant by 'superstructure' in Marxist
Theory ? How would you interpret it ?
6. What is meant by the death of the author in
critical theory ?
7. Attempt a critique of post-colonial theory with
special reference to Said, Spivak and Bhabha.
December, 2020
(a) Hamartia
(b) Poetic diction
(c) Objective correlative
(d) Orientalism
2. Compare and contrast in your own words Plato
and Aristotle as literary theorists.
3. Present in your own words the Romantic theory
of knowledge.
4. What does T. S. Eliot mean by ‘The dissociation
of sensibility’ ?
5. Discuss Elaine Showalter’s feminist concerns in
literature.
6. How is deconstructive reading of a poem
different from a structuralist reading of it ?
7. What is meant by postmodernism ? Discuss
with reference to Lyotard.
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