MEG 5 Block-wise important questions

Block-1 An Introduction

1. Give an account of Sphota theory as explained by Sanskrit theoreticians. 

2. Attempt a critique of 'Rasa' as understood in ancient Indian literature. 

3. Short Notes.

Block-2 Classical Criticism

1. Comment on Plato’s views on poetry.

2. Why does Plato declare the role of the poet as subversive ? 

3. What are the reasons for the artist to be kept away from the ideal state of plato ? 

4. How does Aristotle meet plato's criticism of poets ? 

5. What is the difference between Plato's approach and Aristotle's approach to 'imitation'?

6. 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. 

7. Explain how Plato views art as twice removed from reality. 

8. Compare and contrast in your own words Plato and Aristotle as literary theorists.

9. Enumerate the six elements of tragedy according to Aristotle and explain any two of them with suitable examples. 

10. Comment upon Aristotle's views on 'mythos' and 'ethos' in Greek tragedy. 

11. Discuss Aristotle's theory of tragedy and its different elements. 

12.  Explain briefly any three elements of Tragedy according to Aristotle. 

13. Write a critical note on Aristotle's concept of tragedy. 

14. Explain how Aristotle argues in favour of "drama as a larger and higher form of art". 

15. Explain in your own words Aristotle's theory of mimesis.

16. Discuss Aristotle's view of the plot in tragedy.  

17. Write a critical note or 'mimesis' as the theory of representation in Classical criticism. 

18. Write a note on Catharsis in tragedy.

19. Discuss 'mimesis' in the light of Plato and Aristotle's postulations. 

20. Discuss tragic failing and explain how it leads to tragedy. 

Block-3 Romantic Criticism

1. Attempt a critique of Romanticism.

2. 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 Romantic epistemology.

3. What roles do spontaneity, emotion and personality have in Wordsworth's theory of poetry ? 

4. Consider Wordsworth's 'Preface to Lyrical Ballads' as the manifesto of Romantic Literature. 

5. Discuss Coleridge's theory of 'Imagination'. 

6. Evaluate Wordsworth's 'Preface' to the Lyrical Ballads (1800) as, an attack on the "inane phraseology" of many 18thcentury writers. 

7. What does Wordsworth think of the distinction between the language of prose and metrical composition ?

8.  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. 

9. Briefly outline Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction with special reference to the 'Preface' to the Lyrical Ballads. 

10. Critically examine Wordsworth's view that "all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings".

11. Evaluate P. B. Shelley as a romantic critic 

12. What role does Shelley assign to poets in the nineteenth century ? Explain. 

13. Romantics assert that "imagination transcends reason". Discuss

14. Present in your own words the Romantic theory of knowledge. 

15. Critically examine S.T. Coleridge's views on the esemplastic power of the poetic imagination

16. Compare the theories of imagination as presented by Shelley and Coleridge. 

17. Discuss the Romantic theory of art. 

18. How does Coleridge deal with distinction between Fancy and Imagination ? 

19.  Elaborate the basic distinction between Fancy and Imagination as brought out by Coleridge in Biographia Literaria. 

 

Block-4 New Criticism

1. What are the common features of the critics associated with 'New criticism' ?

2. Bring out the features of New Criticism.  

3. New criticism' emphasizes the text, not the background. Comment. 

4. How does the New Criticism make use of the model of 'practical criticism' initiated by I.A. Richards? 

5. Comment on the beginnings in new historicism in literary criticism.

6. Evaluate Cleanth Brooks as a New Critic.

7. What is meant by 'intentional fallacy? How would you respond to this concept of the New Critics? Critically examine Wimsatt's concept of "The Intentional Fallacy".

8. What do you understand by 'The Affective Fallacy ' ? (W.K wimsatt)

9.  Briefly explain 'The intentional fallacy' and `The affective fallacy'. 

10. What does Ransom mean when he advocates Criticism.

11. What according to John Crowe Ransom is the role of the literary critic in the modern world ? Explain. 

12. Assess two of the seminal critical concepts formulated by T.S. Eliot. 

13. What does T. S. Eliot mean by ‘The dissociation of sensibility’ ? 

14. Comment briefly on any four obstacles to proper response that I.A. Richards catalogues in Practical Criticism.

15. Evaluate I.A. Richards's contribution to literary criticism. 

16. What according to Matthew Arnold is the function of criticism ? Elucidate. 

17. . 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. 

18. What according to John Crowe Ransom are the "duties" of a critic ? Explain.

19. Discuss the ideas expressed by Cleanth Brooks in his essay "Irony as a Principle of Structure". 

Block-5 Marxist View of Literature

1. How do Marxists understand literature ? Support your points with suitable examples.

2. Critically appraise the ideas of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels about class relations and class ideology. 

3. How do Marx and Engels interpret literature ? 

4. Assess the impact of Marxism on subsequent literary/critical theories in the 20th century. 

5. "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. 

6. Show how literary criticism and theory have developed a materialistic dimension based on Marxism. 

7.  Write a short essay showing how Marxism has influenced many critics in the 20 the century. Illustrate your answer with suitable examples. 

8. Explain Marx's idea of dialectical materialism. How does it help us in understanding literature ? 

9. Explain with the help of suitable examples, the Marxian concept of base and superstructure.

10. Critically examine the role of ideology in literary production following the Marxist critical theory.  

11. 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 ? 

12. What is superstructure in Marxist criticism ? Provide examples of superstructures. How do they function ?

13. What is meant by 'superstructure' in Marxist Theory ? How would you interpret it ? 

14. Write a critical note on the essentials of Marxist literary theory.

15. How does literature represent the social conditions and social structure ? 

16. In what sense is literature a form of Propaganda? 

17. Explain the concept of a structure and discuss the notion of a stable centre. 

18. Literary criticism has a social function. Discuss.

19. Attempt a short essay on the relation between  literature and ideology. 

Block-6 Feminist Theories

1. Examine Virginia Woolf's attitude to the canon i,e., ancestors in women's writings. 

2.  Evaluate Virginia Woolf as a feminist critic. 

3.  Assess the contribution of Mary Wollstonecraft to the emancipation of women.

4. Draw out the ideologies set forth by Mary Wollstonecraft and Virginia Woolf as pioneer feminists. 

5. '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.

6. Assess Mary Wollstonecraft's contribution to Women's rights and their education. 

7.  Evaluate Elain Showalter's `gynocriticism' and its value in the context of feminist criticism. 

8.  Feminist theories do not give sufficient attention to class conflict in society. Discuss.

9.  Evaluate Elaine Showalter's contribution to feminist criticism. 

10. Discuss the major concerns of feminist theory. 

11. Give reasons for Elaine Showalter's discontent with existing feminist criticism. 

12. Evaluate Elaine Showalter's contribution to feminist criticism. 

13. Discuss Elaine Showalter’s feminist concerns in literature. 

14. Evaluate gyno criticism against any one other critical mode. 

15. Explain the term gynocritic and give two examples. 

16. Analyse the components of Beauvoir's thesis to indicate (a) its strengths (b) its limitations. 

17.  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. 

18. Comment on the significance of the title The Second Sex.

Block-7 Deconstruction

1. Discuss the strengths and limitations of deconstruction as a method of critical inquiry. 

2.  Present a deconstructive analysis of John Donne's  'The Cannonization'. 

3. Discuss deconstruction as a method of critical reading of a text. 

4. What is the process of 'deconstructing' a text ? Elaborate. 

5.  What is 'deconstruction' ? Is 'deconstruction' an effective tool for analysing a literary text ? Give a reasoned answer. 

6. Analyse John Donne's The Canonization' with the tools of 'Deconstruction'. 

7. Drama as a form lends itself well to the deconstruction approach. Discuss with reference to a drama text in your course

8. Attempt a critical evaluation of the theory of structuralism. 

9.  Examine the approaches of Structuralism and Deconstruction to the theory of sign-system.

10. How does Derrida analyse the concept of the sign to show that there can be no determinacy in meaning? 

11. Why does Derrida resist definitions ? Give reasons for your answer. 

12. Examine how Waiting for Godot problematizes the meaninglessness of life. 

13. Unit 3- Write a critical note on "The Death of the Author".

14. Comment on the implications of The Death of the Author' by Roland Barthes. 

15. What according to Barthes is the difference between 'work' and 'text' ? Explain

16. State Roland Barthes' ideas on 'work' and 'text' in his essay 'From Work to Text'. 

17.  How does Roland Barthes differentiate a 'Work' from a 'Text' ? Explain in your own words. 

18. What is meant by the death of the author in critical theory ?

Block-8 Contemporary Literary theory

1.  Evaluate the salient features of post - colonialism. 

2. Analyze the historical importance of Post-colonialism for the Third World. 

3. 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. 

4. Attempt a critique of post-colonial theory with special reference to Said, Spivak and Bhabha.

5. Discuss critically the seminal issues that Post-Colonial theory addresses.

6. What are the major concerns of postcolonial theorists ? 

7. Briefly introduce two major post-colonial critics and their contribution to our understanding of literature. 

8. Evaluate either Freud’s or Lacan’s contribution to the understanding of literature. 

9. Trace the emergence of cultural studies with reference to the theories of Edwards Said, Spivak and Bhabha. 

10. Write a critical note on the essentials of Marxist literary theory OR Freudian psychoanalysis.

11. In what ways does postmodernism differ from modernism ? 

12. Discuss lacan's main contribution to critical theory

13. What are Foucault's views on discourse and power ? 

14. Critically interpret Edward Said's concept of Orientalism. 

15. How are 'lack' and 'desire' closely connected in Lacan's theory ? 

16. Attempt a critique of Midnight's Children as a postmodernist text.

17. What is Raymond Williams' contribution to Cultural Studies ?

18. What is meant by postmodernism ? Discuss with reference to Lyotard.

19.  What does Spivak mean by `Subalternity' ? Explain with examples. 

short notes:

1. Rasa-3

2. Aucitya - i

3. Hamartia-3

4. Death of the Author

5. Matthew Arnold as a Critic

6. Concept of mimesis -2

7. Sphot 

8. Objective correlative 

9. Postmodernism 

10. Feminist criticism in wilderness' 

11. Literature and ideology

12. Catharsis - i

13. Superstructure 

14. Pleasure' and 'instruction' as ends of literature 

15. Irony 

16. 'Second Sex' 

17. Plot 

18. Alamkara-3 

19. Base 

20. Poetic diction 

21. Intentional fallacy

22. Patriarchy 

23. theory 

24. immediate context 

25. literature 

26. ideology 

27. poetic diction 

28. Linguistic sign 

29. Gyno texts 

30. The communication chain 

31. Purgation 

32. Free play of signs 

33. Dhwani 

34. Myth 

35. Poetic diction 

36. Superstructure 

37. Individual talent 

38. Gender 

39. Ethos

40. Emotions recollected in tranquillity 

41. Objective correlative 

42. Mode of production 

43. Signifier 

44. Sruti-2

45. Dhvani-2

46. Paradox 

47. Signifier 

48. Irony 

49. Tragic Hero

50. Sphota

51. Objective Correlative 

52. On the Sublime 

53. Mikhail Bakhtin 

54. Deconstruction 

55. Resistance to Theory 

56. Signifier and Signified 

57. Apology for Poetry 

58. Structuralism 

59. Russian Formalists 

60. Poetry as inspiration 

61. Fancy and Imagination 

62. Simone De Beauvoir 

63. Poetic diction 

64. Objective correlative 

65. Orientalism 

1. Explain the following passages with reference to their context supplying brief critical comments where necessary

(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. 

(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. 

‘‘Honest criticism and sensitive appreciation are directed not upon the poet but upon the poetry.’’ Comment.

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