Explore topic-wise MCQs in English Literature .

This section includes 96 Mcqs, each offering curated multiple-choice questions to sharpen your English Literature knowledge and support exam preparation. Choose a topic below to get started.

51.

What is “Post-Modernism” ?

A. A term used to describe contemporary cultural production
B. A literary movement concerned with extreme self-reflexivity
C. An attempt to break down the barriers between high and low culture
D. All of the above
Answer» E.
Discussion
52.

What is “Mimesis” ?

A. It is a philosophical term which means “imitation” or “mimicry.”
B. It is a philosophical and critical term meaning “otherness.”
C. It is a critical term, which describes the act of expression and the presentation of self-identity, theorized by academics, such as Erich Auerbach.
D. A and C only
Answer» E.
Discussion
53.

What is meant by the “Haussmannization” of Paris ?

A. It was an urban modernization project that reorganized Parisian city streets so that the bourgeoisie could flaunt their new wealth.
B. It was an urban renovation project which offered social services in city slums.
C. It was a political movement intended to overthrow Napoleon III.
D. It was a religious movement intended to celebrate the values of Christianity.
Answer» B. It was an urban renovation project which offered social services in city slums.
Discussion
54.

What is “Imagism” ?

A. A poetic movement which hoped to offer clear expression of ideas and feelings through the use of specific visual images
B. An attempt to use the “exact word” instead of flowery, excessive descriptive language in poetry
C. A and B only
D. B and C only
Answer» D. B and C only
Discussion
55.

What famous modernist short story compares the universe to an infinite library of hexagonal galleries ?

A. Joyce’s “The Dead”
B. Hemingway’s “My Old Man”
C. Woolf’s “A Haunted House”
D. Borges’ “The Library of Babel”
Answer» E.
Discussion
56.

What are the differences between conservative modernism and progressive modernism ?

A. Conservative modernism came to look to the past for inspiration and hope, while progressive modernism looked to the future.
B. Conservative modernism supported the status quo, while progressive modernism was deeply engaged in political and social amelioration.
C. Conservative modernism celebrated aesthetic formalism, while progressive modernism celebrated innovation and attacked aesthetic formalism.
D. All of the above
Answer» E.
Discussion
57.

T.S. Eliot’s “TheWaste Land” begins with which of the following well-known opening lines ?

A. “Was it for this-”
B. “Riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Envi
C. “And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.”
D. “April is the cruellest month”
Answer» E.
Discussion
58.

T.S. Eliot considered which of the following one of the greatest short stories ever written ?

A. “The Dead”
B. “The Surrealist Manifesto”
C. “The Heart of Darkness”
D. “To the Lighthouse”
Answer» B. “The Surrealist Manifesto”
Discussion
59.

Theodor Adorno’s “Culture Industry Reconsidered” further examines the notion of the “culture industry” and suggests which of the following about the “culture industry ?”

A. It destroys notions of high and low culture and replaces it with mass culture.
B. It is an industry in the sense that its aim is to standardize aesthetic taste and value.
C. It is a radical rethinking of mass culture in that it promotes the values of high culture and attempts to eradicate more popular forms of expression.
D. Both A and B
Answer» E.
Discussion
60.

The term “Lost Generation” can be applied to which of the following groups ?

A. A group of self-imposed American expatriates living in Paris that included Ernest Hemingway, Hart Crane, and Henry Miller
B. A group of artists and writers who were deeply marked by the traumas of World War I
C. Any American in self-exile in Europe to avoid fighting in World War I
D. A and B only
Answer» E.
Discussion
61.

The poem “In Flanders Fields” was written by John McCrae referring to which war ?

A. The Franco-Prussian War
B. The American Civil War
C. World War I
D. World War II
Answer» D. World War II
Discussion
62.

The motto “art for art’s sake” means that artists began to do which of the following ?

A. Produce works of art that were meaningless
B. Reject artistic production that was obligatorily moral in character
C. Avoid all forms of prose
D. Make art profitable above all else
Answer» C. Avoid all forms of prose
Discussion
63.

The literary style of Virginia Woolf’s novel “To the Lighthouse” is best described in which of the following ways ?

A. As an omniscient narrative of love and loss
B. As a third-person narrative of the Great Depression
C. As a domestic stream of consciousness narrative
D. A and B only
Answer» D. A and B only
Discussion
64.

The last decade of the nineteenth century saw the development of a number of literary and cultural movements which amounted to a rejection of the principles of Victorianism because of which social transformations ?

A. The shift from agriculturally-based to industrial societies in the West
B. The decline of traditional religious beliefs in Europe
C. The rise of traditional social identities and the decline of personal identity
D. Both A and B
Answer» E.
Discussion
65.

The French novelist J.K. Huysmans, in his work “Against the Grain,” is intended to convey which of the following ideas ?

A. The work celebrates the young Jean and his Jesuit school education as a model for the best possible education of the young.
B. It ends with the famous line “the horror, the horror.”
C. It explores Jean’s decision to become a recluse and a social drop-out.
D. All of the above
Answer» D. All of the above
Discussion
66.

The development of cubism, with its geometric and abstract concerns, can be attributed largely to which of the following two artists ?

A. Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet
B. T.S. Eliot and Wyndham Lewis
C. Claude Monet and édouard Manet
D. George Braque and Pablo Picasso
Answer» E.
Discussion
67.

Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children” is a novel characterized by which of the following descriptions ?

A. It is an excellent example of “Magical Realism.”
B. It is concerned with the post-colonial situation of India before and after its partitioning into India and Pakistan.
C. It is a book that tells the story of the Sinai family.
D. All of the above
Answer» E.
Discussion
68.

“Post-Modernism” is often characterized by which of the following attitudes ?

A. A fascination with the past but a past that is used out of its original context as pastiche
B. A reinforcement of master narratives
C. A rejection of master narratives
D. Both A and C
Answer» E.
Discussion
69.

Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is an example of which of the following literary trends ?

A. Aestheticism
B. Naturalism
C. Decadence
D. Both A and C
Answer» E.
Discussion
70.

Of the following, who was NOT a well known modernist author ?

A. James Joyce
B. Voltaire
C. Virginia Woolf
D. Y.B. Yeats
Answer» C. Virginia Woolf
Discussion
71.

Literary critics who analyze the works of Salman Rushdie often engage which “Post-Modern” school of criticism ?

A. Marxism
B. Post-Colonial Theory
C. Deconstruction
D. Feminism
Answer» C. Deconstruction
Discussion
72.

Jorge Luis Borges was born the same year as what other famous modern author ?

A. James Joyce
B. Vladimir Nabokov
C. T.S. Eliot
D. Joseph Conrad
Answer» C. T.S. Eliot
Discussion
73.

Jorge Luis Borges is a native of which country ?

A. Argentina
B. Brazil
C. Mexico
D. Britain
Answer» B. Brazil
Discussion
74.

Jazz music is described by which of the following characteristics ?

A. A way of questioning Victorian moral conceptions
B. A musical invention of the modern age that allows for experimentation of form
C. An example of subjective artistic expression
D. All of the above
Answer» E.
Discussion
75.

In Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Library of Babel,” which of the following is NOT a major concern of the work ?

A. The short work speaks of the daunting search for truth and knowledge.
B. It is obsessed with the descriptions of an endless and ultimately incomprehensible library.
C. Borges takes great pains to show how the key to understanding the library is reason.
D. The library is analogous to the universe.
Answer» D. The library is analogous to the universe.
Discussion
76.

Important contemporary reviews of Virginia Woolf’s “To the Lighthouse” tend to focus on which of the following aspects of the novel ?

A. The profound and often troubling relationships among characters
B. The novel’s experimental structure
C. The novel’s radically unique narrative voice
D. All of the above
Answer» E.
Discussion
77.

How may W.B. Yeats’ poem, “The Second Coming,” be interpreted ?

A. As an interpretation of the Biblical Second Coming of Christ
B. As an attempt to support European colonialism in Africa
C. As a howl of despair concerning the current state of the world
D. Both A and C
Answer» E.
Discussion
78.

Georges Braque’s “Woman with a Guitar” is an example of which of the following artistic movements ?

A. Cubism
B. Vorticism
C. Futurism
D. A and B only
Answer» B. Vorticism
Discussion
79.

“Flâneur,” according to Dr. Heather Marcelle Crickenberger in her essay “The Flâneur,” is a term the French understand to mean which of the following ?

A. Stroller, idler, walker
B. An inhabitant of a rural village
C. A religious believer
D. Both A and B
Answer» B. An inhabitant of a rural village
Discussion
80.

Fill in the blank. Written over the course of his life, Ezra Pound’s ….. is an examination of the human desire for knowledge and understanding in an inchoate modern landscape ?

A. “The Sun Also Rises”
B. “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”
C. “The Cantos”
D. “To the Lighthouse”
Answer» D. “To the Lighthouse”
Discussion
81.

Fill in the blank. Walter Benjamin was most clearly a student of ____________’s work?

A. Marx
B. Freud
C. Darwin
D. Aristotle
Answer» B. Freud
Discussion
82.

Fill in the blank. The novel “Things Fall Apart” explores ____________ society and its encounter with European colonialism?

A. Ibo
B. Russian
C. Irish
D. Indian
Answer» B. Russian
Discussion
83.

Fill in the blank. “Lolita” is infamous for its controversial subject as it depicts a middle-aged protagonist, _____________, who becomes sexually obsessed with a twelveyear- old girl, Dolores Haze ?

A. Sal Paradise
B. Humbert Humbert
C. Dean Moriarty
D. Jake Barnes
Answer» C. Dean Moriarty
Discussion
84.

Fill in the blank. According to Sigmund Freud, psychological “transference” helps to understand the nature of ________________?

A. Incest
B. Trauma
C. Taboo
D. Love
Answer» C. Taboo
Discussion
85.

E.M. Forster wrote which of the following novels ?

A. “Pale Fire”
B. “A Passage to India”
C. “Daniel Deronda”
D. “On the Road”
Answer» C. “Daniel Deronda”
Discussion
86.

Between 1890 and 1919, which of the following was a preoccupation of Western European literature ?

A. Sexual mores
B. The importance of the irrational
C. Bourgeois sensibility
D. All of the above
Answer» E.
Discussion
87.

As a result of the outbreak of World War I and anti-German sentiment which important British public figure had to adopt the family name of Windsor ?

A. The Suffragette Emmeline Pankhust
B. King George V
C. King Edward VII
D. King James II
Answer» C. King Edward VII
Discussion
88.

According to Walter Benjamin in “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” which of the following is true ?

A. “Even the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence at the place wh
B. “The feeling of strangeness that overcomes the actor before the camera, as Pirandello describes it, is basically of the same kind as the estrangemen
C. “All art work, even mass produced art, clearly links to an original referent that has a stable and knowable meaning.”
D. Both A and B
Answer» E.
Discussion
89.

According to T.S. Eliot in his essay on “Tradition and the Individual Talent,” which of the following is true of “tradition ?”

A. In English literature, we cannot refer to “the tradition” or to “a tradition;” at most, we employ the adjective in saying that the poetry of s
B. Tradition is the great conversation which links all English literature and is a coherent and stable cannon.
C. All of the above
D. A and B only
Answer» E.
Discussion
90.

According to Tristan Tzara’s “Manifesto on Dadaism,” which of the following does NOT define Dadaism ?

A. “Every product of disgust capable of becoming a negation of the family”
B. “A protest with the fists of its whole being engaged in destructive action”
C. “Absolute and unquestionable faith in every god that is the immediate product of spontaneity”
D. “A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”
Answer» E.
Discussion
91.

According to Theodor Adorno’s and Max Horkheimer’s “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” which of the following is true of the culture industry ?

A. The culture industry is classified by ruthless uniformity of all ideas.
B. The culture industry is the chief method by which technology brings true democracy to all.
C. The culture industry is a fundamental way to promote individuality.
D. The culture industry is chiefly intended to offer consumers the opportunity to classify wants and desires as well as corresponding production.
Answer» B. The culture industry is the chief method by which technology brings true democracy to all.
Discussion
92.

According to Max Simon Nordau in his work “Degeneration,” which of the following best describes the term “Fin de Siècle” ?

A. “The impotent despair of a sick man, who feels himself dying by inches in the midst of an eternally living nature blooming insolently forever”
B. A term that means nothing except for the signification given to it by the user
C. “A confession and a complaint”
D. All of the above
Answer» E.
Discussion
93.

According to Dr. Michael Webster in his essay, “Poetic Modes in the late 19th and early 20th Century,” which of the following is NOT a poetic mode of this time period ?

A. Genteel
B. Symbolist
C. Impressionist
D. Decadent
Answer» D. Decadent
Discussion
94.

According to Dr. Dino Felluga’s module on Freud, Sigmund Freud’s work on transference and trauma argues which of the following points ?

A. There is an undeniable “tension between the death-instinct and the sexual instincts.”
B. Repetition-compulsion does not help to come to terms with one’s own mortality.
C. Most victims of trauma do not exhibit “the compulsion of the human psyche to repeat traumatic events over and over again.”
D. Talk therapy will not help cure one’s psychological neuroses concerning past trauma.
Answer» B. Repetition-compulsion does not help to come to terms with one’s own mortality.
Discussion
95.

According to Dr. Dino Felluga’s “General Introduction to Postmodernism,” Roland Barthes, in his work “The Death of the Author,” argues which of the following points ?

A. “The modern writer (scriptor) is born simultaneously with his text.”
B. “Once the Author is gone, the claim to “decipher” a text is quite simple.”
C. “A text never consists of multiple writings, it is always the product of a monolithic culture.”
D. Both A and B
Answer» C. “A text never consists of multiple writings, it is always the product of a monolithic culture.”
Discussion
96.

According to Dr. Dino Felluga’s “General Introduction to Postmodernism,” what is the meaning of the term “simulacra” ?

A. “Something that replaces reality with its representation”
B. “A stable referent to a knowable original cultural artifact”
C. “An exact imitation of the material world”
D. “A basic affirmation of everyday reality”
Answer» B. “A stable referent to a knowable original cultural artifact”
Discussion