Literary Criticism SAQ

Practice Test

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Practice Test

Self-Assessment Question 2.

Notes: (I) Workout the questions as instructed.
(ii) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.

• Choose the right option:

1. Plato wrote his treatise in form of:
a. Dialogues
b. Paragraphs
c. Poetry
d. Story telling

2. On which three grounds did Plato objected to poetry?
a. Educational, philosophical and moral.
b. Sexuality, morality and philosophical.
c. Educational, obscenity and sexuality.

• Fill in the blanks:

3. According to Plato, poets are breeders of ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬_____________ and poetry is ¬¬¬¬¬-_________________ of lies.
a. Falsehood and mother.
b. Truth and mother.
c. Falsehood and sister.

• Say whether the following statement is true or false:

4. According to Plato, poetry is better than philosophy.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

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Practice Test

Self-Assessment Question 3.

Notes: (I) Workout the questions as instructed.
(ii) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.

• Choose the right option:

1. Aristotle’s well-known treatises are:
a. Dialogues.
b. Poetics and Rhetoric.
c. Poetry and drama.
d. Tragedy and epic.

2. Who summarizes Aristotle’s views in reply to Plato’s charges in brief: “Tragedy (Art) gives new knowledge, yields aesthetic satisfaction and produces a better state of mind.”
a. Bywater.
b. Scott-James.
c. David Daiches.
d. S.H. Butcher

• Fill in the blanks:

3. Plato confused the study of ________________ with the study of _____________.
a. Falsehood and mother.
b. Aesthetics and morals.
c. Morals and aesthetics.

• Say whether the following statement is true or false:

4. Aristotle did not agree with Plato in calling the poet an imitator and creative art, imitation.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

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Practice Test

Self-Assessment Question 4.

Notes: (I) Workout the questions as instructed.
(ii) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.

• Complete the following sentence by choosing the right option:

1. Tragedy is an imitation of …
a. an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude.
b. several kinds being found in separate parts of the play.
c. in the form of action, not of narrative.
d. through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotions.

• Choose the right option:

2. Which of the following lines of the definition of tragedy deals with the function of tragedy?
a. an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude
b. several kinds being found in separate parts of the play.
c. in the form of action, not of narrative.
d. through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotions.

• Fill in the blanks:

3. Aristotle classifies various forms of art with the help of ______, ______ and ______ of their imitation of life.

a. Words, colours and music.
b. Serious, comic and real aspect of life.
c. Object, medium and manner.
d. Action, narration and recitation.

• Say whether the following statement is true or false:

4. According to Aristotle metre / verse alone is the distinguishing feature of poetry or imaginative literature in general..
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

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Practice Test

Self-Assessment Question 5.

Notes: (I) Workout the questions as instructed.
(ii) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.
• Choose the right option:

1. Read the definition of Tragedy in section 1.5.2. Now, find which of the following lines substantiate the theory of catharsis.
a. an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude
b. several kinds being found in separate parts of the play
c. in the form of action, not of narrative
d. through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation-catharsis of these and similar emotions

2. The book Tragedy: Serious Drama in Relation to Aristotle’s Poetics throws illuminating light on the theory of catharsis? Who is the writer of this book?
a. F.L.Lucas
b. W. Macniele Dixon
c. Ingram Bywater
d. S.H.Butcher

3. According to F.L.Lucas, the concept of Catharsis is better translated as:
a. Purgation.
b. Purification.
c. Moderation or tempering.

• Say whether the following statement is true or false:

4. Tragic beauty and tragic delight which tragedy evokes constitutes the aesthetics of balance as propounded for the first time by Aristotle in his theory of Catharsis.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

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Practice Test

Self-Assessment Question 6.

Notes: (I) Workout the questions as instructed.
(ii) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.

Choose the right option:

1. Which of the following sequence in the arrangement the important parts of tragedy is correct?
a. Spectacle, Song, Diction, Thought, Plot & Character.
b. Plot, Character, Thought, Diction, Song and Spectacle.
c. Spectacle, Song, Diction, Thought, Character and Plot.

2. Who simplified the meaning of ‘Plot’ as ‘the way in which the action works itself out, the whole casual chain which leads to the final outcome’?
a. F.L.Lucas
b. David Daiches
c. Ingram Bywater
d. S.H.Butcher

3. Which of the following attributes best describes Aristotelian ‘Tragic Hero’?
a. A good man – coming to bad end.
b. A bad man – coming to good end.
c. A bad man – coming to bad end.
d. A rather good man – coming to bad end.

4. The following sentences describe Tragic Hero. Choose the right option.
a. A man who is not eminently good and just yet whose misfortune is not brought by vice or depravity but by some error of frailty.
b. He should be a man of mixed character, neither blameless nor absolutely depraved.
c. The ideal tragic hero must be an intermediate kind of person, a man not preeminently virtuous and just yet whose misfortune is brought upon him not by vice or depravity but by some error of judgement.
d. All of the above are true.

• Say whether the following statement is true or false:

5. Hamartia in the Aristotelian sense of the term is a mistake or error of judgement and the deed done in consequence of it is an erratum.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

6. Othello is the Greek example, Oedipus in the renaissance, are the two most conspicuous examples of ruin wrought by characters, noble, indeed, but not without defects, acting in the dark and, as it seemed, for the best.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

7. Hamartia is more conspicuously found in the modern play.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

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Practice Test

Self-Assessment Question 7.

Notes: (I) Workout the questions as instructed.
(ii) Compare your answer with those given at the end of the unit.

Choose the right option:

1. Traditionally, it is believed that Epic is better than Tragedy. Why?
a. B’coz the epic is less vulgar and addressed toward a refined audience.
b. B’coz tragedy is performed before large audiences, which results in melodramatic performances or overacting to please the crowds.
c. B’coz epic poetry is more cultivated than tragedy as it does not rely on acting/gesture at all to convey its message.
d. All of the above given reasons are true.
e. None of the above given reasons are true.

2. According to Aristotle, Tragedy is better than Epic because:
a. It has none of the elements of an epic poem.
b. simply reading the play without performing is not as effective as reading of Epic.
c. Tragedy is longer. Epic is more compact and have a more concentrated effect.
d. All of the above given reasons are false.
e. None of the above given reasons are false.

Say whether the following statement is true or false:

3. The Epic poet can relate a number of incidents happening simultaneously to a number of persons at a number of places, whereas tragedy presents only that part of the story which is connected with one place, and one set of persons. This unity of place in tragedy makes tragedy better than epic.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

4. Epic related an action concerning the fortunes or destiny of an individual, and thereby it presents the life of an individual. In tragedy, on the other hand, the emphasis is on the fortunes or destiny of people or nation; it presents the life of an entire period.
a. True
b. False
c. Cannot say

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