Literary Criticism - Past Papers - MA English Literature - Part 2 - Sargodha University

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Time Allowed: 3 Hours

Total Marks: 100

Passing Marks: 40 (As of 2020)

Note: Objective part is compulsory. Attempt any four questions from the subjective part.

2022

Short Questions

1. How does Aristotle trace the origin and development of poetry? 
2. Define the term “Anagnorisis” given in poetics. 
3. How does Sidney condemn the tragic comedy? 
4. What is the concept of Sidney about “rhyming and versing” for poet and poetry? 
5. What is impersonal theory of poetry according to T.S. Eliot? 
6. How does Eliot explain the term “Tradition”? 
7. What is Belsey’s view about classical realism? 
8. What is the relationship between language and thought according to Belsey in her book critical practice.? 
9. Raymond Williams has carried out most of the discussion with the help of quotations, how do you see it? 
10. What is the significance of “An Apology for Poetry” in literature? 

Long Questions

1. Write a critical note on the concept of catharsis as propounded by Aristotle?
2. There can be tragedy without character but there cannot be tragedy without plot. Discuss the above statement in detail.
3. Discuss T.S Ehot's theory of tradition and individual talent?
4. How does Sidney defend poetry against the allegation raised by contemporary age? How far he is able to justify according to pour point of view?
5. Discuss the ideas given by Raymond Williams about Modern Tragedy
6. Examine critically any one of the following

a)

Word is like a bell

Lamp of Earth! where'er thou moves

its dim shapes are clad with brightness,

Walk upon the winds with lightness.

Till they fail, as I am failing.

Dizzy, lost yet unbewailing!

(b)

Camerado, I give you my hand.

I give you my love more precious than money.

I give you myself before preaching or law;

Will you give me yourself? Will you come tavel with me?

Shall we stick by each other as long as age live?

2021

Short Questions

1. What is Aristotle's concept of an ideal tragic hero
2. What do you know about the term "Peripeteia" about Plot in Aristotle's Poetics
3. What are Sir Philips Sidney views about poetry
4. What were charges of the puritan against poetry which Sidney answers?
5. Why does Eliot oppose the romantic conceptions in his famous theory of impersonality in Art?
6. What is T.S. Eliot's view about Wordsworth's theory of Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings"?
7. what is the worst kind of tragic plot according to Aristotle?
8. what is Belsey's view about classical realism?
9. How does Belsey draw the analogy between a reader and a consumer in her book critical practice?
10. What are three kinds of texts mentioned by Belsey in her book critical practice?

Long Questions

1. How does Aristotle's view of character inform the poetics? How does the presentation of the tragedy relate to morality? Discuss. How does the presentation of character in tragedy relate morality?
2. What are Aristotle's six elements of tragedy? What according to him is the primary purpose of tragedy? Discuss.
3. What does T.S Eliot mean by objective correlative? illustrate.
4. According to Raymond Williams the concept of tradition is important to understand modem tragedy discuss. [WTH??]
5. What is expressive realism according to Catherine Belsey? Discuss.
6. Examine critically any one of the following

(a)

Apparelled in celestial light,

The glory and the freshness of a dream,

It is not now as it hath been of yore:

Turn wheresoe'er I may,

By night of day,

The things which I have seen I now gan seen no more.

b) Essence of winter sleep in on the night

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight 

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this moving from the drinking trough 

And held against the world of hoary grass.

2020

Short Questions

1. Differentiate between Simple and Complex plot as suggested in poetics?
2. Define the term "Anagnorisis" given in Poetics
3. How does Aristotle define "Comedy in Poetics?
4. What are the three kinds of texts mentioned by Belsey?
5. Where does ideology exist in Belsey's view?
6. What does Belsey mean by the term "Common Sense?
7. How has Sidney established that poetry is antique and universal in nature?
8. What does Sidney mean by a poet as a "maker"?
9. Why, according to Eliot, "emotions recollected in tranquillity" is an inexact formula?
10. What does Eliot want from a poet

Long Questions

1. How does Aristotle define plot? What are the various types of Plot? Critically evaluate
2. Tragedy is the higher art, as attaining its end more perfectly Compare Tragedy and Epic poetry and establish the superiority of Tragedy over Epic poetry in the light of Poetics
3. Eliot's conception of tradition is unique in the sense that it both influences and gets influenced by the individual poet" Elaborate in the light of Eliot's essay, Tradition and Individual 7alent.
4. Sidney's Apology for Poetry 1s a command performance in English Criticism. how does Sidney react to Stephen Gosson's School of Abuse? Elaborate with arguments
5. What is Expressive Realism? Critically evaluate Belsey's ideas on expressive realism in the light of Critical Practice
6. Examine critically any one of the following

a ) Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O nol it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and checks

Within his bending sickle's compass come

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

1f this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never wTit, nor no man ever lov'd

b ) I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence

Two roads diverged in a wood, and

took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference

2019

Short Questions

1. Enumerate the essential qualities of a good critic?
2. List out the differences between Tragedy and Epie poetry as given in Poetic
3. How does Aristotle describe plot as a whole?
4. What does the term "Hamartia" mean?
5. Define poetry as per Philip Sidney's view.
6. What kind of understanding about poetry was felt in Sidney's time?
7. what is the role of a reader in reading the text as suggested by Belsey?
8. Define "Expressive Realism" as per Belsey?
9. Define "Tradition" in the light of Eliot's essay Tradition and the Individual Talent
10. What is the role of the poet's mind in the creative process?

Long Questions

1. What is Aristotle's concept of an ideal Tragic Hero? How far is it applicable to the modern tragic heroes?
2. without action there cannot be a tragedy, there may be without character". Explain Aristotle's concept of tragedy in the light of the given statement
3. How does Sidney prove that, in moral doctrine, the poet surpasses historian as well as the philosopher? Elucidate with reference to An Apology for poetry.
4. Define ideology. How does ideology shape the subjeet? Explain with reference to Belsey's Critical Practice
5. Elaborate Eliot's concept of impersonal theory of poetry. How is it relevant to some of the modern poetic texts that you have read?
6. Examine critically any one of the following

a ) He who was living is now dead

We who were living are now dying

With a little patience

Here is no water but only rock

Rock and no water and the sandy road

The road winding above among the mountains

Which are mountains of rock without water

If there were only water amongst the rock

Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think

b ) We look before and after,

And pine for what is not:

Our sincerest laughter

With some pain is fraught,

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

2018

Short Questions

1. How literary criticism is different from fiction?
2. What does the term "Peripety" mean?
3. List out four essential qualities of an Aristotelian tragic hero
4. What does Aristotle mean by the term "Comedy2
5. State briefly Sidney's strong claim about the poet?
6. How poetry is more philosophical than history in Aristotle's opinion?
7. What is Belsey's view of "New Criticism?
8. Why, according to Eliot, "emotion recollected in tranquillity" is an inexact formula?
9. What does Belsey mean by "ideology"?
10. What does "deconstruction" mean in the light of Belsey's Critical Practice?

Long Questions

1. "The plot is the life and soul of tragedy Examine critically in the light of Aristotle's Poetics
2. Tragedy contains incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions". Elaborate in the light of Aristotle's Poetics
3. Write a detailed note on Eiiot's theory of Impersonality of Poetry in the light of his essay Tradition and Individual Talent
4. Discuss the methods of extracting meanings out of a creative text as described by Belsey in Critical Practice
5. What is Sidney's view of poetry? What does Sidney say about the functions of poetry?
6. Examine critically any one 'of the following:

a ) No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;

Am an attendant lord, one that will do

To swell a progress, start a scene or two,

Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,

Deferential, glad to be of use,

Politic, cautious, and meticulous;

Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;

At times, indeed, almost ridiculous

Almost, at times, the Fool.

b ) Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget

What thou among the leaves hast never known,

The weariness, the fever, and the fret

Here, where meu sit and hear each other groan;

Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last grey hairs,

Where youth grows pale, and spectre-thin, and dies;

Where but to think is to be full of sorrow

And leaden-cycd despairs,

Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,

Or new Love pine at them beyond to-morrow.

2017

Short Questions

1. What type of man is suitable for imitation in Aristotelian Tragedy?
2. What is the importance of Plot in structuring tragedy?
3. Define the term “Anagnorisis” given in poetics.
4. What does Sidney say about Epic Poetry?
5. According to Sidney what is the utility of comedy other than providing mere delight?
6. How does Sidney condemn the tragic comedy?
7. Why does T.S. Eliot reject the theory of “Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” by Wordsworth?
8. How does Belsey see the function of reader in literary text?
9. What is the relationship between language and thought according to Belsey in her book critical practice?
10. Define the term “Catharsis”.

Long Questions

1. What is Aristotle’s concept of ideal tragic hero? How far it is applicable to the modern tragic heroes?
2. How does Aristotle discuss Hamartia or Tragic Flow in his book poetics?
3. Discuss in detail Sidney’s views on three unities and compare his views with those of Dryden and Johnson.
4. Discuss T.S. Eliot’s theory of tradition and individual talent.
5. How does Catherin Belsey discuss the authority of common sense and critical theory?
6. Critically evaluate any one of the following excerpts:

1.Beneath the lamp the lady bowed

And slowly rolled her eyes around

Then drawing in her breath aloud,

Like one that shuddered, she unbound

The cincture from beneath her breast

Her silken robe, and inner vest

Drop to her feet, and full in view

Behold! Her bosom and half her side

A sight to dream of, not to tell.

2.. Oh life me from the grass!

I die! I faint! I fail!

Let thy love in kisses rain

On my lips and eyelids pale

My cheek is cold and white, alas!

My heart beats loud and fast;

Oh! Press it to thine own again,

Where it will break at last.​

2016

Short Questions

1. According to Aristotle what aspects of life are represented by comedy?
2. What are the six elements that make up tragedy?
3. What is the main difference between Epic and Tragedy?
4. S. Eliot used the term “objective co-relative” what does it mean?
5. What is T.S Eliot’s opinion about wordsworth’s theory of poetry?
6. Why does Sidney prefer poetry to philosophy?
7. How does Sidney define comedy?
8. What is the function of tragedy according to Sidney?
9. What is Belsey’s views about classical realism?
10. What is the relationship between language and thought explained by Belsey?

Long Questions

1. What is Aristotle’s concept of “Ideal Tragic Hero”? Discuss in detail.
2. What are the views of Aristotle on comedy and how does he differentiate in with Epic poetry?
3. What were the various objection raised by the contemporary philistines against poetry? How does Sidney answer them?
4. Discuss T.S Eliot’s theory of Impersonality of Poetry”.
5. How does Catherine Belsey explain the common sense view of literature?
6. Critically evaluate any one of the following excepts of poetry.

a.    To think of time— of all that retrospection,

Have you guess’d you yourself would not continue?

Have you dreaded these earth beetles?

Have you feared the future would be nothing to you?

Is today nothing? Is the beginningless past nothing?

To think that the Sun rose in the East—- that men and women were flexible, real, alive–That everything was alive

To think that you and I did not see, feel think, nor bear our part,

To think that we are now here and bear out part.

b.   I hear, it was charged against me that I sought to destroy institution.

But really I am neither for nor against institutions,

(What indeed have I in common with them? Or what with the destruction of theme?)

One I will establish in the Mannahatta and in every city of these states inland and sea-board,

And in the field and woods, and above ever keel little or large that dents the water,

The institution of the dear love of Comrades.

2015

Short Questions

1. What type of plot does Aristotle prefer to capture the attention of the audience?
2. Define the terms “Perripetcia” and “Anagnorisis” given in poetics.
3. How much importance does Aristotle give ‘spectacle’, the element of tragedy?
4. What is Sidney’s opinion about the heroic or Epic poetry?
5. Sidney says “Comedy is not merely to provide according to Aristotle?
6. What do you mean by the phrase “objective correlative” used by T.S Eliot?
7. Why does Eliot regard as a bad influence on classical poetry?
8. Does T.S. Eliot accept Wordsworth’s theory of poetry is “Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”?
9. What is Belsey’s view about classical realism?

Long Questions

1. What is the main difference between poetry and history? What does Aristotle apparently mean by the term “universal”?
2. What is Aristotle’s concept of ideal tragic hero? How far it is applicable to the modern tragic heroes?
3. Discuss the detail Sidney’s views on three unities and compare his view with those of Dryden and Johnson.
4. Discuss Eliot’s concept of ‘Tradition’. What is its role in poetic creation?
5. Describe in your own words the modern critical methods in the light of Belsey’s critical practice.
6. Critically evaluate any one of the following excerpts.

a.   I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;

I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away.

(And wait to watch the water clear, I may”.)

I shan’t be gone long –you come too.

I’m going out to fetch the little calf.

That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young

It totters when she licks it with her tongue,

I shan’t be going long – you come too.

b.   hear it was charged against me

That I sought to destroy institutions

But really I am neither for nor against institutions,

(What indeed have I am common with them? Or what with the destruction of them?)

Only will establish in the Mannahatta and

in every city of these states in land and sea board,

And in the fields and woods; and above every keel

Little or large that dents the water,

Without edifices or rules or trustees or any arguments,

The institution of the dear love of comrades

2014

Short Questions

1. In what three ways does Aristotle differentiate various art forms from one another?
2. What is the Probable impossibility as discussed by Aristotle?
3. Which comment of T.S.Eliot does Brooks quote about Beauty is truth".
4. What is a "Sylvan historian" according to Brooks?
5. how does Sidney relate the allegation against poetry being the mother of lies?
6. How has Sidney established that poetry in antique and universal in nature?
7. What was Sidney's approach on Plato's banishment of poets from his ideal republic?
8. What is Belsey's opinion about Saussure's theory?
9. What analogy does T.S. Eliot use for the poet's mind?
10. What do you understand by the term historical sense' as introduced by T.S. Eliot?

Long Questions

1. Is Aristotle's conception of plot organic or mechanical? Explain.
2. What were the objections against poetry that Sidney chose to answer? Evaluate Sidney's answers critically.
3. Eliot's essay, The Metaphysical Poets has brought about a revaluation and reassessment of Donne and other Metaphysical poets, and has caused a revival of interest in these poets who had been neglected for a considerable time. Comment.
4. Cleanth Brooks proposes his methods lor the analysis of poetry by making the lowest examination of what the poem says as a poem". How does he employ this method while he discusses/ analyses different poems?
5. Where do we find the meaning of the text: in the author's head? In the readers' Or do we, instead, make meaning in the practice of reading itself? If so, what part do our own values play in the process of interpretation? Discuss with reference to Belsey's Critical Practice.
6. Critically evaluate any one of the following excerpts.

a. What would it take may standing there for,

Holding open a restive door,

Looking open a restive door,

Summer was past and the day was past.

Somber clouds in the west were massed.

Out on the j-porch's sagging floor,

L.eaves got up in a coil and hissed,

1Blindly struck at my knee and missed

Something sinister in the tone

Told me my secret must be known:

Word I was in my life alone,

b. Somewhere I have never traveled gladly beyond

Word I had no one lefi but God.

any experience yout èyes have their silence:

nPond most frail gesture are thigs which enclose me,

or which I cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest iook will easily unclose me

though I have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(louching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose