Literary Theory Post World War – II – English UGC NET – Solved PYQs

Q. 1 – 50

1. Said identifies Orientalism as (UGC NET Dec 2012)

I. What an Orientalist does.
II. A style of thought based on an ontological and epistemological distinction made between the Orient and the Occident.
III. a discourse dealing with the Orient
IV. a fact of nature rather than one of human production

In the light of the statement above:

(1) II and III are correct, I and IV are wrong
(2) II and III are correct, I and IV are wrong.
(3) I, II and III are correct and IV is wrong.
(4) IV is correct and I, II and III are wrong.

2. Which among the following titles set a course for academic literary feminism? (UGC NET Dec 2012)

(1) Nostromo
(2) From Ritual to Romance
(3) A Room of One’s Own
(4) A Dance to the Music of Time

3. In Practical Criticism I.A. Richards links four kinds of meanings in most human utterances to four aspects. These are (UGC NET Dec 2012)

(1) Sense, Feeling, Tone, Intention
(2) Sound, Feeling, Nuance, Intention
(3) Sense, Voice, Emotion, Intention
(4) Sense, Image, Tone, Intention

4. Which statement is not true of Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities? (UGC NET Dec 2012)

(1) It is a prosaic response to the myth of El Dorado.
(2) It is subtitled Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.
(3) In this book, Anderson advances the view that nations are not natural entities but narrative constructs.
(4) In Anderson’s view, modern nationalism was basically a consequence of the convergence of capitalism, the new print technology and the fixity that resulted from print extending to ‘Vernacular’ languages.

5. “There is nothing outside the text,” is a statement by (UGC NET Dec 2012)

(1) Victor Shklovsky
(2) Jacques Derrida
(3) Roland Barthes
(4) Ferdinand de Saussure

6. From the following indicate the critic who is not a New Critic: (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) Allen Tate
(2) Robert Penn Warren
(3) Cleanth Brooks
(4) Claude Levi-Strauss

7. Identify the incorrect statement below: (UGC NET June 2012)

(a) BASIC was an experiment initiated by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards from 1926 to about 1940,
(b) Expanded, BASIC read: Broadly Ascertained Scientific International Course.
(c) Basic English was an attempt to reduce the number of essential words to 850.
(d) While keeping to normal constructions, BASIC failed as an experiment because its documents were far too complicated and technical to understand.

(1) (a) & (b)
(2) (b) & (d)
(3) (a) & (c)
(4) (c) & (d)

8. I-A. Richards’s famous experiment with poems and his Cambridge students is detailed in Practical Criticism: A Study of Literary Judgement (1929). Richards was astonished by (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) the poor quality of his students’ “stock responses”
(2) the very astute remarks made by his students
(3) the non-availability of poems, worthy of class-room attention
(4) the success of his experiment

9. Julia Kristeva’s ‘Intertextuality’ derives from: (UGC NET June 2012)

(a) Saussure’s signs
(b) Chomsky’s deep structure
(c) Bakhtin’s dialogism
(d) Derrida’s difference

(1) (a) and (d)
(2) (a) and (c)
(3) (c) and (d)
(4) (a) and (b)

10. “Like walking, criticism is a pretty nearly universal art; both require a constant intricate shifting and catching of balance; neither can be questioned much in process; and few perform either really well. For elther a new terrain is fatiguing and awkward, and in our day most men prefer paved walks and some form of rapid transport—some easy theory or overmastering dogma.” (R.P.Blackmur, “A Critic’s Job of Work”) (UGC NET June 2012)

(a) Blackmur compares walking with criticism because he considers both to be “arts” of a similar kind that call for attention to detail and utmost care.
(b) Blackmur admits that some people do however manage to be good critics and good walkers.
(c) Critics prefer tried and tested approaches for much the same reason as walkers would look for paved walks and rapid transport.
(d) Blackmur does not quite give us the equivalents of “Some paved walks and some form of rapid transport” in order to press his comparison.

(1) (a) and (d) are correct
(2) (a) and (c) are correct
(3) only (d) is correct.
(4) only (b) is correct.

11. “It blurs distinctions among literary, non-literary and cultural texts, showing how all three intercirculate, share in, and mutually constitute each other.” What does it in this statement stand for? (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) Marxism
(2) Structuralism
(3) Formalism
(4) New Historicism

12. Which of the following is not true of Edward Said’s Orientalism? (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) Makes use of Foucault’s concept of discursive formulation
(2) is one of the founding texts of Postcolonial theory
(3) Makes use of Barthes’s concept of writerly text
(4) Utilises the Gramscian notion of hegemony

13. Material feminism studies inequality in terms of (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) only gender
(2) only class
(3) both class and gender
(4) only patriarchy

14. To refer to the unresolvable difficulties a text may open up, Derrida makes use of the term: (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) aporia
(2) difference
(3) erasure
(4) supplement

15. Material feminism studies inequality in terms of (UGC NET June 2012)

(1) only gender
(2) only class
(3) both class and gender
(4) only patriarchy

Questions from 16 to 20 are based on the following passage. Read the passage carefully and select the most appropriate option:

Somewhere, on the edge of consciousness, there is what I call a mythical norm, which each one of us within our hearts knows “that is not me”. In America, this norm is usually defined as white, thin, male, young, heterosexual, Christian, and financially secure. It is with this mythical norm that the trappings of power reside within the society. Those of us who stand outside that power often identify one way in which we are different, and we assume that to be the primary cause of all oppression, forgetting other distortions around difference, some of which we ourselves may be practicing. By and large within the women’s movement today, white women focus upon their oppression as women and ignore differences of race, sexual preference, class, and age.

There is a pretense to homogeneity of experience covered by the word sisterhood that does not in fact exist. (Audre Lorde)

16. A mythical norm is endemic to societies: (UGC NET Dec 2013)

1. Where racial myths are prevalent and widely respected and perpetuated through
2. Where the superiority of one’s own culture and nation no longer emphasized openly or straightforwardly.
3. Where ‘difference’ has been a preoccupation in the representation of people who are racially, ethnically, and in terms of gender and sexual preference different from an assumed majority.
4. That believes that the norm is part of their right to defend the ways of life enjoyed by a dominant group, their traditions and customs against outsiders not because these outsiders are inferior, but because they belong to other cultures.

(1) 1 and 4 are Correct
(3) Only 4 is Correct
(2) 2 and 3 are Correct
(4) Only 3 is Correct

17. How does the author mark her difference from other writers on similar issues and underscore her radical style typographically? (UGC NET Dec 2013)

1. By her use of parataxis
2. By italicizing ‘mythical norm’ and ‘sisterhood’
3. By using lowercase for proper and common nouns
4. By using phrases like ‘Those of us who stand outside…

(1) 1 & 4 are correct.
(3) 3 is correct.
(2) 2 is correct.
(4) 2 & 3 are correct.

18. That there are levels and grades of powerlessness in societies entertaining ‘a mythical norm’ is indicated (UGC NET Dec 2013)

1. By the overall tone and tenor of the passage.
2. By the suggestion that “a mythical norm’ is responsible for the unequal distribution of power among people.
3. By referring to ‘other distortions around difference’.
4. By referring to white women who narrow down oppression directed only at white women.

(1) 4 is correct.
(2) 1 & 2 are correct.
(3) 3 is correct.
(4) 2 is correct.

19. Why is the author dismissive about ‘sisterhood’? (UGC NET Dec 2013)

1. Because it is italicised.
2. Because it does not exist in principle.
3. Because it assumes that all ‘sisters’ are alike.
4. Because it assumes that all ‘sisters’ are unique.

(1) 3 is correct
(2) 1 is correct
(3) 4 is correct
(4) 2 is correct

20. Does the author absolve all women from the ‘distortions around difference”? (UGC NET Dec 2013)

(1) Yes.
(2) No.
(3) Not sure.
(4) Yes, in a qualified manner though.

21. Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R): (UGC NET Dec 2013)

Assertion (A): For deconstructive critics how human beings read and interpret signs they receive will determine their modes of knowing and being, whether those signs come in the form of literary texts or bank statements.

Reason (R): The fact of the matter is that human beings use signs to function in the world and are always likely to do so.

In the context of the two statements, which one of the following is correct?

(1) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A). and
(2) Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
(3) (A) is true, but (R) is false.
(4) (A) is false, but (R) is true.