Literary Criticism: Classical to Romantic MCQs 2026

Coleridge distinguishes primary imagination as

1. Athe living power and prime agent of all human perception✓
2. Bmere fancy combining fixed images✓
3. Conly copying memory✓
4. Donly political rhetoric✓

Aristotle's Poetics is chiefly concerned with

1. Athe English novel only✓
2. BModernist stream of consciousness✓
3. CVictorian serial form✓
4. Dtragedy and epic poetry✓

Aristotle defines tragedy as an imitation of

1. Aan action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude✓
2. Ba pastoral eclogue only✓
3. Ca sonnet sequence only✓
4. Da newspaper essay only✓

Catharsis in Aristotle refers to

1. Athe use of comic puns only✓
2. Bthe ban on all emotion✓
3. Cthe rise of the novel✓
4. Dthe purgation or clarification of pity and fear through tragedy✓

Hamartia in Aristotle is often interpreted as

1. Aperfect heroic virtue only✓
2. Bcomic wordplay only✓
3. Ca tragic error or flaw leading to reversal✓
4. Depic hexameter✓

Aristotle prefers plot (mythos) over

1. Acharacter as the soul of tragedy✓
2. Blanguage as irrelevant always✓
3. Call spectacle✓
4. Dall thought✓

Peripeteia means

1. Acomic resolution by marriage✓
2. Breversal of fortune for the tragic figure✓
3. Cstatic description of scenery✓
4. Dnovelistic free indirect discourse✓

Aristotle discusses unity of action, meaning

1. Aonly one character may speak✓
2. Bonly one day may pass always✓
3. Conly comedy is allowed✓
4. Devents should cohere into one complete whole✓

Samuel Johnson's Preface to Shakespeare praises Shakespeare for

1. Aholding a mirror up to human nature across time✓
2. Bimitating only Greek unities slavishly✓
3. Crejecting all kings and fools✓
4. Davoiding moral instruction✓

Johnson argues Shakespeare's tragedy lacks

1. Aany moral insight✓
2. Bany comic relief✓
3. Cstrict classical unities of time and place✓
4. Dany kings✓

Johnson values Shakespeare's characters because they

1. Acopy only one historical decade✓
2. Breject all passion✓
3. Cavoid nature✓
4. Dspeak the language of universal humanity✓

Johnson's criticism belongs to

1. Aeighteenth-century neoclassical and moral judgment✓
2. BHigh Modernist manifestos✓
3. CPuritan sermon cycles only✓
4. DVictorian serial reviews only✓

Johnson defends Shakespeare against charges that mixing tragedy and comedy

1. Aproves lack of talent✓
2. Bshows ignorance of Greek✓
3. Cends all pity✓
4. Dviolates nature and truth of life✓

Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1800) defends

1. Aonly aristocratic diction✓
2. Bonly Greek tragic chorus✓
3. Conly political jargon✓
4. Dpoetry using the language of men in a state of vivid sensation✓

Wordsworth defines poetry as

1. Athe imitation of an action only✓
2. Bthe purgation of pity only✓
3. Cthe serial instalment of plot✓
4. Dthe spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings✓

Lyrical Ballads with Wordsworth and Coleridge aimed to

1. Arenew English poetry through simple subjects and language✓
2. Brestore strict neoclassical rules✓
3. Cban all feeling✓
4. Dimitate only French tragedy✓

Wordsworth chooses humble subjects such as

1. Acourtly epic heroes only✓
2. Brustic life and common feelings✓
3. Cfactory inspectors only✓
4. DParty officials only✓

Wordsworth criticizes eighteenth-century poetic diction as

1. Aartificial and removed from real speech✓
2. Btoo plain and sincere✓
3. Ctoo scientific only✓
4. Dtoo Homeric✓

Coleridge defines fancy as

1. Athe highest creative faculty identical to primary imagination✓
2. Bonly tragic hamartia✓
3. Cthe mode of memory emancipated from time and space, blending images✓
4. Donly Puritan allegory✓

Coleridge's Biographia Literaria discusses

1. AVictorian novel serials only✓
2. Bimagination, fancy, and his collaboration with Wordsworth✓
3. CNewspeak rules only✓
4. DFather Brown mysteries only✓

Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief" allows

1. Atotal rejection of all fiction✓
2. Baudience acceptance of artistic illusion for poetic faith✓
3. Cbelief that stage events are literal fact✓
4. Dban on all supernatural poetry✓

Matthew Arnold's The Function of Criticism at the Present Time argues criticism should

1. Apromote only national prejudice✓
2. Bignore the best that is known✓
3. Csee the object as in itself it really is✓
4. Dreplace all creative art✓

Arnold describes the critical effort as

1. Apartisan shouting for one school✓
2. Ba disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best✓
3. Cpure market advertising✓
4. Drejection of all standards✓

Arnold contrasts creative epochs with uncreative ones needing

1. Acriticism to sift and circulate ideals✓
2. Bonly more propaganda✓
3. Conly Gothic terror✓
4. Donly serial novels✓

Arnold is associated with the critical standard

1. ANewspeak simplicity only✓
2. BPuritan law only✓
3. Chigh seriousness and touchstones of excellence✓
4. DGothic shock only✓

Aristotle's concept of mimesis means

1. Apure random ornament✓
2. Bimitation or representation of action and character✓
3. Conly historical chronicle without art✓
4. Donly moral fable without drama✓

Aristotle ranks epic below tragedy in emotional power because tragedy is

1. Aalways longer and therefore stronger✓
2. Bpurely comic✓
3. Cmore concentrated and performed✓
4. Dwithout hamartia✓

Johnson edited Shakespeare in

1. Athe Anglo-Saxon era✓
2. Bthe year 1719 only✓
3. Cthe Oceania Ministry✓
4. Dthe eighteenth century, establishing scholarly annotation✓

Wordsworth's "emotion recollected in tranquillity" describes

1. Athe poetic process of reflecting on past feeling✓
2. Binstant automatic writing without thought✓
3. Cpure political pamphleteering✓
4. DGothic shock without memory✓

Coleridge's secondary imagination

1. Aonly stores fixed images unchanged✓
2. Bdissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate✓
3. Crejects all art✓
4. Dequals fancy exactly✓

Arnold criticizes contemporary English culture for

1. Atoo much classical learning only✓
2. Btoo much Homeric study only✓
3. Cphilistinism and inadequate standards of judgment✓
4. Dtoo much Gothic architecture only✓

The classical unities (time, place, action) are associated with

1. ARomantic lake poetry only✓
2. Bneoclassical dramatic theory influenced by Aristotle✓
3. CModernist stream of consciousness✓
4. DVictorian triple-decker novels only✓

Johnson praises Shakespeare's universality because his works

1. Aplease many ages and nations✓
2. Bobey one afternoon only✓
3. Creject all kings✓
4. Davoid nature entirely✓

Wordsworth and Coleridge are central figures in

1. AEnglish Romantic literary theory✓
2. BPuritan Boston fiction✓
3. CVictorian factory reports only✓
4. DHigh Modernist manifestos only✓

Aristotle says the tragic hero should be

1. Aa comic fool only✓
2. Bbetter than average yet not perfectly virtuous✓
3. Ca divine being without flaw✓
4. Dan anonymous chorus only✓

Catharsis is achieved through

1. Arandom digression without plot✓
2. Bpure description of scenery✓
3. Cnovelistic serial cliffhangers only✓
4. Dthe structured arousal and resolution of pity and fear✓

Johnson's moral criticism asks whether literature

1. Amust avoid all characters✓
2. Bmust copy Greek language✓
3. Cconveys beneficial truth about life✓
4. Dmust ban comedy✓

Wordsworth rejects poetic diction borrowed from

1. Areal men in vivid sensation✓
2. Bcommon rural speech✓
3. Cartificial eighteenth-century conventions✓
4. Dsincere feeling✓

Coleridge's table talk and lectures influenced

1. ANewspeak design only✓
2. BVictorian bankruptcy law only✓
3. CRomantic theories of symbol and imagination✓
4. DPuritan embroidery only✓

Arnold's touchstone method compares new work to

1. Aonly bestselling serials✓
2. Bshort passages from acknowledged masterpieces✓
3. Conly political slogans✓
4. Donly Gothic chapbooks✓

Hamartia differs from simple villainy because it involves

1. Acomic punning only✓
2. Berror within a figure of stature, not mere evil✓
3. CPastoral description only✓
4. DNewspeak only✓

Aristotle prefers endings that evoke

1. Apity and fear followed by catharsis, not mere shock✓
2. Bunrelieved comic marriage only✓
3. Cpure propaganda✓
4. Drandom deus ex machina without logic✓

Johnson notes Shakespeare's plots are often

1. Ainvented without any precedent✓
2. Bcopied exactly from Poetics✓
3. Cwritten in Newspeak✓
4. Dloosely drawn from history and romance sources✓

Wordsworth's preface attacks the "gaudy and inane phraseology" of

1. Aplain speech of rustics✓
2. Bspontaneous feeling✓
3. Clyrical ballads✓
4. Dpseudo-poetic diction✓

Coleridge credits Wordsworth with showing that

1. Aonly kings deserve poetry✓
2. Bonly Greek is poetic✓
3. Clow subjects can carry profound feeling✓
4. Donly prose essays matter✓

Arnold's "disinterestedness" means criticism should avoid

1. Apractical and political urgencies that distort judgment✓
2. Ball learning✓
3. Call comparison✓
4. Dall reading✓

Romantic criticism shifts emphasis toward

1. Astrict neoclassical rules only✓
2. Bimagination, emotion, and the poet's creative role✓
3. Cban on feeling✓
4. Dexclusive didactic fable✓

Aristotle's Poetics influenced later critics through

1. Aserial novel instalments only✓
2. BVictorian copyright law only✓
3. CFather Brown detection only✓
4. Danalytic vocabulary for plot, character, and tragic effect✓

Johnson's edition of Shakespeare helped establish

1. ANewspeak grammar rules✓
2. BVictorian serial cliffhangers✓
3. Cscholarly annotation and textual commentary in English criticism✓
4. DModernist stream of consciousness✓