Literary Criticism Questions Rajshahi University

Rajshahi University Dept. of English Questions on Literary Criticism 2020-2013

B.A. (Honours) English Part III Examination 2020
Course 306 (Literary Criticism)
Full Marks: 90   Time: 4 Hours
[N.B. Question no. 6 carries 10 marks, and the others carry 20 marks each. Answer question no. 6 and FOUR others.]

1. a) The term ‘mimesis in the Poetics must be taken as referring not to some kind of aid or parallel to nature, but to the making of a likeness or image of nature. Discuss.
Or, b) How does Aristotle, in the Poetics, formulate the distinction between simple and complex plots?

2. a) Comment on how Wordsworth exalts the nature of poetry in Preface to Lyrical Ballads. Or,
b) How does Wordsworth emphasize the individualism of the poet in his Preface to Lyrical Ballads?

3. a) How does Coleridge explain his ideas of a poem and poetry itself in Biographia Literaria?
Or. b) How does Coleridge examine the distinction between imagination and fancy in his Biographia Literaria?

(4. a) In “Tradition and the Individual Talent”, Eliot’s conception of art focuses attention not upon the
poet but upon poetry. Elucidate. Or,
b) How does Eliot demonstrate the interdependence between a poet and his tradition in “Tradition and the Individual Talent?

5. a) “Intentional Fallacy” challenges the Romantic conception of literature as a vehicle of personal expression. Elucidate.
Or. b) Affective fallacy involves the error of evaluation of a text on the basis of its emotional effects on the reader. Expand on the statement.

6. Write short notes on any TWO of the following:
a) Pity and Fear
b) Depersonalization
c) Historical Sense
d) Recollection in Tranquility
e) Objective Correlative
f) Hubris


Rajshahi University
BA Honours Part Ill Examination 2019 : English
Course: 306 (Literary Criticism)
Time: 4 Hours Full Marks: 90

[NB: Question 6 carries 10 marks and the others carry 20 marks each. Answer question 6 and four others.]

  1. a) In the Poetics, Aristotle contends that the plot is the soul and first principle of tragedy. Or,
    b) For Aristotle, catharsis implies the purification or aesthetic depersonalization of our usually selfish emotions of pity and fear. Comment. 
  2. a) In Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth expatiates on the nature of the poetic process, the origin and purpose of poetry, and the language most suitable for it. Elucidate. Or,
    b) “There neither is nor can be any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.” Do you agree with this statement? Give reasons for your answer.
  3. a) How does Coleridge criticize Wordsworth’s theories in the Biographia Literaria? Or,
    b) How does Coleridge formulate his theory of imagination and its implications for the art of poetry in the Biographia Literaria?
  1. a) In “Tradition and the Individual Talent”, Eliot states categorically: “No poet, no artist of any sort, has his complete meaning alone.” Explain the implications of this statement. Or,
    b) How is Eliot’s view of poetry different from the Romantic poetic ideals?
  1. a) Why does Eagleton, in The Rise of English, draw our attention to the fact that the era of the academic establishment of English is also the era of high imperialism in England? Elucidate in the light of The Rise of English. Or,
    b) How does Eagleton differentiate between 18th and 19th-century views of literature in The Rise of English?
  2. Write short notes on any two of the following:
    a) A complex plot
    b) Esemplastic power
    c) Poetic diction
    d) F. R. Leavis
    e) Dante

BA Honours Part Ill Examination 2018
Department of English
Course: 306 (Literary Criticism)
Full Marks: 90          Time 4 hours

[Question no.8 carries 10 marks and others carry 20 marks each. Answer question no. 8 and four others. Question no. 2 is from 2016 syllabus]

  1.  a) Aristotle in Poetics defines poetry as imitation. Explore the implications of this definition. Or
    b) Discuss reversal, discovery and calamity as elements of a complex plot. What are the different kinds of discovery?
  2. a) Comment on Johnson’s evaluation of Shakespeare in his Preface to Shakespeare as a poet of nature. Or,
    b) How does Johnson defend Shakespeare’s violation of the unities of time and place? 
  3. a) How does Wordsworth glorify poets and poetry  in Preface to Lyrical Ballads? Or,
    b)  Wordsworth’s theory of poetry enunciated in the Preface is full of contradictions. Refute or justify this statement.
  4. a) Secondary imagination is “identical with the primary in the kind of its agency, and differing only in degree and in the mode of its operation.” Elucidate. Or,
    b) How does Coleridge analyse the originality of Wordsworth’s poetry in Biographia Literaria?
  5.  a) Why does Arnold, in The Study of Poetry, state categorically that poetry is a religious act? Or,
    b) Comment on Arnold’s evaluation of Pope and Dryden as poets in his The Study of Poetry.
  6.  a) How does Eliot clarify our understanding of the interaction between an individual poet and her/his “Tradition and the Individual Talent“? Or
    b)  In”Tradition and the Individual Talent” Eliot emphasises the necessity of differentiating the eperience of the man from the activity of the artist. Elucidate.
  7. a) Why does Eagleton attribute the growth of English studies in the later nineteenth century to the failure of religion? Or,
    b) English in England was “the offspring of the provincial petty bourgeoisie.” Explain how. 

a) ln Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth asserts that poetry is the expression or overflow of feeling, or emerges from a process of imagination in which feelings play the crucial part. Elucidate. Write short notes on any two of the following:
a) Poetic Truth and Historical Truth
b) Depersonalisation
c) Fancy
d) Hubris
e) Catalyst


BA (Honours) English P-III Examination 2017
Course: 306 (Literary Criticism)
Time: 4 hours     Full Marks: 90[Answer Question No. 8 and Four others. Q. each.) No. 8 carries 10 marks and the others carry 20 marks each.]

  1. a) What does Aristotle say in Poetics about the media, objects and manner of poetic imitation? Or,
    b) What, according to Aristotle, are the constituent elements of tragedy? Comment on the  interdependence of their relationship. 
  2. a) ln Preface to Shakespeare, the penetrating power of Johnson’s perception enables him to be an even-headed critic of Shakespeare. Comment. Or,
    b) “Shakespeare with his excellences has likewise faults….” What excellences and faults of Shakespeare does Johnson point out in his Preface to Shakespeare? 
  3. a) ln Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth asserts that poetry is the expression or overflow of feeling, or emerges from a process of imagination in which feelings play the crucial part. Elucidate. Or,
    b) Write a critique on Wordsworth’s four stages of poetic development. 
  4. a) What is Coleridge’s view of the language of poetry in Biographia Literaria? How is it diffferent from Wordsworth’s view in Preface to Lyrical Balalds? Or,
    b)  What, according to Coleridge, are the principal features of the secondary imagination? Comment on the relationship between the secondary imagination and the primary imagination. 
  5. a) “Poetry is not a turning-loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality.” How does Eliot validate this statement in “Tradition and individual Talent”? Or,
    b) Tradition involves the perception of the presentness of the past as well as the pastness of the present. Explain with reference to ‘Tradition and the Individual Talentu.
  6. (a) How does Arnold determine the principal features of a classic in The Study of Poetry? Or,
    (b) What is Arnold’s view of Chaucer as a poet?
  1. (a) How does Eagleton evaluate the achievement of the Scrutiny movement in the context of the growth of English studies in the early 1930s in “The Rise of English”? Or,
    (b) Why does Eagleton assert that the era of the academic establishment of English is also the era of high imperialism in England?

Write short notes on any two of the following:
(a) personal estimate and historic estimate
(b) esemplastic power
(c) pity and fear
(d)Shakespeare as a poet of nature
(e) poetic diction


BA Honours English Part III Examination 2016 
Course 306: Literary Criticism
Full Marks: 90   Time:4 Hours

[Question no. 8 carries 10 marks and Others carry 20 marks each. Answer question no. 8 and four others.]

1. a) Why does Aristotle, in Poetics,contend that the plot is the life-blood of tragedy?
b) Why does Aristotle, in Poetics, assert that the full tragic effect requires the union of the emotions of pity and fear?

2. a) Examine Johnson’s defense of Shakespeare’s mingling of the comic and the tragic in his Preface to Shakespeare. Or,
b)Johnson’s failure to appreciate the tragedies of Shakespeare can be attributed to his preconceived opinions and grievances. Discuss.

3. a)Do you support Wordsworth’s statement that “there neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition “? Give reasons for your answer. Or,
b) How, according to Wordsworth, is a poet different from and superior to ordinary men?

4. a) Why does Coleridge assert, in Biographia Literaria, that fancy and imagination “are two distinct and widely different faculties”? Or,
b) Biogaphia Literaria contains some of the most penetrating insights into the nature of Wordsworth’s poetry. Elucidate.

5. a)What does Eliot say in “Tradition and Individual Talent” about the relation between a present poet and poets of the past? Or,
b) For Eliot a poem is to be assessed by what it is rather than by what it says. Discuss.

6. a) Comment on Eagleton’s view of literature as expressed in “The Rise of English”. Or,
b) How, according to Eagleton, was English literature used as an alternative ideology in Victorian England?

7. a) How does Trilling demonstrate the relevance of the Freudian method of interpretation to literary studies in “Freud and Literature”? Or,
b) How does Trilling analyze the inadequacies of the Freudian method of interpreting literature in “Freud and Literature”?

8. Write short notes on any two of the following:
a) Simple and complex plots
b) Dramatic Unities
c) Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
d) Poetic Truth and Historical Truth


 

BA (Hons) English Part II Examination 2015
Course: 306 (Literary Criticism)
Time: 4 hours   Marks: 90
[N. B. Question No. 8 carries 10 marks others carry 20 marks each. Answer Question No 8 any four others.]

1. a) How does Aristotle examine the relationship between plot and character in the Poetics?
Or, b) Analyse Aristotle’s distinction between tragedy and epic. How does he prove that tragedy is the better of the two?

2. a) How does Johnson, in his “Preface to Shakespeare”, exalt Shakespeare as a poet of nature? Or,
b) In his criticism of Shakespeare, Johnson at once follows and deviates from the Neo-Classical
tenets. Elucidate.

3. a) “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” provides a theoretical justification for a new kind of poetry. Comment. Or,
b) Discuss Wordsworth’s views about the characters, incidents and situations to be treated in
poetry. To what extent do you agree with him?

4. a) How does Coleridge analyse the nature of Wordsworth’s poetry in Biographia Literaria? Or,
b) Analyse Coleridge’s definitions of the primary imagination and the secondary imagination.

5. a) Eliot in “Tradition and Individual Talent” appears to uphold both innovation and conservatism in
literary form. Show how. Or,
b) Critically discuss Eliot’s contention that poetry is “an escape from equation…an escape from
Personality”.

6. a) Comment on Eagleton’s main argument about the rise and role of English literary studies in “The Rise of English”. Or,
b) Discuss how Eagleton views the theoretical development in English up to the New Criticism phase.

7. a) In “Freud and Literature”, Trilling argues that psychoanalysis cannot determine the true meaning of a work of art, because there is no single meaning, Elucidate.
Or, b) How, according to Trilling, does Freudian psychology make poetry “indigenous to the very
constitution of the mind”?

8. Write short notes on any two of the following:
a) Catharsis
b) Poetic diction
c) Depersonalisation
d) Unity of action
e) Poetic justice


BA Honours English Part III Exanıination 2014
Course 306 : Literary Criticism
Time: 4 Hours   Full Marks: 90
[Question 6 carries 10 marks and others carry 20 marks each. Answer Question 6 and Four others.]

1. a) What does Aristotle say about the media, objects, and manner of poetịc imitation? Or,
b) Aristotle’s emphasis falls on the imitation in words of human action, passion and characters. Discuss.

2. a) According to Johnson, Shakespeare’s merits far outweigh his faults. Comment.
Or, b) Comment on Johnson’s evaluation of Shakespeare as a writer of tragedy and that of comedy.

3. a) Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria contains an outstanding important critique of Wordsworth’s poetry. Elucidate.
Or, b) In Biogruphia Literaria Coleridge provides a philosophical explanation of the distinction between fancy and imagination. Comment.

4. a) What, according to Wordsworth, are the four stages of the process of the poetic creation? Elaborate. Or,
b) Wordsworth denies the existence of any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition. Discuss the implication of this denial.

5. a) How does Eliot explore the complex nature of the interaction between the impersonality of tradition and the personality of the artist in “Tradition and the Individual Talent”?
Or, b) Write an essay on Eliot’s theory of depersonalization with reference to his “Tradition and the Individual Talent”.

6. Write short notes on any two of the following:
a) Pity and Fear
b) Escmplastic power
c) The structure and the texture of a poem
d) Wordsworth’s views on metre.


BA Honours English Part III Examination 2013
Course 306 : (Literary Criticism)
Time: 4 hours  Full Marks: 90
[ N.B. Question- 6 carries 10 marks and others carry 20 marks each. Answer Questions 6 and four
Others.]

1. a) What, according to Aristotle, are the constituent elements of tragedy? Comment on the interdependence of their relationship.
Or. b) For Aristotle, catharsis implies the purification or aesthetic depersonalisation of our selfish emotions. Elucidate.

2. a) Comment on Shakespeare as a poet of nature in the light of Johnson’s Preface to Shakespeare. Or,
b) Johnson’s praise for Shakespeare does not blind him to the poet of nature’s weaknesses. Discuss

3. a) What, according to toʻWordsworth’s Preface to Lyrical Ballads, are the basic stages of poetic composition? Discuss them in detail. Or,
b) According to Wordsworth, the most important function of poetry is, by its pleasurable resources, to foster and subtilise the sensibility, emotions, and sympathies of the reader. Elucidate

4. a) What, according to Coleridge, is the secondary imagination? Identify the hallmark of this specific faculty. Or,
b) What is Coleridge’s view of Wordswortli’s view of poetry, as expressed in Biographia Literaria?

5. a) What does Eliot mean by ‘tradition’ and historical sense’ in his “Tradition and the Individual Talent”? Or.
bj Write an essay on Eliot’s theory of impartiality in the light of your reading of “Tradition and the Individual Talent”.

6. Write short notes on any two of the following:
a) Poetic diction
b) Plot
c) Primary imagination
d) Anxiety of influence

Rajshahi University Dept. of English Syllabus on Literary Criticism 2020

  • Biographia Literaria by S. T. Coleridge
  • Tradition and the Individual Talent by T. S. Eliot
  • Preface to Lyrical Ballads by W. Wordsworth
  • Affective Fallacy and Intentional Fallacy (2020)
  • “The Rise of English” by Terry Eagleton (2019)

The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

পাঠক অবশ্যই এবিষয়ে উৎসুক হবেন যে, The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy এর কোন বিষয়টি আমরা আলোচনা করব – Summary, Theme, নাকি অন্যকিছু? বাস্তবে আমরা করব Paraphrase, কেননা :

ইংরেজি ভাষা শেখার মাধ্যম হিসেবে মাতৃভাষা বাংলার ব্যবহারে English Book BD বদ্ধপরিকর। তবে, ইংরেজি ভাষা শেখার উৎকর্ষের জন্য, ইংরেজি কোন লেখার অনুবাদ বাংলায় না শিখে বরং সহজতর ইংরেজিতে বোঝার চেষ্টা করা উচিত। যুগ যুগ ধরে চলে আসা ELT নিয়ে সহস্র গবেষণার ফলে লব্ধ একটি সিদ্ধান্ত এটি। আমরা চাই, englishbookbd.com প্রচলিত গাইডবইয়ের কোন নতুন সংস্করণ না হোক। আর সেজন্যই ইংরেজি ভাষার শিক্ষার্থীদের নিকট অনুরোধ রইবে, জটিল ইংরেজির অর্থ সহজ ইংরেজিতে বুঝতে শিখুন। আর সেই শেখার পথে বাংলা ভাষায় দিকনির্দেশনা দেবার জন্যই নিবেদিত রয়েছি আমরা – প্রিয় শিক্ষার্থী – আপনার স্কুল-কলেজ বা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের শিক্ষার মাধ্যম বাংলা বলে হীনম্মন্যতায় ভুগবেন না। বাংলা ভাষাতেই আপনাকে সর্বোচ্চ ইংলিশ মিডিয়াম প্রতিষ্ঠানের সমান, বরঞ্চ উন্নততর নির্দেশনা দিতে আমরা বদ্ধপরিকর।

সহজ ভাষায় কঠিন বিষয়টিকে বুঝিয়ে বলার নামই Paraphrase ; Paraphrase পড়ার মাধ্যমে একজন শিক্ষার্থী text টি বুঝতে ও প্রকৃতভাবে শিখতে অগ্রসর হয়। সেজন্য, English book BD মনে করে, এজাতীয় resource সহজলভ্য করার মাধ্যমে তা ইংরেজি সাহিত্য বুঝতে প্রচলিত Summary মুখস্তবিদ্যার একটি কার্যকর বিকল্প হয়ে উঠতে পারে। Thomas Hardyর বিখ্যাত কবিতা The Darkling Thrush এর Paraphrase দিয়েই শুরু হচ্ছে এই আমাদের যাত্রা – সকলের শুভকামনা প্রার্থী।

Name of the Poem : The Darkling Thrush

Poet : Thomas Hardy

[The Thrush is ‘darkling’ means that the song bird or ‘thrush’ sang as night was approaching]

First Stanza :

I leant upon a coppice gate
      When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
      The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
      Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
      Had sought their household fires.

 

Paraphrase of the first stanza : I rested myself against a gate of timber (the gate of entering the new century), when the surrounding became covered with ghostly grey coloured frost (on a winter evening). Dregs of winter (or snowflakes) made the setting sun look very lonely and isolated from the rest of the atmosphere. (Suddenly my eyes fell on) the twisted together pair of bine stems a summer flower which seemed (to be so high reaching,) as if the broken strings of a (heavenly) lyre fell down on earth. (The dead flower stems reminded me of summer, as if, it was a reminder of the warmth and melody it had provided before). And all the people who gazed near around the day had taken shelter in the warmth of their household fireplace. (The demise of summer had left the world behind like an abandoned and colourless valley in the grasp of the harshness of winter.)

 

Second stanza :

The land’s sharp features seemed to be
      The Century’s corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
      The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
      Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
      Seemed fervourless as I.
 

 

Paraphrase of the second stanza: The sharp outlines of the winter landscape seemed to me like the sharpness of a corpse (specifically, the corpse of the dying nineteenth century). The cloudy sky above the forest seemed like its tomb and the harsh sound of winter wind, its death-lament. The pulse (throbbing heartbeat) of germination and birth got assumed to be hard and dry as the dead. And every living creature seemed devoid of intensity and passion, likely as I, myself was.

 

Third Stanza :

At once a voice arose among
      The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
      Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
      In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
      Upon the growing gloom.
 

 

Paraphrase of the third stanza : At this nadir, suddenly a voice arose from above the woody shoots of the dead summer flower (bleak-twigs) and sounded full of incitement and melodious as the evening prayer. An aged thrush (song bird) having lean figure and exhausted outlook (which indicated its survival through the struggling hard winter) was discovered to deliver the tune. It appeared to me that the thrush, through its spirit-enlivening song, tried to rescue the ones who lost their heart and hope due to the gloomy atmosphere then, created by the deepening twilight as night approached

 

Fourth stanza:

So little cause for carolings
      Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
      Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
      His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
      And I was unaware.
 

 

Paraphrase of the fourth stanza : I found very distant and little cause for the singing of the bird with such ecstasy and its expression of vigorous and lively joy from inside in such scruffy landscape and its harsh wintry weather. I assume God had wilfully written (bestowed) on the thrush’s throat, the carolling (singing) enchanted with lures from paradise, for reviving hope into us, when we become frail and mournful. May be, the thrush had known some reasons of hope, which I, myself was ignorant of.

List of Important Vocabulary

  • Darkling : adjective : (literary) Growing dark or characterized by darkness (OED)
  • Thrush : noun : A small or medium-sized songbird, typically having a brown back, spotted breast, and loud song (OED)

Stanza  1

  • Leant : verb : Past form of Lean [Be in a sloping position (OED)]
  • Coppice : noun : an area of closely planted trees in which the trees are cut back regularly to provide wood  (CED)
  • Frost : (mass/collective) noun : A deposit of small white ice crystals formed on the ground or other surfaces when the temperature falls below freezing (OED)
  • Spectre : adjective : like a ghost; connected with a ghost (OED)
  • Dregs : noun : the last parts of something (OED )
  • Desolate : adjective : A desolate place is empty and not attractive, with no people or nothing pleasant in it (CED)
  • Weakening : verb : present participle form of Weaken [become weaker in power, resolve, or physical strength (OED)]
  • Tangled : adjective : together in an untidy way (OED)
  • Bine : noun : a long, flexible stem of a climbing plant, especially the hop (OED)
  • Stems : noun : the main long, thin part of a plant above the ground from which the leaves or flowers grow (OED)
  • Scored : verb : Past form of Score [to win points, goals, etc. in a game or competition (OED)]
  • Lyres : noun : an ancient musical instrument consisting of a U-shaped frame with strings attached to it (CED)
  • Haunt : verb : be frequently present at a place
  • Nigh : adverb : (archaic, literary) at a short distance away (OED)
  • Household : noun : A house and its occupants regarded as a unit (OED)

Stanza  2

  • Sharp : adjective : (of an emotion or experience) felt acutely or intensely; painful (OED) 
  • Corpse : noun : a dead body, especially of a human (OED)
  • Outleant : adjective : leant outwards
  • Crypt : noun : a room under the floor of a church where bodies are buried (CED)
  • The Canopy : noun : the uppermost branches of the trees in a forest, forming a more or less continuous layer of foliage (OED)
  • Death-lament : noun : a passionate expression of grief or sorrow for someone’s death (OED)
  • Ancient : adjective : very old; having existed for a very long time (OED)
  • Pulse : noun : A musical beat or other regular rhythm (OED)
  • Germ : noun : an initial stage from which something may develop (CED)
  • Shrunken : adjective : having become smaller in size; wrinkled or shriveled through old age or illness (OED); also Past Participle form of  Shrink (verb)
  • Fervourless : noun : without intense and passionate feeling (OED)

Acknowledgement : The Thomas Hardy Society

To know more about Thomas Hardy, see :  Encyclopaedia Britannica

For more resources on literature, visit our POETRY section.