Literary Criticism Board Questions (2017 - 2020)
2017
(a). What
are the organic societies?
Answer: The
Organic societies are just favorable myths for belaboring (নিন্দা করা) the modern mechanical
life.
(b). What
does Arnold mean by “Poetry is a criticism of life”?
Answer: Poetry
deals with the ideas of life that the poet finds when he writes a poem, it
becomes the criticism of life.
(c). Whom
does Arnold regard as the ideal poets?
Answer: Arnold
regards Milton, Shakespeare, Virgil, Dante, and Homer as the ideal poets.
(d). What
is dissociation (পৃথকীকরণ) of sensibility?
Answer: The
separation of thought from emotion is the dissociation of sensibility(L)./
Dissociation of sensibility is a literary term first used by T. S. Eliot in his
essay ‘The Metaphysical Poets’. It refers to the way in which intellectual
thought was separated from the experience of feeling in seventeenth-century
poetry.
(e). Why
does T. S. Eliot praise the metaphysical poets?
Answer: Eliot
praises the metaphysical poets for their tendency to be enraged in the task of
trying to find the verbal equivalent for states of mind and feeling.
(f). What
is the connection between ‘Culture and Imperialism’ and ‘Orientalism’?
Answer: The
connection between ‘Culture and Imperialism’ and ‘Orientalism’ is that both
books are written by Edward Said.
(g). What
is ‘Orientalism’ by Edward Said about?
Answer: Edward
Said’s ‘Orientalism‘ is about the Middle East.
(h). Why
do the colonizers deserve the right to rule the colonized?
Answer: The
colonizers were superior to the colonized and so the colonizers deserve the
right of ruling the colonized.
(i). Who,
according to Said, are the children of decolonization and why?
Answer: A new
generation of scholars and critics is called by Said the children of
decolonization because they have seen in great texts of Western literature a
standing interest in the colonized people as inferior races and so they have
encouraged human freedom.
(j). What
is the theme of ‘The Rise of English’?
Answer: The theme
of ‘The Rise of English is the development of English
literature and language from the eighteenth century onwards under British
imperial rule.
(k). What
is the meaning of the word ‘neoclassical’?
Answer: The word
‘neoclassical’ refers to the style of art and literature of eighteenth-century
England, based on the classical models of ancient Greece and Rome.
(l). What
is creative imagination?
Answer: Creative
imagination refers to the ability to reunify past experiences to create new
images for a definite goal.
2018
(a). What,
according to Arnold, is the future of poetry?
Answer: According
to Arnold, the future of poetry is immeasurable (অপরিমেয়)
as it is grabbing the place of religion in the human mind.
(b). What
does Arnold mean by ‘historical estimate’?
Answer: According
to Arnold, the estimate based on the historical importance of writing is called
a ‘historical estimate’.
(c).
Define ‘Charlatanism' (ভণ্ডামি).
Answer: The
presentation of false and fake knowledge devoid (বর্জিত)
of true knowledge is ‘Charlatanism'(L)./Charlatanism is a show of knowledge
where actually there is no true knowledge(FBC).
(d). What
does Eliot mean by ‘sensibility’?
Answer: By
sensibility, Eliot means a fusion of thought and feeling.
(e). How
did Johnson, according to Eliot, define metaphysical poetry?
Answer: By its
flaws and defects, according to Eliot, Johnson defined metaphysical poetry.
(f). Why
is Donne more successful than Cowley?
Answer: Donne’s
use of brief words and sudden contrasts to Cowley in developing comparisons
makes him more successful.
(g). How
does Edward Said associate ‘culture’ with ‘art’?
Answer: Culture
exists in all forms of art whose main objective is to give pleasure in that
sense Edward Said associates culture with art(L)./Said associates ‘culture’
with ‘art’ in the sense that it exists in aesthetic forms aiming at giving
pleasure and it includes all the practice in the art of descriptions,
communication, and representation which are autonomous from economic, social
and political fields.
(h). When
does culture become a source of identity?
Answer: Culture
becomes a source of identity when there is a difference between “us”(the
colonizers) and “them”(the colonized).
(i). What
is post-colonialism in literature?
Answer:
Post-colonialism in literature includes the study of theory and literature as
it relates to the colonizer-colonized experience. Edward Said is the leading
theorist in this field.
(j). What
was Scrutiny?
Answer: Scrutiny
was a quarterly periodical of literary criticism, founded in 1932 by L. C.
Knights and F. R. Leavis, who remained its chief editor until the final issue
in 1953.
(k). What
is the essay ‘The Rise of English’ about?
Answer: The
essay ‘The Rise of English’ deals with the development
of English literature and language from the 18th century
onwards under British rule.
(l). Why
did English literature come into power?
Answer: English
literature came into power mostly because of wartime nationalism. The new
subject was created by the offspring of the bourgeoisie (স্বার্থবাদী শ্রেণী), rather than those
who currently held social power.
2019
(a). What
is poetic truth?
Answer: The term,
‘poetic truth’ means that the subject matter of poetry should correspond to
truth or be true to nature.
(b).
What, according to Eliot, is extremely difficult about metaphysical poetry?
Answer: According
to Eliot, it is extremely difficult to define metaphysical poetry, and to
decide what poets practice it and in which of their verses.
(c). What
was the truth about the non-European world?
Answer: There was
armed resistance as well as cultural resistance in the dominated world(L)./It
was a truth everywhere in the non-European world that the coming of the
White-man brought forth some sort of resistance.
(d). What
is the nature of great literature?
Answer: Great
literature is the product of great men, and its value lies mainly in allowing
the reader’s intimate perception of their souls.
(e). What
is the touchstone method in literary criticism?
Answer: The touchstone method is a method of comparison between the truly great poets of
the past with the new poets to judge the qualities of their creations.
(f). How
is the experience of an ordinary man?
Answer: An
ordinary man’s experience is irregular, fragmentary, and chaotic.
(g). Why
does Edward Said call culture a sort of theatre?
Answer: According
to said, culture is a sort of theatre because different political and
ideological causes engage one another in the field of culture.
(h). How
does Eagleton identify English after the First World War?
Answer: Eagleton
identifies English after the First World War not as a mere subject of study but
as the moral and spiritual essence of social reformation.
(i). What
is the first great principle of criticism?
Answer: The first
great principle of criticism enunciated by Arnold is that disinterestedness or
detachment. Disinterestedness on the part of the critic implies freedom from
all prejudices, personal or historical.
(j). With
whom does Eliot compare the poets of the metaphysical school?
Answer: Eliot
compares the poets of the metaphysical school with their predecessors like
Dante, Guido Caualcanti, Guinicelli, and Cino.
(k). What
is decolonization?
Answer:
Decolonization is the giving of political independence to a country that was
previously a colony under another powerful country.
(l). What
is New Criticism?
Answer: New
Criticism is an approach to literary criticism, dominant in the United States
from the late 1930s to the 1950s, that focuses on a poem or other literary work
as an artistic object possessing value in and of itself.
2020
(a). What
is meant by “Unconscious Poetry”?
Answer: The "unconscious poetry" is known as beyond human hope.
(b). What
does Arnold mean by ‘high seriousness’?
Answer: The term,
‘high seriousness’ aims at the serious treatment of the subject matter or the
grand style.
(c). What
is ‘Orientalism’ and when was it published?
Answer: Orientalism,
the famous critical work of Edward Said was published in 1978. It is a
ground-breaking work demystifying the attitude of the West towards the East.
(d). How
is ‘creative imagination’ defined by Eagleton?
Answer: Creative
imagination refers to the ability to reunify past experiences to create new
images for a definite goal(L)./Eagleton defines creative imagination as a of
non-alienated labor, the intuitive and spiritual essence of the poetic mind
which can provide a living criticism of the rationalist ideologies enslaved to
fact.
(e).
Define ‘charlatanism’.
Answer: The
presentation of false and fake knowledge devoid (বর্জিত)
of true knowledge is ‘Charlatanism'(L)./Charlatanism is a show of knowledge
where actually there is no true knowledge(FBC).
(f). How
is the language of the metaphysical poets?
Answer: The
language of the metaphysical poets is as a rule simple and pure.
(g).
What, according to Edward Said, is crucial to culture and imperialism?
Answer:
Narratives with their power to narrate or to stop other narratives from
emerging, are crucial to culture and imperialism, and constitute the principal
connection between them.
(h). What
is Eagleton’s view of ‘Organic society’?
Answer: The
Organic societies are just favorable myths for belaboring (নিন্দা করা) the modern mechanical
life.
(i). What
does Arnold say about the ‘future of poetry’?
Answer: According
to Arnold, the future of poetry is immeasurable as it is grabbing the place of
religion in the human mind.
(j). What
does Eliot want to conclude about the ‘metaphysical poets’?
Answer: Eliot
wants to conclude that the metaphysical poets are in the direct current of
English poetry, and their faults should be disgraced by this standard rather
than pampered by antiquarian affection.
(k). Who,
according to Said, are the children of ‘decolonization’?
Answer: A new
generation of scholars and critics is called by Said the children of
decolonization because they have seen in great texts of Western literature a
standing interest in the colonized people as inferior races and so they have
encouraged human freedom.
(l). What
is ‘Marxist Literary Criticism’?
Answer: Marxist
literary criticism describes literary criticism that is based on socialist
theories. It interprets a literary work as both a reflection and a product of
economic conflict between social classes, a type of historical criticism of
literature.
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