Previous Years Brief Questions | History of English Literature

 

2013

a)     Which poem is considered the first English epic?

Ans: Beowulf.

b)    What is the masterpiece of Geoffrey Chaucer?

Ans: The Canterbury Tales.

c)     What is ‘Humanism’?

Ans: Humanism is a philosophical and ethical view highlighting individuals’ inherent value and potential and promoting reason, compassion, and human-centered values.

d)    Who wrote Gorboduc?

Ans: Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton.

e)     When was The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads published?

Ans: 1801.

f)      What kind of movement was the English Renaissance?

Ans: ‘The English Renaissance’ was a cultural and artistic movement in England lasting from the late 15th to the early 17th century.

g)     Who popularized ‘the comedy of manners’?

Ans: William Congreve.

h)    Who was known as ‘the father of English Dictionary’?

Ans: Dr. Samuel Johnson.

i)      Who were the metaphysical poets?

Ans: John Donne, Marvel, Herbert, Cowley, Carew and Vaughan.

j)      What is Victorian conflict?

Ans: Victorian conflicts are faith and doubt, science and religion, democracy and monarchism.

k)    When did the Modern Era begin in English literature?

Ans: At the beginning 20th century.

l)      Name the university wits.

Ans: University wits are Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe, John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, George Peele and Thomas Kyd.

 

2014

a) What is the Black Death?

Ans: The Black Death was a bubonic plague pandemic in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353.

b) What is a morality play?

Ans: A morality play is a dramatic form with symbolic characters and themes that teach moral lessons prevalent in medieval theatre.

c) Which age is called the Golden Age of English Literature?

 Ans: The Elizabethan Age is known as the ‘Golden Age of English Literature’.

d) Who is called the Poet’s poet?

 Ans: Edmund Spenser is called the ‘Poet’s poet’ in English literature.

e) Who are called “Cavalier Poets”?

Ans: The “Cavalier Poets” were a group of English poets during the 17th century known for their royalist and libertine themes, including figures like Herrick, Lovelace, and Suckling.

f) What was the slogan of the French Revolution?

 Ans: The slogan of the French Revolution was “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.

g) What is ‘The Oxford Movement’?

Ans: The Oxford Movement was a 19th-century Anglican religious revival in England, emphasizing Catholic-like liturgy, doctrine, and tradition within the Church of England.

h) Who are the Pre-Raphaelites?

Ans: Pre-Raphaelites are a secret society of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

i) What is the stream of consciousness?

Ans: Stream of consciousness is a narrative style that presents a character’s unfiltered thoughts and feelings as they occur, often in a continuous, reflective flow.

j) What is an Absurd Drama?

 Ans: Absurd Drama is a kind of Drama that presents the meaninglessness of human existence on earth.

k) Name two critical essays of TS. Eliot?

 Ans: “Tradition and the Individual Talent” and “Hamlet and His Problems” are the two critical essays of T.S Eliot.

1) What is Puritanism?

Ans: Puritanism was a religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th centuries that emerged to purify the English Church.

 

2015

(a) Why is the year 1066 important in studying English literary History?

Ans: The year 1066 is important in studying English Literary History because it is the year of the Norman Conquest and the opening of Anglo-Norman literature in England.

(b) How many tales each pilgrim had to tell in ‘The Canterbury Tales’?

Ans: In ‘The Canterbury Tales’ each pilgrim had to tell four tales: two on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back.

(c) What kind of book is Milton’s Areopagitica?

 Ans: Milton’s ‘Areopagitica’ is a booklet arguing for the liberty of unlicensed printing.

(d) What is the Globe Theatre?

Ans: Shakespeare’s playing company built The Globe Theatre in 1599 in London.

(e) Why is 1798 a landmark in English Literature?

Ans: The year 1798 is essential in studying romantic poetry for the publication of “Lyrical Ballads” by William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge.

(f) What is “Drama of Ideas”?

Ans: “Drama of Ideas” is a type of play in which a battle of conflicting ideas is presented through the characters.

(g) When did the Restoration occur, and who was restored to the English Throne?

Ans: The Restoration took place on May 29, 1660. Charles II was restored to the English Throne.

(h) Which age is known as the Augustan Age in English Literature?

Ans: The first half of the 18th century in English literature is known as the Augustan Age.

(i) Who are called the pioneers of English novels?

 Ans: Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne are called the pioneers of English novels.

(j) What was the national identity of W. B. Yeats?

Ans: W.B. Yeats was an Irish.

(k) What is the Oxford Movement?

Ans: The Oxford Movement was a 19th-century Anglican religious revival in England, emphasizing Catholic-like liturgy, doctrine, and tradition within the Church of England.

(l) What are the two cities referred to in the Novel A Tale of Two Cities?

Ans: London and Paris.

 

2016

(a) Who is called the father of English poetry?

Ans: Geoffrey Chaucer is called the father of English poetry.

(b) Who wrote Utopia in Latin since English had no prestige outside England?

 Ans: Sir Thomas More.

 (c) Which royal dynasty was established in the resolution of the so-called War of the Roses and continued through the reign of Elizabeth I?

Ans: The royal dynasty, which was established as the solution to the so-called War of the Roses and continued through the reign of Elizabeth I, is Tudor.

(d) Name four plays written by William Shakespeare.

Ans: “Romeo and Juliet”, “Hamlet”, “Macbeth”, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”are the four plays by William Shakespeare.

(e) What is Milton’s purpose behind writing “Paradise Lost”?

Ans: Milton’s purpose behind writing “Paradise Lost” is to justify the ways of God to men.

(f) What is The Pilgrim’s Progress?

 Ans: The Pilgrim’s Progress is an allegorical novel written by John Bunyan.

(g) What is Satire?

Ans: Satire is a form of humor or critique that uses irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to mock or criticize societal flaws or absurdities.

(h) Why is Alexander Pope famous in English literature?

Ans: Alexander Pope was a renowned English poet known for his satirical works, mastery of the heroic couplet, and translation of Homer, making him a highly quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, second only to Shakespeare.

(i) In which year did the French Revolution take place?

Ans: During the period from 1789 to 1799.

(j) Who defined poetry as a ‘Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”?

Ans: William Wordsworth.

(k) What signifies the Victorian ‘Age?

Ans: Stability, progress, and social reforms, along with significant problems such as poverty, injustice, and social unrest, represent the Victorian Age.

 (l) Who are called the Brontes?

 Ans: The Brontes are three sisters—Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte.

 

2017

(a) Who was Caedmon?

 Ans: Caedmon is the first known poet of English.

(b) What is “Waiting for Godot”?

 Ans: An absurdist play by Samuel Becket.

(c) Write down the names of four metaphysical poets.

Ans: John Donne, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Crawshaw.

(d) What is ‘comedy of humours’?

Ans: ‘Comedy of Humours’ is a type of comedy that focuses on a character or range of characters, each revealing two or more ‘humor’ that dominate their personality, desires, and conduct.

(e) Name the most celebrated writing of Jonathan Swift.

Ans: “Gulliver’s Travels”.

(f) Whose poems make up “Lyrical Ballads”?

Ans: W. Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge jointly published The Lyrical Ballads.

(g) Who are called the “Lake Poets”?

Ans: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey.

(h) Who was Oliver Cromwell?

Ans: Oliver Cromwell was the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland between 1653 and 1658. He was an English military and political leader.

(i) What was the slogan of the French Revolution?

Ans: The slogan of the French Revolution was “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.

(j) Name two of the major literary creations of Edmund Spenser.

Ans: “The Shepheardes Calender” and “The Faerie Queene.”

(k) What is “Pamela”?

Ans: “Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded”, is an epistolary novel by English writer Samuel Richardson, first published in 1740.

 (l) Who wrote “Robinson Crusoe”?

 Ans: Daniel Defoe.

 

2018

A)  When did the Old English Period begin?

Ans: In the 5th century.

b) Who is the first translator of the Bible?

Ans: John Wycliffe.

c) What is the Black Death?

Ans: The Black Death was a plague pandemic that devasted Europe from 1347 to 1352 A.D., killing an estimated 25-30 million people.

d) Who wrote Morte d’Arthur?

Ans:Sir Thomas Malory wrote Morte d’Arthur.

e) What is a Gunpowder plot?

Ans: Catholics plotted to explode the king and Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot, a historical event.

f) What is “Canterbury Tales”?

Ans: The Canterbury Tales is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400.

g) Which age is known as the age of decadence?

Ans: The Age of Decadence lasted from 1880 to 1914.

b) What is Victorian conflict?

Ans: During the Victorian period, there was a marked conflict between religion and science and between moralists and scientists. That conflict was called the Victorian conflict.

1) Who popularized the comedies of manners?

Ans:George Etherege and William Congreve.

j) Which historical movement influenced English Romantic poetry?

Ans: The French Revolution influenced English Romantic poetry.

k) Who are the dominant poets of the modern age?

Ans: The important poets of the Modern age are T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden, Robert Bridges, G.M. Hopkins, and Dylan Thomas.

1) When did the Oxford Movement begin?

Ans:1830s

 

2019

(a) What is the masterpiece of Geoffrey Chaucer?

Ans: The Canterbury Tales is the masterpiece of Chaucer.

b) Why is 1798 a landmark in the history of English Literature?

Ans:1798 is a landmark in the history of English literature because in this year, the Romantic Period began with the publishing of Lyrical Ballads (1798) by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

(c) What is the first tragedy of English Literature?

Ans: Gorboduc, written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, is the earliest English tragedy.

(d) Which poem is considered as the first English epic?

Ans: Beowulf, a long narrative poem is considered as the first English epic.

(e) Name the University Wits.

Ans: Dramatists like Christopher Marlowe. Thomas Kyd, John Lyly, George Peele, Robert Greene, Thomas Nash and Thomas Lodge are called the University Wits.

(D) Who write ‘Gorboduc”?

Ans: The play Gorboduc was jointly written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville.

(g) In which year did the glorious revolution occur?

Ans: The Glorious Revolution occurred in 1688.

(h) Who is called the Poet’s poet?

Ans: Edmund Spenser was called the poet’s poet by Charles Lamb.

(i) How many tales each pilgrim had to tell in ‘The Canterbury Tales’?

Ans: The owner of the Tabard Inn proposed that each of the pilgrims had to tell four stories, two on the way to Canterbury and two more on the way back.

(j) What kind of book is Milton’s Areopagitica?

Ans: Aeropagitica, written by John Milton, is a prose work that sought the freedom of the press.

k) Who is called the father of English prose?

Ans: Alfred, the king of Wessex, is widely regarded as ‘the father of English prose’.

(1) Write the names of three modern poets.

Ans: T.S Eliot, W.B Yeats, and W.H Auden are the three important modern poets.

 

2020

(a) What type of writing is Beowulf?

Ans: Beowulf is the first English epic poem.

b) Which play is considered the first English Comedy?

Ans: Ralph Roister Doister by Nicholas Udall is the first English comedy.

(c) Who is the writer of ‘The Spanish Tragedy”?

Ans: Thomas Kyd wrote the play The Spanish Tragedy.

(d) Who was the first translator of the Bible into English?

 Ans: John Wycliffe.

e) When did the Age of Chaucer begin?

Ans: The age of Chaucer began in 1340.

F) Who is called the father of English poetry?

Ans: Geoffrey Chaucer is called the ‘father of English poetry’.

(g) When did the “French Revolution” take place?

Ans: The French Revolution occurred in 1789 in France.

(h) What is ‘Reformation’?

Ans: The 16th-century Western Church experienced a religious revolution, famously called the Protestant Reformation.

(i) Who wrote “The Spectator”?

Ans: Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison wrote “The Spectator”.

(j) Name two writers of the Augustan Age.

Ans: Virgil and Horace.

(k) What is meant by ‘Victorian Compromise”?

Ans: Victorian compromise: Balancing science, religion, faith, and doubt was a prevalent approach during the Victorian era.

(l) What was the nationality of G.B. Shaw?

 Ans: G.B. Shaw was an Irish.

 

2021

 (a) Name two great Anglo-Saxon poets.

Ans: Caedmon and King Alfred.

(b) Who brought French literary ideals and French words into English?

 Ans: Many French words were brought into English by Normans.

(c) Who is William Caxton?

Ans: William Caxton was an English merchant, diplomat, and writer who was the first to introduce a printing press into England in 1476.

(d) What is the first tragedy in English literature?

 Ans: The first English tragedy is Gorboduc (1561), written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton.

(e) When and where was William Shakespeare born?

Ans: William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in April 1564.

F) What is ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’?

Ans: The Pilgrim’s Progress is a 1678 Christian allegory written by John Bunyan.

(g) Who wrote ‘All for Love’?

Ans: John Dryden wrote “All for Love”.

(h) Which age is known as the Augustan Age in English literature?

 Ans: The neo-classical age (1702 – 1745) is known as the Augustan Age in English literature.

I) What is the time span of the Romantic Age?

Ans: From 1798 to 1832.

J) What is Pantheism?

Ans: Pantheism is the belief that the universe and nature are divine and that divinity is present in everything without a personal god.

(k) Who is called an ‘un-Victorian Poet’ in Victorian literature?

Ans: Robert Browning is called an un-victorian poet of the Victorian age.

(1) Name two English novelists who employed stream of consciousness.

Ans: D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf

 

2022

(a) Name two important prose writers of the Anglo-Saxon period.

Ans: Bede and Alfred the Great.

(b) What is the ‘Pearl’?

Ans: The ‘Pearl’ is a Middle English alliterative poem from the late 14th century. This allegorical poem explores themes of loss, consolation, and spiritual redemption.

(c) Who is Sir John Mandeville?

Ans: Sir John Mandeville is the purported author of “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville,” a medieval travel narrative describing his adventures and journeys through various lands.

(d) Who were the ‘Lollards’?

Ans: The ‘Lollards’ were followers of John Wycliffe, an English theologian and reformer.

(e) Name the four great tragedies by Shakespeare.

Ans:  “Hamlet,” “Othello,” “King Lear,” and “Macbeth.”

(f) What is Puritanism?

Ans: Puritanism was a religious reform movement that emerged within the Church of England in the 16th and 17th centuries.

(g) Define comedy of manners.

Ans: Comedy of manners is a form of comedy that satirizes the behavior and manners of a social class, often focusing on the witty and sophisticated dialogue of characters.

(h) What is a heroic couplet?

Ans: A heroic couplet is a rhymed pair of lines in iambic pentameter, often used in epic and narrative poetry.

(i) Who are called the Lake poets?

Ans: The Lake poets are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey.

(j) Name some prose writers of the Victorian age.

Ans: Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, and many more.

(k) What is “Man and Superman”?

Ans: “Man and Superman” is a play by George Bernard Shaw.

(l) Write the names of three modern poets.

Ans: Sylvia Plath, Langston Hughes, and W.B. Yeats.