UGC NET Official Paper 2 (English) Held On - 6th Dec 2019 (Previous Year Paper)

The correct answer is Michael Foucault.

Key Points

• Michael Foucault is one of the French Philosophers.
• The sentence "Discursive practices are not purely and simply modes of manufacture of discourse. They take shape in technical ensembles. in institutions. in behavioral schemes. in types of transmission and dissemination. In pedagogical forms that both impose and maintain them"  is about the nature of socially constructed Truth, Knowledge and Power Relations.

Additional Information

• Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician.
• He is best known for his essays Mythologies.
• Homi Kharshedji Bhabha is an Indian-British scholar and critical theorist.
• He is the Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University.
• Anne F Rothenberg is the Former Chair at Henry e Huntington Library & Art Gallery.
• Bhabha has received Padma Bhushan.
• Gayathri Chakravorty Spivak is a university professor in the humanities at Columbia University and the author of many books.
• The recovery of the subaltern's voice was her subject matter.

Therefore the correct answer is option 2.

The correct answer is Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald.

Key Points

• Scott Fitzgerald was the person who coined the term 'Jazz Age'.
• The 1920s and 1930s were a period when jazz music was much popular.
• Jazz age can be traced in the novel The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway & Fitzgerald's short story collection ***Tales of the Jazz Age (***1922).

Therefore the correct answer is option 1.

Additional Information

• The Jazz Age, also known as the Roaring Twenties, was an era of American history that began after World War I and ended with the onset of the Great Depression in 1929.

The correct answer is "Textual, Critical, and Historical".

Key Points

• The Historical method investigates the Origin of things.
• The primary goal of historical criticism is to discover the text's primitive or original meaning in its original historical context and its literal sense.
• The textual critic's work is to provide a better understanding of the creation and historical transmission of the text.
• The critical methodology includes viewing a text in a critical light that is not biased in any manner.​

Therefore the correct answer is **option 3.**​

Additional Information 

• ​​​Quantitative research usually goes into the scientific discipline, where we have to collect quantifiable data.
• Qualitative research methodologies are what is done in literary research, hence it can be proved that textual, historical, and critical may come under literary methodology.

The correct answer is 'The analysis of the plot of drama'.

Key Points

• Gustav Freytag was a19th century German playwright and novelist .
• Freytag's Pyramid was first proposed by Gustav Freytag in Freytag's Technique of the Drama - An Exposition of Dramatic Composition and Art(1863).
• He proposed that effective stories may be divided into two parts, the play and the counterplay, with the climax in the midst.
• Freytag's Pyramid is a dramatic construction paradigm that outlines the seven important steps in good storytelling.
• The seven key steps involved in a successful story telling are exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 1.

Additional Information 

• Many writers from 19^th Century onwards tried to write their stories in this structure even though they did not even know the name or existence of such a pyramid.
• It was in Aristotle's work Poetics that such an idea of perfect structuring of a dramatic plot came into existence.
• Freytag's pyramid sometimes also known as Freytag's Triangle.

The correct answer is Decadence.

Key Points

• Arthur Symons(1865-1945) was an English poet and critic, who wrote during the Victorian period.
• In his essay "The Decadent Movement in Literature"(1893), Symons characterized the Decadence movement as 'an interesting disease' and 'an over-subtilizing refinement upon refinement'.
• The Decadent movement was an artistic and literary movement focused in Western Europe in the late nineteenth century that followed an aesthetic ideology of extravagance and artificiality.
• It is most closely connected with French literature, and Charles Baudelaire played a pivotal role in the Decadent movement.
• Decadent writers employed opulent, ornate language to describe taboo and frequently unpleasant subjects like death, sadness, and aberrant sexualities.

Therefore, the correct answer is option 3.

Additional Information

• The term Celtic Revival refers to movements in literature, the arts, and social behaviors that resurrected unique stories, poetry, art, and spirituality during the 19th and 20th century. The myths and lores are associated with pre-Christian and early Christian Europe, which renewed an interest in Celtic people. Leading writers associated with this movement are William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, Edward Martyn, George William Russel.
• The Romantic Movement started around 1798 and ended around 1837. Major writers associated with this movement are William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats et cetera.
• Feminism refers to a set of sociopolitical movements and philosophies that seek to define and promote gender equality on political, economic, personal, and social levels. It started in the late 19th century and has proliferated ever since.

The correct answer is Ezra Pound.

Key Points

• Ezra Pound has a great contribution to the modernist movement through his vision and work.
• An expatriate American poet and critic, he gave the mantra of 'Make it New'.
• He helped multiple poets such as James Joyce and T.S Eliot in publishing their major works.
• Ezra pound was also a critic and he published ABC of Reading in 1934.
• He described an approach towards literature that might help people to understand literature and the given quote is taken from this book.

Therefore, we can infer that the statement "Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree” was made by Ezra Pound.

Additional Information Let's look at other options:

• Rabindranath Tagore:
• Tagore is a monumental figure in India's history. He was a poet, novelist, reformer, philosopher, essayist and painter. He was the first Asian to receive Nobel Prize in 1913 for his work Geetanjali.
• W.B. Yeats:
• William Butler Yeats was a modern Irish poet and dramatist and received a Nobel prize in Literature in 1923. Some of his famous works are, Second Coming, Sailing to Byzantium, No Second Troy, A Prayer for My Daughter among others.
• T.S. Eliot:
• T. S Eliot was a Modern British poet and critic who is famously known for his revolutionary work The Wasteland. He receive the noble prize in 1948. Some of his famous works are The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Hollow Men, Ash Wednesday, The Murder in the Cathedral among others.

The correct answer is Recuperate the female writers ignored by the canon and Mostly reject the essentialising of 'male' and 'female'. 

Key Points

• Literature provides creative space which has been used by masculine hegemony to marginalize the existence of women, so that the superiority of masculinity can be maintained.
• The marginalization of women does not come only from the narrative  produced by patriarchy in the literary space, rather it is also due to the reservation of literary canon exclusively for male writers.
• Elaine Showalter responds to the ignoring of the female writers by the canon in her essay A Literature of Their Own: British Women Novelists from Bronte to Lessing (1977).
• Patriarchy (masculine hegemony) has been always rigid and fixed with gender roles, gender and sex identity. It is essentialism which helps the patriarchy to maintain rigidity, so that it can be eternalized.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 3. 

Important Points

• Essentialism refers to the idea of considering an essence as the basis of an entity. It believes in the idea that each culture, literature, gender or any kind identity carries a particular core which defines them.
• Butler, as a postmodernist scholar has been critical of the exclusionary politics that comes with essentialism. Feminist criticism is now critical of the gender politics that comes with the essentialism.
• The traditional canon was exclusionary of female writers because writing provides an agency to become vocal and visible to the mainstream, and that would have been threatening for the patriarchy and its superiority.

Additional Information

• Elaine Showalter has coined the term "gynocriticism" in the essay Toward a Feminist Poetics (1979), refers to the feminine perspective of examining literature. This criticism is different from the feminist criticism.
• Feminist criticism engages with patriarchy by questioning and refuting it, however gynocriticism advocates for establishing a unique approach to literature based on female experience and feminine perspective.

The correct answers are Phantasm unlike semblance has the same proportion as the object and Semblance is 'unreal' but looks 'real' as compared to phantasm. 

Key Points

• The word phantasm refers to the appearance which is experienced with the help of senses.
• According to Plato the reality (truth) of the world can be understood only in the ideal (abstract) form rather than with the help of senses.
• Semblance refers to the unreal. It has also been termed as phantasma.

Therefore, Option 2 is the correct answer. 

Important Points

• The concept of phantasm has been discussed and developed by scholars such as Thomas Aqiunas and Freud etc. in their respective philosophies and theories.
• The distinction between phantasm and semblance has been discussed by Plato in his work The Sophist, which is defining and discussing the attributes related to the sophist.
• The Sophist is an effort to draw difference between sophist, philosopher and the statesman.
• The question of reality and its representation was also central in the concept of mimesis.

 Additional Information 

• Plato's The Sophist has characters such as Socrates, an elder mathematician named as Theodorus, a young mathematician named as Theaetetus, and Eleatic Stranger.
• The Sophist is in the form of dialogue which begins with the question related to the sophist and this gets the conversation going.

The correct answer is Cultural Capital and Habitus. 

Key Points

• Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist. He is well known for his work- Distinction (1984), in which he examines the role that cultural capital plays in determining one's social position in respect to the 'high culture' and 'low culture'.
• Cultural Capital refers to the socio-cultural assets that a person inculcates with time in order to acquire social mobility. Bourdieu developed this concept by arguing that it is the cultural capital which develops in an individual  a sense of belonging to a class by establishing collective identity among the members of a class. For example- wearing branded clothes, speaking fluent English, buying luxurious cars and dining in fine restaurants establishes the identification of an individual to a certain class. The mentioned parameters signifies the cultural capital of the rich consumerist class. An individual needs to inculcate all these parameters in order to belong to the rich consumerist class.
• Habitus can be defined as the actual embodiment of the cultural capital. When an individual actually starts practicing the cultural capital which ensures the identification of the individual within a class, those practices turns out to be the habitus of the individual. These practices gets so well conditioned (accustomed) in an individual with time, that the individual often starts looking at these practices as natural to her. The habitus of a working class person would be very different from the habitus of a person belonging to the rich consumerist class. 
  

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 3.

Important Points

• Bourdieu has classified cultural capital into three major types-  
• Embodied - the cultural capitals which are part of an individual's body and persona- language, posture, mannerism, taste, and choices etc.
• Objectified- the cultural capitals which come in the form of objects- piece of art, statues, clothes, and cultural goods etc.
• Institutionalized- the cultural capitals are acquired from the institutions - education, degree, and license etc.
• In literary criticism, the concept of habitus has been used in the light of structuralism. This helps in understanding the larger structural forces that are operating within a narrative.

Additional Information

• Dissemination (1972) is a critical work by Derrida on language and the fluidity of meaning that it inherits. Originally the text was published in French language.
• The text was translated in English by Barbara Johnson. The text has three main sections- Plato's Pharmacy, The Double Session, and Dissemination.
• The term Gynesis was coined by Alice Jardine in her work Gynesis: Configuration of Woman and Modernity (1985). The text is an attempt to look at the intersection of post-structuralism with feminism.
• The term gynesis refers to the process in which post-modernist thinkers have applied the term 'woman' as a symbol to disrupt the traditional discourse. The questioning of norms by rendering visibility to the invisible can be taken as gynesis in the post-modernism.

The correct answer is Knowledge is not metaphysical or transcendental and Knowledge is not pure or neutral but is always from a point of view. 

Key Points

• As a French historian, philosopher and a critical thinker, Michael Foucault has talked about knowledge, truth and power in his works and interviews. He looks at the entities of knowledge, truth and power as intricately linked.
• Foucault does not consider knowledge as a given absolute entity, rather it is dynamic and constructed.
• Knowledge is produced by power structures, which in turn justifies and support the power structure itself. Hence, a change in power structure reflects a change in the form of produced knowledge and discourses.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer. 

Important Points

• While looking at the relationship shared between power and knowledge, it is important to note that Foucault does not look at power structure as repressive only but as "productive and pleasure inducing" as well. It has been claimed as productive because it is the power which produces subject, knowledge, truth and discourses.
• Power controls the production of knowledge as per its own discretion and suitability. For instance, the modern science has the capacity to determine, what is normal and what is not, keeping in mind the power structure.

Additional Information

• Foucault was influenced by Louis Althusser who used to teach him.
• Foucault joined the French Communist Party.
• Foucault was critical of the Marxist notion of ideology, state and its repressive power.

The correct answer is Richard Hoggart, Raymond William, and Stuart Hall.

Key Points

• Culture Studies maintains an interdisciplinary approach. It was first started in the Birmingham Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, United Kingdom.
• The work by Richard Hoggart, Raymond William and Stuart Hall  played a major role in establishing the discipline.
• Cultural Studies examines power relationship shared between the members of a community keeping culture at the central point of analysis.
• Culture Studies primarily focuses on the popular culture, which was earlier dismissed as the 'inferior' in respect to the culture of the elite, which was termed as 'high' culture.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 3.

 Important Points 

• The examination of culture and its artefacts is not new, it was always the part of study since the time of Plato.
• In the context of British Culture, it was Mathew Arnold- a central figure who discussed the role of art and culture to overcome the Victorian dilemma.
• The term Victorian dilemma refers to conflict between science and faith in the context of British and European society in the Victorian age.
• Mathew Arnold favored elitism against the popular culture, but with the advent of Cultural Studies, the focus has now shifted from elite culture to popular culture of masses.

Additional Information

• Richard Hoggart famously wrote The Use of Literacy (1957) in which he is examining the impact of mass media on the British society.
• Raymond William gave the concept of  'cultural materialism' which is about bringing in the Marxist perspective to the study of culture.
• Stuart Hall founded the New Left Review- a bimonthly journal covering topics related to culture and politics.
• Lawrence Grossberg is also a cultural critic from America.

The correct answer is Rita Kothari and Rupert Snell.

Key Points

• Chutneyfying English: The Phenomenon of Hinglish was published in 2011**.**
• This work specifically deals with the concept of 'hybridization' (intermixing or combining) of India's two major languages i.e. Hindi and English as Hinglish, which has emerged as an important form of communication especially in the context of Indian cities.
• This collection of essays brings forth the perspective of various experts from their respective fields to examine the use and impact of Hinglish.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 3.

Important Points

• Rita Kothari is known as an author, editor and translator. She writes in English and Gujrati. Her area of interest comprises studies related to translation, partition and Sindhi identity.
• Rita Kothari's Burden of Refuge: Partition Experience of Sindhis of Gujrat (2007) traces down the socio-political history of Sindhi Hindu and their migration from Sindh (Pakistan) to India. The book takes into account various 'intergenerational' personal narratives which help in drawing the impact of partition and migration on the resettled Sindhi community in India, especially in Gujrat.
• Rupert Snell is a scholar of Hindi language. He has worked immensely on the Madhya-Kalin age of Hindi literature. He has translated numbers of Hindi poets into English language, such as Tulsidas, Raskhan, and Beharilal.

Additional Information

• The term Chutnification was coined by Salman Rushdie in his novel Midnight's Children (1981). It refers to the use of Indian elements in English language or culture.
• Jamuna Kachru is a linguist and a scholar of Hindi language.
• Alastair is a linguist, who has written books such as The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language (1994), which looks at the origin and the colonial past of the English language and the popularity of English in pedagogy, especially in current times.

The correct answer is "(b) and (c)".

Key Points

• Transnational flows of people, money, goods, information, and culture have recently increased dramatically and fundamentally altered the global landscape. The term globalization is used to describe this phenomenon.
• The term "cultural diffusion" refers to the spread of cultural ideas and practices.
• Cultural globalization is the extension and intensification of social ties through the global transfer of ideas, meanings, and values.
• Culture's multifaceted and broad aspects must be dealt with proper care.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 2.

The correct answer is "(b) and (d)".

Key Points

• An interactive speech between two or more individuals is known as spoken discourse, and it is a common linguistic phenomenon in daily life.
• In contrast to written discourses, spoken language frequently results from spontaneous production and comprises more incomplete and reformed statements.
• Compared to written discourse, speaking employs more repetition, hesitancy, and redundancy.
• Repetition is a conversational tactic for resolving "problem spots" in communication. Since self-repetition gives the speaker time to prepare what to say next or how to say it, it also makes it easier for the listener or second speaker to understand the message.
• Fillers are employed to buy time while looking up words or grammar rules.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 4.

The correct answer is "(b) and (c)".

Key Points

• "Mr. Sampath - The Printer of Malgudi" is a novel written by Indian author R. K. Narayan.
• It first came out in 1949.
• This novel is the story of a businessman who adapts to the collapse of his bookselling business and becomes a spiritual guide in a series of tales set in the fictional town of Malgudi.
• This book marks Narayan's progress as a writer who would continue to produce well-loved books that provide insights into India's social and cultural milieu.
• "Seven Summers" is a novel by the Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand, and it was first published in 1951.
• This work is part of a series of autobiographical novels Anand penned, providing a glimpse into Indian society and the author's rich personal experiences.​

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 2.

Additional Information

• The Dark Room by R K Narayan was published in 1938.
• The Big Heart by Mulk Raj Anand was published in 1945.
  

The correct answer is "(a) and (b)".

Key Points

• Robert Burton wrote a book called The Anatomy of Melancholy, which was first published in 1621 but was greatly revised and expanded before being reissued five more times over the course of the following seventeen years.
• On the surface, the book appears to be a medical textbook in which Burton applies his extensive and varied knowledge of melancholia in a scholarly manner.
• The Anatomy of Melancholy is a literary work as well as a work of science or philosophy, despite the fact that it is presented as a medical text.
• The purpose of anatomy is to utilize sadness as a lens through which all human emotion and thinking may be examined, and to achieve this, practically the entire body of knowledge from a 17th-century library is mobilized.
• Burton describes the "inbred malady" of melancholy, its causes, and symptoms in the first section of the work. The second section details the remedy.
• The final section is on the melancholy of love. The fourth segment is about religious melancholy.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 1.

The correct answer is (b) and (c).

Key Points

• Meatless Days is a memoir of life in postcolonial Pakistan.
• Sara Suleri Goodyear the author intertwines the violent history of Pakistan’s independence with her own most intimate memories.
• Prison and Chocolate Cake is a  memoir written by Nayantara Sehgal, of an unusual childhood that ends with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948.
• Nayantara Sahgal describes what it was like growing up in Anand Bhavan, Allahabad, the home her parents shared with her maternal uncle, Jawarlal Nehru, during the years when Gandhi was leading the movement for independence.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 2.

Additional Information

• Kanthapura is a novel written by Raja Rao, set during the early days of the Indian independence movement that ultimately liberated the nation from British colonial rule in 1947.
• Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things** is a work of fiction but some critics have tried to find autobiographical parallels in the novel.

The correct answer is Flashbacks and Time shifts and Acute evocation of a place.

Key Points

• Wuthering Heights is a novel written by Emily Bronte. Her pen name was Ellis Bell since she lived in a Victorian society where women writers usually did not reveal their real name
• It is a gothic novel with flashbacks and time shifts. it even evocates places.
• The two locations of the novel are Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.
• The novel shifts from the present, past, and future.
• The opening of the novel is in 1801, when Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire, pays a visit to his landlord, Heathcliff, at his remote moorland farmhouse, Wuthering Heights.
• Lockwood meets at Thrushcross Grange a reserved young woman named Cathy Linton, Joseph, a cantankerous servant, and Hareton, an uneducated fellow.
• Everyone is sullen and inhospitable.
• Lockwood reads the diary of the former inhabitant of his room, Catherine Earnshaw.
• Lockwood and Nelly are the narrators.
• Hindley (Francis is his wife who later on dies) and Catherine's servant 's name is Nelly.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 3.

The correct answer is (a) and (d).

Key Points

• Pendennis: Pendennis, i.e. "The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy", is a semiautobiographical novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, published in monthly installments from 1848 to 1850 and published in book form in two volumes in 1849–50.
• ​​The novel traces the youthful career of Arthur Pendennis: his first love affair, his experiences at “Oxbridge University,” his employment as a London journalist, and so on.The character also appears in two of Thackeray’s subsequent novels, The Newcomes (1853–55) and The Adventures of Philip (1861–62).
  
• The Way of All Flesh: The Way of All Flesh (sometimes called Ernest Pontifex, or the Way of All Flesh), published in 1903 is a semi-autobiographical novel by Samuel Butler that attacks Victorian-era hypocrisy. It depicts a harsh upbringing and troubled adulthood shines an iconoclastic light on the hypocrisy of a Victorian clerical family's domestic life. It also foreshadows the crumbling of nineteenth-century bourgeois ideals in the aftermath of the First World War, as well as the ways in which succeeding generations have questioned conventional values.
  
• The Battle of the Books: "The Battle of the Books" is the name of a short satire written by Jonathan Swift, (one of his earliest well-known works) and published as part of the prolegomena to his 'A Tale of a Tub in 1704.' It depicts a literal battle between books in the King's Library as ideas and authors struggle for supremacy.
  
• Barchester Towers: Barchester Towers (1857) by English author Anthony Trollope satirizes the role of the church in English life in the mid-19th century. Its themes include human conniving, the abuse of religion, the foibles of human nature, and the prevalence of moral nobility. 
• ​The novel is set in western England in the Catholic city of Barchester (Barchester Towers refers to the major cathedral in the town), it opens to the well-respected Bishop of Barchester, Dr. Grantly, dying. There is much commotion and speculation over who, after the Bishop’s passing, will ascend to his very powerful role.

Thus it can be concluded that Pendennis and Barchester Towers were published during the Victorian age.

Mistake PointsThough, Samuel Butler is from the Victorian period but the novel- 'The Way of All Flesh' wasn't published during the Victorian Age.

The correct answer is (b) and (c)

 Key Points

• The novel July's People is set during a fictional civil war in which black South Africans violently overturn the system of apartheid.
• The story follows the Smales, a liberal White South African family who was forced to flee Johannesburg to the native village of their black servant**, July.**
• Cry, the Beloved Country was written before the passage of a new law institutionalizing the apartheid political system in South Africa.
• The novel was published in 1948; apartheid became a law later that same year.
• Apartheid was a system of legislation that upheld segregation against non-white citizens of South Africa. 

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer. 

Additional Information

• Purple Hibiscus was shortlisted for the 2004 Orange Prize. The novel tells us a  haunting tale of Africa. An adolescent undergoing tremendous changes by a talented young Nigerian writer  Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• A fifteen-year-old **Kambili'**s world is defined by the high walls of her family estate and the dictates of her repressive and fanatically religious father.
• When Nigeria begins to fall apart during a military coup, Kambili's father, involved mysteriously in the political crisis, sends Kambili and her brother away to live with their aunt. In this house, full of energy and laughter, she discovers life and love and a terrible, bruising secret deep within her family.
• The Mimic Men is a novel by V. S. Naipaul, first published by Andre Deutsch in the UK in 1967.

The correct answer is Jack and Ralph.

Key Points

• The Coral Island a novel by R.M. Ballantyne, was the basic plot of the story Lord of the Flies, by William Golding.
• The island is the same in both books The Coral Island and Lord of the Flies.
• The main characters Jack and Ralph are the same people in both stories.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 2.

Additional Information

• Ballantyne’s story is about three British gentlemen whereas Golding’s is about boys that turn cruel and violent against each other.
• In William Golding's Lord of the Flies, Simon represents the innate morality of humans, acting as a Christ-like figure, while Roger embodies the all-present cruelty

The correct answer is (b) and (c).

Important Points

• The Ring and the Book is a long dramatic narrative poem, and, more specifically, a verse novel, of 21,000 lines, written by Robert Browning.
• It was published in four volumes from 1868 to 1869 by Smith, Elder & Co.
• The Vanity of Human Wishes: The Tenth Satire of Juvenal Imitated is a poem by the English author Samuel Johnson. 
• ​It was written in late 1748 and published in 1749. It was begun and completed while Johnson was busy writing A Dictionary of the English Language and it was the first published work to include Johnson's name on the title page.
• Cato, a Tragedy is a play written by Joseph Addison in 1712 and first performed on 14 April 1713.
• It is based on the events of the last days of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis a Stoic whose deeds, rhetoric, and resistance to the tyranny of Julius Caesar made him an icon of republicanism, virtue, and liberty.
• Addison's play deals with many themes such as individual liberty versus government tyranny, republicanism versus monarchism, logic versus emotion, and Cato's personal struggle to hold to his beliefs in the face of death.
• The play has a prologue written by Alexander Pope and an epilogue by Samuel Garth.
• Lamia is a narrative poem written by the English poet John Keats, which first appeared in the volume Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St Agnes and Other Poems, published in July 1820. The poem was written in 1819, during the famously productive period that produced his 1819 odes.

Thus, we can say that (b) and (c) poems can be categorized as poems belonging to the neo-classical period of English literature as Samuel Johnson and Joseph Addison are the poets from the Neo-Classical Age.

The correct answer is Book I and Book VII.

Key Points

• Book VII opens with a prologue to Urania, who in classical mythology was the Muse of Astronomy.
• Milton has transformed the muse into a heavenly or Christian inspiration.
• In this prologue, Milton asks Urania to bring his thoughts down from Heaven and to inspire him once more to rise above his physical limitations.
• Book I of Paradise Lost begins with a prologue in which Milton performs the traditional epic task of invoking the Muse and stating his purpose.
• He invokes the classical Muse, Urania.
• He refers to Urania as the "Heav'nly Muse," implying the Christian nature of this work.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 1.

Additional Information

• As Book IV opens with Milton presenting Satan as a character deeply affected by envy and despair.
• In the prologue to Book IX, Milton says that his work must have a take a tragic tone and that this Christian epic, though different, must be more heroic than earlier epics like the Iliad and the Aeneid. Again, he calls on Urania as the muse of Christian inspiration to help him complete his work.

the correct answer is Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and Robert Henryson.

Key Points

• Dunbar's Lament for the Makers is a dance macabre meaning dance of death.
• Some poets included are Chaucer, John Gower, Robert Henryson, Walter Kennedy.
• The poet in the poem, laments in the following Latin line,  'timor mortis conturbat ' me which means, fear of death troubles me, in every fourth line of the poem.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 2.

Additional Information

• William Langland was a 14th-century English poet who is most famous for his epic tale of The Vision of Piers Plowman, a long poem.
• Dunbar's fame rests in one of his works titled a Treatise on two Married Women and a Widow.

The correct answer is James Joyce and Gerald Manly Hopkins.

Key Points

• Compounding is combining two words to make a new word.
• James Joyce and G M Hopkins introduced many poetic compound words through their poetry.
• We can see poetic compounding in the works of Cummings too.
• Hopkins’ poetry is full of metaphorical compounds.
• Hopkins often uses compounds to reify concepts for which there is no word in English.
• Thus he made the words rose-flake, wind-walks, hailropes, deathdance, and many others.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 3.

Additional Information

• Hopkin also uses Kenning which means one specific type of poetic compound. Kennings are particularly evocative compounds, as they consist of a compressed metaphor. Some examples include hronrad (whale road), a kenning for “sea,” and hildenædre (battle snake), a kenning for “arrow.”
• He also uses redundant compounds, which means the compound will have one word unnecessary. Eg, Battle-sword, as all swords are used in battles.
• Henry Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century.

The correct answer is "(a) - (ii), (b) - (iv), (c) - (i), (d) - (iii)".

Key Points

• A hagiography is an effusive and romanticized history of a founder, saint, monk, nun, or icon in any of the major world religions. It can also be a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader.
• A scathing criticism of anything is referred to as an invective.
• A defense or justification of one's behavior and ideas is known as an apology.
• A critical explanation or interpretation of a text is known as exegesis. The phrase is typically used to refer to the interpretation of biblical writings.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 1.

The correct answer is (a) - (i), (b) - (iv), (c) - (iii), (d) - (ii)

Key Points

• The Fall of the House of Usher is a famous supernatural horror story, written by Edgar Allan Poe. It is about a decaying castle inhabited by a tormented person, Roderick Usher.
• He is the last man in the Usher line, and a cultured, sensitive person who suffers from a depressing malaise.
• 'The Celestial Omnibus is a short allegorical story, written by the renowned English novelist and essayist, E. M. Forster. The story is about an unnamed protagonist, a young boy, who develops a taste for literature.
• The story is included in Forster's book, 'The Celestial Omnibus and Other Stories'.
• The Garden Party is a famous short story, written by the prominent modernist writer, Kathleen Mansfield. The story was originally published in 1922, in Weekly 'Westminster Gazette', a famous British literary magazine.
• The Prophet's Hair is a famous short story, written by Salman Rushdie. It was originally published in 1981.The story is based on the religious tale of the theft of a relic that contained Prophet Muhammad's hair.

Therefore, Option 1 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• Edgar Allan Poe’s stature as a major figure in world literature is primarily based on his ingenious and profound short stories, poems, and critical theories, which established a highly influential rationale for the short form in both poetry and fiction.
• Edward Morgan Forster, generally published as E.M. Forster, was an novelist, essayist, and short story writer.
• He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society.
• Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) is one of the most highly regarded short story writers of the 20th century.
• A contemporary of James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and D H Lawrence, she played her part in shaping modernism by experimenting with style, subject matter and theme in a body of work that re-defined the genre.
• Salman Rushdie is the author of fourteen previous novels, including Midnight’s Children Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor’s Last Sigh, and Quichotte, all of which have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

The correct answer is (a) - (iii), (b) - (iv), (c) - (i), (d) - (ii)

Key Points

• The correct matching is A-III, B-IV, C-I, D-II.
• O world! O life! O time! is the opening line of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, 'A Lament'.
• It is one of Shelley's famous short lyric poem, which expresses the poet's feeling of deep melancholy for the loss of his past glory.
• Where true Love burns desire is Love's pure flame is the opening line of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's short moving poem, 'Desire'.
• The poem offers a thought-provoking comparison between love and desire.
• For Coleridge, love is spiritual in nature, which springs from the soul of a person, and desire is the physical expression of this kind of spiritual love.
• I cry your mercy—pity—love!—aye, love! is the opening line of John Keats' famous sonnet of the same name, 'I cry your mercy-pity-love! -aye, love!'.
• The poem was written in the fall of 1819 and expresses the poet's deep feeling of passionate love for Fanny Brawne.
• The world is too much with us is the opening line of William Wordsworth's famous sonnet, The World Is Too Much with Us'.
• The poem expresses the poet's savage criticism of materialism that ensued after the First Industrial Revolution.

Therefore, Option 1 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• Percy Bysshe Shelley was born August 4, 1792 is one of the epic poets of the 19th century and is best known for his classic anthology verse works.
• William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, on April 7, 1770.Wordsworth’s earliest poetry was published in 1793 in the collections An Evening Walk and Descriptive Sketches.
• One of the most influential and controversial figures of the Romantic period, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born in 1772 . Coleridge's legacy has been tainted with accusations of plagiarism, both in his poetry and critical essays.
• English Romantic poet John Keats was born on October 31, 1795, in London. Keats met Leigh Hunt, an influential editor of the Examiner, who published his sonnets “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” and “O Solitude.”

This passage is from the famous Charles Dickens's novel, 'A Tale of Two Cities'.

• The novel opens with, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, …” (Para. 1, Line, 1).
• This passage suggests an age of radical opposites taking place across the English Channel, in France and the United Kingdom respectively.
• It tells a story of contrasts and comparisons between London and Paris during the French revolution.

Thus, we can conclude that the age described in the above passage is best described as the Age of Contraries.

The correct answer is " The Americans expatriates in Europe after the First World War".

Key Points

• The Lost generation writers moved from America to Europe after the first World War.
• The writers include both men and women.
• The most famous members of the group are Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemmingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, and T S Eliot.
• Many writers during the war felt a spiritual alienation, which might be one of the reasons why they emigrated.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 2.

Additional Information 

• The term lost generation was coined by Gertrude Stein but was popularized by Ernest Hemmingway through his novel  The Sun Also Rises. It was in the epigraph of this novel that the line "You are all a Lost Generation" appeared.

The correct answer is A lofty cast of mind.

Key Points

• According to Longinus, 'a lofty cast of mind' is the source of the highest sublimity. He argued that sublimity is a certain distinction and excellence in expression, and that it is from 'a lofty cast of mind' that the greatest thoughts are born.
• Essentially, this means that the true source of sublimity lies not in the language used, or the topic, but in the spirit of the author. It is this capacity for grandeur and a deep, profound sense of nobility that allows the author to elevate their work to the level of the sublime.
• This particular concept was revolutionary during Longinus's time as it moved away from the rigid stylistic rules of his contemporaries, stating instead that the sublime is something that exists within the author's soul and their perspective.
• He pointed out that an author's ability to have lofty, elevated thoughts, or a 'lofty cast of mind', is the precursor to creating works that could reach the state of sublimity.

Therefore, the correct answer is Option 3.

The correct answer is 'A novel using the altered names of the actual people of the time'.

Key Points

• A roman à clef is a novel in which real people, places, or events appear with fictitious names or details, blurring the line between fiction and reality.
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway are roman a clef, stories based on events in the authors' actual lives.

​ Therefore the correct answer is **Option 2.**​

Additional Information

• ​​A novel describing historical incidents with fictional characters is the Historical Novel. Eg. Robert Graves’s Claudius (1934).
• Künstlerroman: A novel depicting the life of an artist from childhood to maturity. Eg James Joyce's The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man.
• A novel giving the effect of realism by highlighting the social problems of the time is a Social Novel. Eg, Charles Dicken's novel Oliver Twist.

The correct answer is "Lord Bentick".

Key Points

• Lord William Bentick agreed with Macaulay's suggestions on the Indian educational system's language.
• The recommendations made by Macaulay served as the foundation for the decision to pass the English Education Act of 1835.
• The British government wanted to introduce Indian people to European literature and science.
• The entire budget set aside for it would go toward supporting English education.​

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 3.

Additional Information

• Lord Hastings, Marquess of Hastings, was named Governor-General of India. He won two conflicts during his time in India as Governor-General, the Gurkha War (1814–1816) and the Maratha War (1818).
• In February 1786, British General Charles Cornwallis, was chosen to hold the dual positions of Governor of the Bengal Presidency and Commander-in-Chief of British India. He managed the establishment of the British Raj by solidifying British rule over most of peninsular India.
• From 1910 to 1916, the British statesman and diplomat Charles Hardinge,1st Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, served as Viceroy and Governor-General of India.

The correct answer is "31 pilgrims and 24 tales".

Key Points

• Geoffrey Chaucer composed The Canterbury Tales, a collection of twenty-four tales totalling more than 17,000 lines, between 1387 and 1400.
• A group of pilgrims who are travelling from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral tell the stories as part of a storytelling competition while travelling, with the majority of the tales written in rhyme and others in prose.
• There are 31 pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales.

Therefore, the correct answer is option 2.

The correct answer is Langue is the language system and Parole is the individual usage.

Key Points 

• There are two aspects of language examined by Ferdinand de Saussure at the beginning of the twentieth century.
• Langue denotes a system of internalized, shared rules governing a national language’s vocabulary, grammar, and sound system.
• Parole designates actual oral and written communication by a member or members of a particular speech community.

​Therefore the correct answer is **option 1.**​

Additional Information

• ​The discussion concerning langue and parole was first suggested by Ferdinand de Saussure popularized in his Cours de Linguistique Générale (Course in General Linguistics), a series of Saussure’s university lectures collected by his students and published posthumously in 1916.

The correct answer is Euripides.

Key Points 

• The epigraph to 'Areopagitica' is from Euripides' play, The Suppliants.
• The quote asserts that true Liberty consists of freedom of speech.
• Milton claims to write this polemic to advance the public good.

​Therefore the correct answer is option 2.

Additional Information 

• Polemic means an argument stating the truth of a belief and the falsity of the contrary belief.
• ​Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, along with Euripides and Aeschylus.

The correct answer is Thomas De Quincey.

Key Points

• Thomas De Quincey’s essay “On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts” was first published in 1827 in Blackwood’s Magazine.
• It is a satirical and fictional account of an address made to a gentleman’s club focused on murder’s aesthetic value.
• In the essay, Quincey references a number of historical personages and even bases one of the murders he describes on a real series of homicides committed by John Williams in 1811 in Ratcliffe Highway, London. Moreover, he argues that he is currently living in a great time for murders and differentiates between assassinations and murders. He called murders, "masterful works of arts".
• According to Quincey, murder helps the victim to experience their greatest self. Unknown strength and speed suddenly appear in their bodies as they try to escape their fate. Therefore, the murderer, according to De Quincey, provides society with a great benefit.

Important Points

• Thomas De Quincey: Thomas De Quincey was an English essayist and critic best known for his work, ‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’.
• He came up with a large plethora of works in wide ranging field, from history to fiction, literary criticism to biographies and so on.
• In 1823, he came up with the essay, ‘On the Knocking at the Gate of Macbeth’ which served as his first work as a literary critic. Brilliantly written, the work gave a detailed psychological analysis of Shakespearean criticism.
• In 1825, he translated a German hoax novel, ‘Walladmor’ by Sir Walter Scott, a Scottish historical novelist and poet.
• De Quincey’s work influenced later literary figures such as Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire.

The correct answer is "Joseph Andrew".

 Key Points

• Henry Fielding's first full-length novel, Joseph Andrews, was published in 1742.
• It is alternatively titled The History of Joseph Andrews' and his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams' Adventures.
• The novel is widely regarded as a spoof of Samuel Richardson's epistolary masterpiece Pamela.
• It tells the narrative of a good-natured footman and his friend and mentor, the absent-minded parson Abraham Adams, as they travel home from London.
• Fielding referred to it as a "comic epic poem in prose."

Additional Information

• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, also known simply as Tom Jones, is a comedic novel written by Henry Fielding, an English dramatist and author. It's a picaresque novel and a Bildungsroman. It was initially published in London on February 28, 1749, and is one of the earliest English writings to be designated as a novel.
• Miguel de Cervantes wrote the Spanish epic classic Don Quixote. The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, or, in Spanish, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quixote de la Mancha, was first published in two parts in 1605 and 1615.

The correct answer is "Vanity Fair".

Key Points

• The below-mentioned quote is the last line in W. M. Thackeray's 1948 book Vanity Fair, with a subtitle A Novel Without a Hero - "Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! Which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?- Come, children, let us shut up the box and the puppets, for our play is played out."
• The story describes the lives of Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley during and after the Napoleonic Wars, together with their friends and family.
• With the subtitle Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society, it was first released as a 19-volume monthly serial from 1847 to 1848.

Therefore, the correct answer is option 3.

 Additional Information

• A member of the Irish gentry tries to join the English nobility in William Makepeace Thackeray's picaresque novel The Luck of Barry Lyndon, which was initially published as a serial in Fraser's Magazine in 1844.
• Novelist William Makepeace Thackeray wrote The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and His Greatest Enemy. It takes place in England in the 19th century, mainly in London.
• William Makepeace Thackeray wrote a historical novel titled The History of Henry Esmond, which was first released in 1852. Henry Esmond, a colonel serving Queen Anne of England, is profiled in the book for his early years.

The correct answer is "Troilus and Criseyde".

Key Points

• Troilus and Criseyde is an epic poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer.
• It retells the tragic story of the lovers Troilus and Criseyde against the backdrop of conflict during the siege of Troy in Middle English.
• It was written in rime royale and was most likely completed in the mid-1380s.
• Achilles, Antenor, Calchas, Criseyde, Diomede, Helen, Pandarus, Cassandra, Hector, and Troilus are among the characters in the poem.
• Hector is the Prince of Troy, a fearless warrior who commands the Trojan armies.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 1.

Additional Information

• ​William Langland's Piers Plowman is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem. It is written in passus, which are chunks of unrhymed alliterative verse.
• The Seafarer is a piece of Old English poetry that describes the narrative of a man who is stranded at sea. The poem has 124 lines, each ending with the word "Amen."
• Beowulf is a 3,182-line alliterative Old English epic poem in the Germanic heroic story genre. It is regarded as one of the most important and frequently translated masterpieces of Old English literature.

The correct answer is "The Commonwealth Period".

Key Points

• The Interregnum was the period between Charles I's execution on January 30, 1649, and the arrival of his son Charles II in London on May 29, 1660, which marked the beginning of the Restoration.
• Between 1649 and 1660, the Commonwealth period, often known as the Puritan Interregnum, was a literary epoch affected by the English historical setting.
• The Puritan Revolution, which resisted the Catholic Church's authority in the kingdom, was a major aspect of this century.
• These reformers, who followed the ideas of John Calvin and other Protestant reformers, were dubbed Puritans because they were adamant about ridding the Church of England of unscriptural, Catholic aspects that they perceived lingered in its practices and institutions.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 4.

Additional Information

• The major Neoclassical trend began with the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century and continued into the early 19th century, later competing with Romanticism. The period is known as neoclassical because its writers went back to ancient ideas and art forms, emphasizing order and rational control even more than their Renaissance forefathers.
• The Caroline Age refers to Charles I of England's rule, which lasted from 1625 (the death of James I) until 1649 (Charles I's execution and the start of the Interregnum).
• The Restoration period in English literature lasts approximately from 1660 to 1688. It begins with Charles II resuming the throne after the numerous republican administrations controlled England from 1649 to 1659.

The correct answer is Holofernes. 

Key Points

• Love's Labour Lost is a comedy play written by Shakespeare.
• The play is full of comic elements, pun and humour.
• Holofernes is a school master who flaunts Latin quite eccentrically.
• He and Sir Nathaniel (a curate) help Jaquenetta (a country wench )to deal with the letter which has been switched by Costard (clown).
• Holofernes presents a masque Nine Worthies with Sir Nathaniel, Costard, Moth and Don Armado.

Therefore, Option 1 is the correct answer. 

Important Points

• In response to the pretentious conversation between Holofernes and Sir Nathaniel; Costard uses the longest word in medieval Latin- honorificabilitudinitaibus, which means "the state of being able to achieve honours".
• In the beginning of the play Love's Labour's Lost, Ferdinand the king of Navarre and his companions determine to not fall for women. However, with the arrival of Princess of France and her ladies, things change, and they ultimately renounce their oath.
• Costard is a comic character in the play. It is his actions which lead to the confusion and comedy within the play. 
  

Additional Information

• Dull is a constable in the play.
• Moth is Don Armado's page.
• Don Armado is a Spaniard.

The correct answer is The Ascent of F6.

Key Points

• The Ascent of F6: A Tragedy in Two Acts was a poetic drama written in collaboration of W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. The play was published in 1936.
• The play captures the journey of a climber Michael Ransom, who decides to take up the sponsorship offer from the British government to an expedition to F6 mountain.
• No one has climbed the F6 mountain, hence Ransom wants to hurry and complete the expedition before anyone else.
• Ransom manages to climb the mountain and finishes the expedition, but this ultimately leads to his death as well as the death of his fellow climbers.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer

Important Points

• Auden and Isherwood wrote plays in collaboration such as The Dog Beneath the Skin (1935), On the Frontier (1938).
• The Ascent of F6 was the second collaborative wok of Auden and Isherwood.
• The play has an underlined political theme as well, but the focus has been made on the individual character of Michael Ransom and his struggles.
• It is his mother who persuades him to go on the expedition, otherwise he had already refused to on the expedition.​

Additional Information

• ​Letter from Iceland is a travel book written by W.H. Auden in collaboration with Louis MacNeice. The work got published in 1937.
• The Dance of Death is a play having one act, written by W.H. Auden. The work got published in 1933.
• The Orators: An English Study is long poem having three section with a prologue and epilogue and it was written by Auden.

The correct answers are Kunapipi and Interventions. 

Key Points

• Kunapipi: Journal of Postcolonial Writing and Culture was a journal dedicated to the writings in new literature in English.
• Kunapipi was a biannual magazine.
• Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies is an interdisciplinary journal.
• Intervention is dedicated to the subjects related to the study of postcolonialism concerning past and the contemporary times.

​Therefore, Option 4 is the correct answer.

Important Points 

• Kunapipi issued its first edition in the year 1979, and the last edition appeared in 2012.
• Following the words by T.S. Eliot that a journal should provide a platform to the new writers; the journal Kunapipi had been welcoming to the new emerging writers.
• Kunapipi, was earlier known as theCommonwealth Newsletter,** started by Anna Rutherford.
• However with the change in format the newsletter was turned into an art magazine, and renamed as Kunapipi.

​ 

Additional Information

• Daedalus is a journal dedicated to the writings related to the arts and science. The first issue was brought out in 1958. It is the MIT press which publishes it.
• Clio: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History is an interdisciplinary double peer journal.
• The word Kunapipi refers to the name of mother goddess of the indigenous people in northern Australia.

The correct answer is Jacques Derrida and Paul de Man. 

Key Points

• Deconstruction is a method of literary criticism.
• Jacques Derrida's essay Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of Human Science (1966) and Of Grammatology (1967), played a major role in establishing deconstructionism as a radical method of interpretation.
• Similarly, the Belgian born American critic Paul de Mann also made a significant contribution to the study of deconstructionism. His famous works concerning the subject are- Blindness and Insight (1971), Allegories of Reading (1979), and The Resistance to Theory (1986).

Therefore, Option 2 is the correct answer. 

Important Points

• Martin Heidegger originated the concept of destruktion (destruction) and abbau (dismantling). which laid the foundation of 'deconstructionism'.
• It is Barbara Johnson, who clarifies the concept of deconstruction. In her book, The Critical Difference (1981), she explains that the practice of deconstruction is not about destruction or destroying the meaning of a text.
• Barbara Johnson explains that the practice of deconstruction is about examining the "warring forces of signification within the text itself". This means that it is superficial to assume that a text can carry one particular meaning and perspective.
• Post-structuralism has been an influential force of deconstructionism. However, the concept of deconstruction focuses primarily on language and its meaning.

Additional Information

• Derrida and Paul de Man, both were working on Rosseau's On the Origin of Languages, but they were unaware until they met in 1966.
• Later, Paul de Man published The Rhetoric of Blindness, in which he analyzed Derrida's Of Grammatology in order to deconstruct Derrida's reading of Rosseau.
• Geoffrey Hartman, Harold Bloom, and Roland Barthes etc. are few of the scholars who have also contributed to the study of deconstruction.
• Raymond William has significantly contributed to the study of cultural studies and cultural materialism.
• Jonathan Dollimore has contributed theories to the field of queer studies, renaissance study, cultural theory, death studies etc.

The correct answer is Richard Burbage and Will Kempe(William Kempe)

Key Points

• Edward Alleyn, Henry Condell, William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, and John Hemmings were the most famous of all Elizabethan actors.
• Richard Burbage (1567-1619) was an English stage actor, widely considered to have been one of the most famous actors of the Globe Theatre.
• William Kempe (1603) also known as Will Kemp was an English actor and dancer specializing in comic roles in early dramas by William Shakespeare.
• He played the role of Falstaff in Henry IV and the Merry Wives of Winsor.

​Therefore the correct answer is Option 3.

Additional Information

• David Garrick (1717 –1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager, and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century. He was a pupil and friend of Dr. Samuel Johnson.
• John Philip Kemble (1 February 1757 – 26 February 1823) was an English actor. His other siblings, Charles Kemble, Stephen Kemble, Ann Hatton, and Elizabeth Whitlock, were also successful stage actors.

The correct answer is "(a) - (ii), (b) - (iii), (c) - (iv), (d) - (i)".

Key Points

• Samuel Johnson published The Rambler, a monthly that was actually a collection of brief essays. Between 1750 and 1752, The Rambler was published on Tuesdays and Saturdays, with a total of 208 items. The Rambler covered topics like politics, religion, society, literature, and morals.
• Alexander Macmillan published Macmillan's Magazine, a monthly British publication, from 1859 to 1907. The publication, which was a literary journal, featured fiction and nonfiction written by mainly British authors. Thomas Hughes persuaded Macmillan to launch the publication. Dave Masson served as the inaugural editor. The publication, which was a literary journal, featured fiction and nonfiction written by mainly British authors.
• A brief-lived journal called The Guardian was printed in London from 12 March to 1 October 1713. Richard Steele was responsible for its founding, while Joseph Addison, Thomas Tickell, Alexander Pope, and Ambrose Philips also made contributions. Previously, Steele and Addison had worked together on the Tatler and The Spectator.
• Richard Bentley founded the English literary journal Bentley's Miscellany. It was printed from 1836 to 1868. Bentley, who was already a renowned novel publisher, started the journal in 1836 and asked Charles Dickens to serve as its first editor. Dickens serialized Oliver Twist, his second book, but soon had a disagreement with Bentley over editorial decisions, branding him a "Burlington Street Brigand." In 1839, he gave up his position as editor, and William Harrison Ainsworth took over.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 3.

The correct answer is "(a) - (iii), (b) - (iv), (c) - (i), (d) - (ii)".

Key Points

• John Fiske examines popular literature in his book "Reading the Popular" to expose their explicit, implicit (and frequently conflicting), and uses as well as the social and political dynamics they reflect. He explores the plethora of meanings hidden behind the cultural artifacts we see on television, in popular music, and in shopping malls. It draws attention to the conflicting emotions that cultural icons like Madonna and the Chicago Sears Tower elicit; situates popular culture as the place where people adapt the products of industrial capitalism for their own inventive and sometimes subversive purposes, and disproves the idea that the general public mindlessly consumes everything that is made available to them.
• The philosopher Jean-François Lyotard wrote a book in 1979 titled The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge in which he analyzes the concept of knowledge in postmodern culture as the demise of "great narratives" or metanarratives, which he views as a fundamental aspect of modernity.
• Based on the author's empirical investigation from 1963 to 1968, Pierre Bourdieu's Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979) is a sociological report regarding the state of French culture.
• In his book The Practice of Everyday Life, Michel de Certeau explores the ways in which individuals individualize mass culture by changing everything from practical objects to street layouts to rituals, laws, and language to make it their own.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 1.

The correct answer is (d), (c), (a), (b)

Key Points

• The correct chronological order of the publication of the books is (d), (c), (a), (b)
• Franz Bopp, the eminent German linguist authored the book, "Concerning the Conjugation System of the Sanskrit Language in Comparison with those of the Greek, Latin, Persian and German Languages'.
• The book was published in German in the year 1816.
• 'Investigation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic Language' is the seminal work of the acclaimed Danish linguist and philologist, Rasmus Kristian Rask.
• The essay was published in 1818.
• Rask has investigated the origin of the Old Norse language and established its connection with the Germanic languages.
• 'Deutsche Grammatik' or 'German Grammar is the philological work of Jacob Grimm.
• The book was originally published in 1819. A second edition of the book was published in the year, 1822.
• 'Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit, Zend, Greek Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic and German is a founding text of comparative philology, written by Franz Bopp.
• The book was published in parts, starting from 1833 to 1870.
• The work originally appeared in German and was later translated into English and French.

Therefore, Option 4 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• Rasmus Kristian Rask was a Danish linguist and philologist.
• He wrote several grammars and worked on comparative phonology and morphology.
• Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist.
• He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie, and the editor of Grimms' Fairy Tales.
• Franz Bopp was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages.
• German linguist Bopp was one of the founders of the  Indo-European comparative linguistics, and author.

The correct answer is Man Friday — Uncle Toby — Miss Havisham — Stephen Dedalus

Key Points

• The correct chronological order of the fictional characters is Man Friday—Uncle Toby— Miss Havisham –Stephen Dedalus.
• Man Friday is one of the central characters in Daniel 'Defoe's' magnum opus 'Robinson Crusoe' (1719).
• He was a savage from the tribe of cannibals, whom Robinson befriended during his years of solitude spent on the deserted Pacific island.
• Crusoe gave a new identity to Friday and taught him the language, religion and culture of the civilized people of England.
• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman or Tristram Shandy is an experimental comic meta-novel of Laurence Sterne, published in nine volumes between 1759 and 1767.
• The novel is an autobiographical fiction of its eponymous protagonist, Tristram Shandy.
• Captain Toby Shandy or Uncle Toby is the uncle of Tristram Shandy and brother of Walter Shandy.
• The fictional character of Miss Havisham appears in Charles Dicken's famous novel, 'Great Expectations' (1861).
• Amelia Havisham or Miss Havisham is a wealthy spinster, who lives in a dilapidated mansion. Dickens portrays her as a strange and grotesque character.
• Stephen Dedalus is the protagonist of James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel, 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' (1916).
• The novel traces the religious and intellectual awakening of Stephen Dedalus and chronicles his journey from infancy to adulthood.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer.

Additional Information

• Daniel Defoe is best known as the writer of the novels Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722).
• During his lifetime he gained fame—and notoriety—for his poems, political pamphlets, and journalism.
• Charles Dickens wrote over a dozen novels in his career, as well as short stories, plays and nonfiction.
• He is probably best known for his memorable cast of characters, including Ebenezer Scrooge, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.
• One of the most influential and innovative writers of the 20th century, James Joyce was the author of the short story collection Dubliners (1914) and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake (1939).
• The British novelist Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) produced only two works of fiction, but he ranks as one of the major novelists of the 18th century because of his experiments with the structure and organization of the novel.

The correct answer is Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Key Points

• Research skills refer to the ability to find an answer to a question or a solution to a problem.
• They include your ability to gather information about a topic, review that information and analyze and interpret the details in a way to support a solution.
• Having research skills is necessary to advance your career as they directly relate to your ability to gain insight and inspire action in both yourself and others.
• Research skills refer to a collection of several separate skills that help you find and review the information and arrive at a decision.
• Articulated research questions are key ingredients that guide the entire review methodology; they underscore the type of information that is needed, inform the search for and selection of relevant literature, and guide or orient the subsequent analysis.

Therefore, Option 2 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• A literature review is both a summary and explanation of the complete and current state of knowledge on a limited topic as found in academic books and journal articles.
• There are two kinds of literature reviews you might write at university: one that students are asked to write as a stand-alone assignment in a course, often as part of their training in the research processes in their field, and the other that is written as part of an introduction to, or preparation for, a longer work, usually a thesis or research report

The correct answer is  (A) is false but (R) is true.

Key Points

• The term culture is multi-discursive.
• Therefore, Cultural Studies is not "simply the study of culture as a discrete entity divorced from its social and political context."
• On the contrary, cultural studies incorporate an examination of the social and political environments in which culture exists.
• It is a multidisciplinary field and goes beyond studying culture in isolation.
• Hence, Assertion (A) contradicts the accepted understanding of cultural studies, making it false.
• On the other hand, Reason (R) accurately describes the breadth of cultural studies, making it true.

Therefore, Option 4 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• Cultural studies is a relatively new interdisciplinary field of study, which came into being in the UK in the post-war years.
• It emerged out of a perceived necessity on the part of two of its founding figures, Raymond Williams and Richard Hoggart.
• It came to fruition, however, in circumstances that, as its third founding figure Stuart Hall often acknowledged, contested its legitimacy.

The correct answer is Of Gods, of Justice, of Man

Key Points

• The three kinds of laws implicit in Antigone's responses are Of Gods, of Justice and of Man.
• Antigone states that the laws were neither ordained by Zeus, the Greek God of thunder and the King of the Olympian Gods, nor by Justice.
• And lastly, Antigone talks about the laws of man.
• The play illustrates the tragic consequences of perceiving law exclusively in its human or divine form.
• It builds on and diverges from the Hegelian reading of the play, drawing out the role of hubris, as characterized by Creon’s myopic view of law as human fiat, as well as Antigone’s exclusive concern for the gods’ commands, and shows that either form of hubris results in tragedy.
• To approach justice, the law must instead be conceptualized as not only human and divine but also as natural, for it is natural law that could have mediated the divine and human aspects of the law that clash in the persons of Antigone and Creon.**

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• Antigone is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Sophocles, written around 442 BCE.
• Although it was written before Sophocles’ other two Theban plays, chronologically it comes after the stories in “Oedipus the King” and “Oedipus at Colonus”, and it picks up where Aeschylus‘ play “Seven Against Thebes” ends.
• It deals with Antigone’s burial of her brother Polynices, in defiance of the laws of Creon and the state, and the tragic repercussions of her act of civil disobedience.

The correct answer is The poet's are divinely possessed when they compose their poems.

Key Points

• The work in which the dialogue appears is Plato's Ion.
• Socrates discusses with the titular character, a professional rhapsode who also lectures on Homer, the question of whether the rhapsode, a performer of poetry, gives his performance on account of his skill and knowledge or by virtue of divine possession.
• It is one of the shortest of Plato's dialogues.
• He suggests that when poets create their works, they are under a form of divine influence or possession.
• This possession allows poets to produce profound works, not because of their knowledge or skills, but because of the divine messages instilled in them by the gods.
• Socrates considers these poets as vessels or mediums for the divine, channeling the wisdom and messages from the gods to humanity in the form of their poetry.
• As a result, the beauty or wisdom found within a poem is not credited to the knowledge or craftsmanship of the poet, but to the divine inspiration within them.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 3.

The correct answer is Nissim Ezekiel.

Key Points

• Nissim Ezekiel was an Indian Jewish poet also known as the poet of the city.
• He wrote some of the memorable 20th century's Indian English poems such as "Night of the Scorpion", and "Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher" among others.
• Ezekiel used to write in "Indian English" which others didn't think was scholarly in nature.
• But he preferred to write in a way that people use and he adopts those voices and satirises them in his poems.
• The series contains some memorable poems such as "Goodbye Party of Ms Pushpa T.S" and the titular poem itself.

Therefore, from all the points mentioned above, we can conclude that The series of poems entitled 'Very Indian Poems in Indian English’ was written by Nissim Ezekiel.

Additional Information Let's look at other options:

The correct answer is Dale Spender.

Key Points 

• Dale Spender said in her work Man Made Language (1980) that the English language is "man-made", not 'woman made’.
• It was published by Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• The work starts with stating the following line in its introduction, “Women are aware that male superiority is a myth and they deal with this knowledge in numerous ways. Their response to 'enlightenment' may range from disillusionment to elation, from masking their feelings in an attempt to hide their disappointment and preserve the myth, to outrightly declaring their knowledge in an attempt to explode it’”.

​Therefore we can conclude that the correct answer is  Option 3. ​

Additional Information

• Mary Rosamund Haas (January 12, 1910, Richmond, Indiana - d. May 17, 1996) was an American linguist who specialized in North American Indian languages, Thai, and historical linguistics.
• Dorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned British author, translator, student of classical and modern languages, and Christian humanist. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between World War I and World War II that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Her famous work Whose Body, translated Date’s  Divina Commedia.
• Carol Doris Chomsky was an American linguist and education specialist who studied language acquisition in children. She is the spouse of Noam Chomsky.

The correct answer is No fewer than 5 and no more than 48 pages.

Key Points

• Pamphlets were commonin England, France and Germany.
• It was in the religious unrest of the 16^th century that pamphlets got introduced.​
• According to the  UNESCO definition, a pamphlet should contain no fewer than 5 and no more than 48 pages.

Therefore the correct answer is option 1.

The correct answer is "Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule by Gandhi".

Key Points

• Hind Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi was written in Gujarati in November 1909, aboard a ship returning from England to South Africa in 10 days, with 40 of the 275 pages written with Gandhi's left hand.
• It was shortly outlawed by the Government in India because it contained 'content determined to be seditious'.
• On December 21, 1938, the restriction was eventually lifted. An American edition, titled 'Sermon on the Sea,' with an introduction by John Haynes Holmes, was published in Chicago in 1924.

Therefore, the correct answer is option 3.

Additional Information

• The Religion of Man (1931) is a compilation of lectures by Rabindranath Tagore, edited by him and based mostlonom his Hibbert Lectures given at Oxford University in May 1930.
• Between August 1916 and July 1918, the first series of Essays on the Gita was published in the monthly journal Arya. Sri Aurobindo updated it and it was released as a book in 1922.
• Verrier Elwin was born in 1902 and is a writer and ethnographer. He was a fervent Christian with extensive missionary training from his father, an Anglican Bishop. In 1930, he published a tract titled Christ and Satyagraha. Elwin was a member of Gandhi's Indian independence movement.

The correct answer is "Armadale".

Key Points

• Armadale, a novel by Charles Wilkins, was first published in 1864-66.
• Other important novels of 1860s by Wilkins  are The Woman in White(1859-60), No Name (1862), and The Moonstone (1868).
• There are three characters with the same name: a father, a son, and an outsider.
• Allan Armadale is the name of all three characters.​

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 4.

Additional Information

• The Island of the Mighty(1936) is the first of a series of four fantasy novels by American author Evangeline Walton based on the Welsh Mabinogion. The Virgin and the Swine was the publisher's title when it was first released in 1936.
• The German Goddess is a novel by Mahbanoo Shahrokh.
• Animal Farm(1945) is a novella by George Orwell. It narrates the narrative of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer in the hopes of establishing a society in which the animals can be equal, free, and joyful. Ultimately, the rebellion is crushed, and the farm returns to its previous status under the rule of a pig named Napoleon.

The correct answer is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. 

Key Points

• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a ballad (song, which tells a story) written by S.T. Coleridge. It was published in the Lyrical Ballad (1798).
• A ballad deals with the theme of repentance and hope. Using frame narrative (a narrative with-in the narrative) as a technique, the story of the ancient mariner has been told.
• It is the old mariner who narrates his story to a wedding guest. The mariner committed a sin, while he was on a voyage, by killing an albatross- the symbol of hope and good luck.
• Ancient mariner, a wedding guest, crew, pilot and his boy, hermit, albatross, Death and the ''Night-mare Life-in-Death''  are the characters in the ballad.
• Ariel is not a character in the ballad.

Therefore, Option 4 is the correct answer. 

Important Points

• Ariel is a character in The Tempest, a tragicomedy play written by Shakespeare. In the play, Ariel is "an airy spirit" who works for Prospero the magician. It is with the help of his servant Ariel, Prospero plans to avenge his enemies, who usurped him as Duke of Milan.
• In Milton's Paradise Lost (1667), Ariel supports Satan as a rebel angel.
• In Pope's mock epic poem, Rape of the Lock (1712) Ariel is the guarding sylph (the spirit of air) of Belinda, the protagonist of the poem. Ariel is charged with the protection of Belinda's chastity.

Additional Information

• In English, the expression Albatross around one's neck comes from the ballad The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which refers to the burden and guilt that one carries of their past deeds.
• Sylvia Plath wrote a poem Ariel, which captures the horse-riding experience. It is one of the most intense poems written by her, which has been interpreted by critics using various perspectives. A collection of her poems with the same name Ariel was published posthumously in 1965.

The correct answer is "(a) - (ii), (b) - (i), (c) - (iv), (d) - (iii)".

Key Points

• Homi Bhabha outlines the conceptual necessity and political coherence of the post-colonial intellectual mission in Location of Culture. Bhabha shows why the post-colonial criticism has permanently changed the landscape of postmodern discourse in a thought-provoking collection of writings.
• In order to determine Jacques Derrida's place in the history of criticism and the relevance of "Glas" as a literary event, "Saving the Text" cuts through his convoluted blend of philosophy, commentary, and creative wordplay. Geoffrey Hartman, a renowned critic and scholar, examines the value of Derrida's close reading method for English and American research and demonstrates its applicability to the conflict that has developed between European and Anglo-American critical methods.
• In Desire in Language, the author chronicles the course of a ten-year research into the semiotics of literature and the arts. However, even though Julia Kristeva frequently writes about literature and art, her articles in this collection do not qualify as either "literary criticism" or "art criticism."
• The collection of essays in Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said explores the relationship between imperialism and culture during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 2.

The correct answer is "(a) - (iii), (b) - (iv), (c) - (ii), (d) - (i)".

Key Points

• The Otherness of English by Probal Dasgupta provides a distinctive view of the meaning and application of the English language in India, with a focus on the manner of its use. The author provides an interdisciplinary perspective of English's contribution to modernization as a whole. The author makes it abundantly evident how English fills a functional role in India's language development by first introducing the sociolinguistic concept of diglossia and the geolinguistic concept of a southern and eastern Asian linguistic area.
• Rita Kothari investigates the shifting cultural landscape of India's urban middle class, which speaks English in her book Translating India. She looks closely at reading trends, perceptions of English, and the general direction of translation studies. The ease with which English is employed alongside an Indian language, as in "Yeh Dil Maange More" or "Hungry Kya," shows that English has become familiar to Indian speakers. Kothari transitions to the state of Gujarat from the larger background of bilingualism presented in the first section of the book. She illustrates the minute details of language politics and translation by using the example of Gujarati.
• The English Language in India is a book by Braj B. Kachru that discusses the Indianization of English, a study of language contact within the Indian subcontinent, Indian bilingualism, and English language variance in India.
• A humorous and fascinating look into Hinglish, a type of English that incorporates Southern Asian languages, is the subject of The Queen's Hinglish by Baljinder K. Mahal.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 2.

The correct answer is "(a) - (iii), (b) - (iv), (c) - (ii), (d) - (i)".

Key Points

• The preferred markup language for texts intended to be displayed in a web browser is known as HTML. 1991 saw the first instance of use. In 1993, it was formally released.
• In 1997, a video was first streamed on the internet.
• An interactive user-submitted network of friends, individual profiles, blogs, images, groups, music, and videos are available on the American social networking site myspace.com. In 2003, it made its debut.
• Facebook was launched in 2004.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 1.

The correct answer is Areopagitica — The Shortest Way with Dissenters — A Modest Proposal — Reflections on the Revolution in France

Key Points

• The correct chronological order of the prose-pamphlets is Areopagitica—The Shortest Way with Dissenters–A Modest Proposal—Reflections on the Revolution in France.
• Areopagitica or 'Areopagitica': A Speech of Mr John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England' is a 17th century political pamphlet, written by John Milton in defense of free speech and free press.
• The work was originally published in 1644, at the height of the first English Civil War.
• The Shortest Way with the Dissenters Or, 'Proposals for the Establishment of the Church' is a famous satirical pamphlet of Daniel Defoe.
• The work was published anonymously in 1702, and consisted of 29 pages.
• Jonathan Swift's satirical essay, A Modest Proposal was published in 1729.
• The essay criticized the heartless attitude of the Britishers towards the Irish people.
• Edmund Burke's political pamphlet**, Reflections on the Revolution in France** was published in the year, 1790.
• The pamphlet expresses the concerns of Burke regarding the revolution and its destructive repercussions.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• A pamphlet is an unbound publication that is not a periodical and contains no fewer than 5 and no more than 48 pages, exclusive of any cover.
• After the invention of printing, short unbound or loosely bound booklets were called pamphlets.
• Since polemical and propagandist works on topical subjects were circulated in this form, the word came to be used to describe them.
• Librarians and bibliographers generally classify as a pamphlet any short work, unbound or bound in paper covers.
• Although the word tract is almost synonymous, it generally describes religious publications.

The correct answer is Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Key Points

• In a narrative or creative writing, a plot is the sequence of events that make up a story, whether it’s told, written, filmed, or sung. The plot is the story, and more specifically, how the story develops, unfolds, and moves in time. Plots are typically made up of five main elements:

1. Exposition
   
2. Rising Action
   
3. Climax
   
4. Falling Action
   
5. Resolution

• Dialogic Criticism is modelled on the theory and critical procedures of the Soviet critic Mikhail Bakhtin who, although he published his major works in the 1920s and 1930s, remained virtually unknown to the West until the 1980s, when translations of his writings gave him a wide and rapidly increasing influence.
• To Bakhtin a literary work is not (as in various poststructural theories) a text whose meanings are produced by the play of impersonal linguistic or economic or cultural forces, but a site for the dialogic interaction of multiple voices, or modes of discourse, each of which is not merely a verbal but a social phenomenon, and as such is the product of manifold determinants that are specific to a class, social group, and speech community.
• He contrasts the monologic novels of writers such as Leo Tolstoy— which undertake to subordinate the voices of all the characters to the authoritative discourse and controlling purposes of the author—to the dialogic form (or "polyphonic form") of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novels

Therefore, Option 2 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• Mikhail M. Bakhtin (1895–1975) is increasingly being recognized as one of the major literary theorists of the twentieth century.
• He is perhaps best known for his radical philosophy of language, as well as his theory of the novel, underpinned by concepts such as “dialogism,” “polyphony,” and “carnival,” themselves resting on the more fundamental concept of “heteroglossia.”

The correct answer is  Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A) 

Key Points

• The assertion is correct because an extreme sense of uncertainty, disillusionment and despair dominated the works of the modern British writers, because their seminal works were published in the aftermath of the world wars.
• The outbreak of War in 1914, exerted a strong influence on the literature of the period. The poets of this era, wrote mostly about the horrors of war, and its widespread trauma.
• T.S. Eliot, one of the most prominent modernist poets of his era, expressed his frustration and disillusionment with the war-torn society, in his seminal works.
• 'The Waste Land' is T. S. Eliot's monumental poem that deals with the barrenness of modern civilization.
• The poem ends in a flurry of random Sanskrit allusions made to Eastern philosophy.
• Hence, the reason given in support of the assertion is also correct, but is not the correct explanation of assertion.

Therefore, Option 2  is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• T.S. Eliot (September 26, 1888–January 4, 1965) was an American-born poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, and critic.
• One of the most eminent modernists, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 “for his outstanding, pioneer contributions to present-day poetry.
• Eliot was a poet and a critic, and his two modes of expression cannot be understood without taking the other into consideration.
• Spirituality and religion prominently figure in Eliot’s work; he was not only concerned with the fate of his own soul, but with the fate of a society living in an era of uncertainty and dissolution

The correct answer is Because it has waited in vain

Key Points

• The poet has tried to suggest that the home is sad because it has waited in vain for so long.
• In the above extract, the poet has portrayed a painful image of a home, which has been left bereft of all comfort and happiness, by its previous residents.
• The very heart of the house was taken apart when the residents of the house started leaving one after another.
• The house waited in vain for a long time, for these people to return. However, those people never returned, and the house remained vacant forever.
• The poet has personified the house and has portrayed its sadness, stemming from the feeling of being left alone.

Therefore, Option 1 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• 'Home is so Sad’ is striking for its contrasting use of very plain, simple, almost childlike statements with more complex and consciously ‘poetic’ language.
• The two short statements which bookend the poem – ‘Home is so sad’ and ‘That vase’ – are very concise sentences verging on the overly obvious.
• They could come from the mouth of a child: ‘That vase’ is an entirely useless marker for us, the reader, who cannot see the vase being so unhelpfully not-described to us by the speaker.

The correct answer is Because it has no longer the reason to be what it was

Key Points

• The house has withered because it has no longer the reason to be what it was.
• In the above extract, the poet has personified a home and has presented a poignant portrayal of its feelings of sadness and loneliness, after its residents abandoned it.
• A home becomes meaningless and purposeless without people. A house just remains a meaningless structure of wood, unless people give it a meaning, a purpose.
• Similarly, in this poem, the author states that the house was as it should be, when people used to inhabit it.
• But, since its residents have left, the house is now feeling sad.
• Since, the house has no reason to be what it was previously, it has gradually withered away.

Therefore, Option 2 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information 

• ‘Home is so Sad’ explores the notion of ‘home’ when that home is left empty, when the ‘heart’ is removed from it, when it has lost what even makes it a ‘home’.
• The unspoken question seems to be: how can a home be a home when there’s no one around to make it so?
• Home retains sad memories of the people who once occupied it: it carries a reminder of its occupants, their pictures, the music they played on the piano, their taste in ornaments

The correct answer is The tenant who leaves

Key Points

• The 'thief' in the poem is the tenant who leaves and abandons the house.
• In the above extract, the poet has personified a home and has presented a poignant portrayal of its feelings of sadness and loneliness, after its residents abandoned it.
• A home becomes meaningless and purposeless without people.
• A house just remains a meaningless structure of wood, unless people give it a meaning, a purpose.
• According to the poet, the previous residents of the house are thieves, because they robbed the house of all its joy, happiness and meaning.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer.

Additional Information 

• Larkin was one of post-war England's most famous poets, and was commonly referred to as “England's other Poet Laureate” until his death in 1985.
• Indeed, when the position of laureate became vacant in 1984, many poets and critics favored Larkin's appointment, but Larkin preferred to avoid the limelight.

The correct answer is It was as it should be

Key Points

• The home was as it should be before it became 'sad.'.
• In the above extract, the poet has personified a home and has portrayed its feelings of sadness and loneliness, after its residents abandoned it.
• A home becomes meaningless and purposeless without people.
• A house just remains a meaningless structure of wood, unless people give it a meaning, a purpose.
• Similarly, in this poem, too the author states that the house was as it should be, when people used to inhabit it.
• But, since its residents have left, the house is now feeling sad.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer.

Additional Information 

• ‘Home is so Sad’ was completed on New Year’s Eve 1958, while Philip Larkin was staying at his mother’s house in Loughborough during the Christmas holidays.
• Larkin was often inspired to write some of his most moving poems about home while visiting his mother, and this is one of his clearest poems written on this theme.
• It appeared in The Whitsun Weddings in 1964.

The correct answer is the sentence 'The best artistic texts will be both complex and unified: every part of the work will be essential to it and will be linked to every other part.''

Key Points

• Aristotle believed in a unified plot as well as action. Thus in the plot, one action or event is naturally connected to the next one.
• Poetics is the work where he proposes to study poetry by analyzing its constitutive parts and then drawing general conclusions.
• Aristotle identifies tragedy as the most refined version of poetry dealing with lofty matters and comedy as the most refined version of poetry dealing with base matters.
• A tragedy consists of six component parts, which are listed here in order from most important to least important: plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle.
• Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander the Great.
• He was the disciple of Plato.
• Two of his major works are Poetics and Rhetoric.

Therefore the correct answer is ​option 3.

The correct answer is "Frederic Jameson".

 Key Points

• Fredric Jameson is a literary critic, philosopher, and Marxist political theorist from the United States.
• He is most recognized for his examination of contemporary cultural trends, particularly postmodernism and capitalism.
• Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991) and The Political Unconscious (1981) are two of Jameson's best-known books.
• Postmodernity, according to Jameson, has reduced the historical past to a succession of emptied-out stylizations (what Jameson refers to as pastiche) that may then be commodified and consumed. As a result, capitalist thinking threatens to triumph over all other forms of cognition.
• According to Jameson, members of this consumerist culture are rapidly losing all sense of their connection to what is "real" and what their "historical roots" are.

​Therefore, the correct answer is option 3.

Additional Information

• Jean Baudrillard was a French sociologist, philosopher, and poet who studied culture. He is well recognized for his media, popular culture, and technical communication analyses, as well as the development of concepts such as simulation and hyperreality.
• Ihab Hassan (1925-2015) was born in Cairo. He immigrated to the United States in 1946. He was a well-known literary critic and writer whose work ranged from New Criticism to Postmodernism and beyond.
• Daniel Bell was a professor at Harvard University, an American sociologist, author, and editor best known for his work on the subject of post-industrialism.

The correct answer is Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe.

Key Points

• The term "University Wits" refers to a group of late-16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers.
• They received their education at universities Oxford or Cambridge .
• Cambridge's Christopher Marlowe, Robert Greene, and Thomas Nashe were prominent members of this group, as were Oxford's John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele.
• Thomas Kyd is also occasionally included in the group, despite the fact that he did not attend any of the aforementioned universities.
• These London writers and dramatists laid the groundwork for Elizabethan England's theatrical Renaissance.

Therefore, the correct answer is option 4.

Important Points

• Below mentioned are the important features of the works of university wits:
• Heroic themes were popular.
• These themes received heroic treatment: immense depth and variety; magnificent descriptions, long swelling speeches, and the handling of terrible situations and emotions.
• The design was also 'heroic.' The main goal was to achieve strong lines, exquisite epithets, and powerful declamation.
• One of the most noticeable characteristics of early play is the widespread lack of genuine humour. Only John Lyly wrote comedies.

Additional Information

• Thomas Lodge (1558-1625) was an English writer who wrote during Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.
• Thomas Wilson(1524-1581) was a rhetorician and English diplomat during the Elizabethan age.
• Sir Walter Raleigh(1552-1618) was a writer, explorer and writer during the Elizabethan age.
• John Fletcher(1579-1625) was a playwright who wrote during the Jacobean period.
• Ben Jonson(1572-1637) was an English poet and playwright. He is credited to have popularized comedy of humours.
• Francis Beaumont(1584-1616) was an English playwright who wrote during the Renaissance.

The correct answer is "Three times a week: 271 issues".

 Key Points

• The Tatler was a British literary and social periodical founded in 1709 by Richard Steele and published for two years.
• Steele's literary friends Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addison also contributed to the journal, which was originally published three times a week for 271 issues.
• Steele went by the pen name Isaac Bickerstaff.

Therefore, the correct answer is option 3.

Important Points

• It offered a new method to journalism, with polished articles on contemporary manners, and established a pattern that would be replicated in British classics such as Addison and Steele's Spectator, Samuel Johnson's Rambler and Idler, and Goldsmith's Citizen of the World.
• The Tatler would also have an impact on essayists such as Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt.
• This is the first documented instance of a journalistic identity that has been continually used.
• It is an adaptation to the first person of the 17th-century "characters" genre, which was initially developed in English by Sir Thomas Overbury and later enlarged by Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristicks (1711).
• Steele's conceit, embodied in the title "Tatler," was to publish the rumours and gossip heard in various London coffeehouses.
• He also declared in the first paragraph to leave politics to the newspapers, present Whiggish ideas, and correct middle-class behavior while instructing "these Gentlemen, for the most part being Persons of strong Zeal, and weak Intellects...what to think."

The correct answer is "The South-Sea House".

Key Points

• Charles Lamb was an English essayist.
• He published Essays of Elia in 1820.
• The essay collection was personal and conversational in tone, which impressed the audience.
• He used Elia as his pseudonym and "Cousin Bridget" for his sister Mary.
• In "The South-Sea House" he narrates his experience of working at the south sea house.
• He used to prepare patents and other documents for trade in India.

Therefore, from the above-mentioned points, we can infer that Charles Lamb first use the pseudonym/persona. Elia in "The South-Sea House".

Important Points Let's look at some important facts about Charles Lamb:

• In his essay "Christ Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago" he talked about his meeting with Samuel Taylor Coleridge and also talked about his experience at christ hospital which was actually a charity boarding school.
• He wrote the Essays and letters for The London Magazine.
• William Hazlitt, another great essayist of the Romantic age, had this to say about Lamb,' He had succeeded as a poet by not conforming to the spirit of the age.'
• A few of his most famous essays are:
• 'Old China'
• A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig
• Praise of Chimney Sweepers

The correct answer is Agamemnon, Choephoroe and Eumenides. 

Key Points

• The trilogy Oresteia was written by Aeschylus in Greek during the 5th century BCE.
• The play Agamemnon is a tragedy play and it is the first play in the trilogy. It deals with the murdering of Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae. He is murdered by his wife, Queen Clytemnestra who avenges the death of her daughter Iphigenia. Queen Clytemnestra is helped by her lover Aegisthus.
• In the second play, Choephoroi (The Libation Bearers) Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, avenges the murder of his father by committing matricide.
• In the final play, The Eumenides, Orestes is tortured by the Furies (goddess of vengeance). Finally Orestes seeks the help of goddess Athena who sets a trial for him in a courtroom. It is decided at the end of the trial that Orestes will not be killed and Athena helps in the reconciliation, and the foundation of justice is laid down.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer.

Important Points

• The goddess Athena changes the name of Furies to Eumenides which means "the gracious ones".
• Aeschylus is known as the father of tragedy.
• It was Aeschylus who introduced the second character in the plays, otherwise prior to his innovation there used to be only one character and the chorus. The character used to be in conversation with the chorus and that's how the plays were enacted. However, with the introduction of second character, the foundation of modern theatre was laid down.

Additional Information

• The play Suppliants was also written by Aeschylus as a part of a trilogy, but now it is the only extant play of the trilogy.
• The play The Suppliant Women is written by Euripides during 5th BCE.
• The Persians is a tragedy play written by Aeschylus, and it comes as the second play of a trilogy which is lost now.
• The tragedy play Seven Against Thebes was also written by Aeschylus, and it is the third play of a lost trilogy. It deals with the war between the armies of two brothers (son of Oedipus)- Eteocles and Polyneices, who finally end up killing each other.

The correct answer is Intrigue. 

Key Points

• The word intrigue in modern general sense refers to the act of inciting curiosity.
• The word intrigue carries another meaning, especially in context of literature in which it refers to the act of scheming, manipulation, conspiration and deception. This understanding of the word is coming from older usage of the word for complicated section within the plot.
• A character usually intrigues the other characters to gain advantages. This often adds complexity to the plot.

Therefore, Option 2 is the correct answer. 

Important Points

• Conflict is a device used in literature to bring in the element of tension and opposition between two parties or forces.
• In literature, the term ally refers to the constant companionship especially with the protagonist. The ally would respect the friendship above anything else.
• The term foil refers to the character who helps in highlighting the qualities of the other character especially that of the protagonist. The presence of the foil character helps in valuing the presence and qualities of the main character better as those qualities are shown in the contrast to the qualities of the foil character.
• For Example, in the play Antigone by Sophocles, the character of Ismene is a foil character to her sister Antigone. It is the Ismene's refusal to support her sister in carrying out the burial for their unburied brother (as it would mean going against the authority), Ismene establishes Antigone's character as bold and heroic.

Additional Information

• There are comedies which are based on complicated plots- highlighting the plot as full of deception and conspiracy, such comedies are known as comedy of intrigue.
• This form of comedy was first written in Spain, and received the least popularity on English stage, however it was Aphra Behn who wrote this form of comedy.
• The Rover (1677-81) and The City Heiress (1682) are two fine examples of comedy of intrigue by Behn.

The correct answer is John Osborne, Shelagh h Delaney, and Arnold Wesker.

Key Points

• Kitchen sink drama is the name given to plays that depict the daily struggles of ordinary working-class people.
• Plays in this category often deal with social issues such as poor living conditions, lack of employment, poverty, and turbulent relationships.
• Kitchen Sink drama was a British cultural movement in Art and Literature.
• The protagonists of such works were known as Angry Young Men who were disillusioned with society.
• Arnold Wesker, Shelagh Delaney, and John Osborne are some of the prominent writers.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 4.

Additional Information

• John Arden, was from England .He was one of the most important of British playwrights to emerge in the mid-20th century.

The correct answer  is  The Play Called the Four P and The Play of the Weather.

Key Points

• John Heywood was an English writer known for his plays and collection of proverbs.
• For example, The Play of the Wether (1533) and An English interlude.
• The Play Called The Four Ps (1530) is a  farcical interlude with four characters - pardoner, a Palmer, an Apothecary, and a Peddlar.
• He was born in the year 1497 and died in the year 1580.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 3. ​

Additional Information

• The first English tragedy, Gorboduc (1561), was written by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton.
• The play is a chain of slaughter and revenge written in direct imitation of Seneca.
• The Spanish Tragedy or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592.
• The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy.

The correct answer is (a) - (iv), (b) - (iii), (c) - (ii), (d) - (i)​ 

Key Points

• In Subversion of Identity (1990), and its sequel, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’ (1993), Butler builds upon the familiar assumption that gender is socially constructed (the result of socialization, broadly conceived) rather than innate.
• ​​​​​In  A World of Difference, Barbara Johnson extends and rethinks the theoretical perspectives on literature opened up by her earlier book, The Critical Difference.
• A Literature of Their Own by Elaine Showalter is a work that sets the stage for the creative exploration of feminist literary studies that transformed the field in the 1980s. ​​​
• Vamps & Tramps: New Essays is by Camille Paglia the author of Sexual Personae and Sex, Art, and American Culture. Her new collection of essays has everything from art and celebrity to gay activism. These essays have never appeared in book form, and many were appearing in print for the first time.

Therefore the correct answer is Option 3.

The correct answer is 

Key Points

• The correct match is A-II, B-IV, D-I.
• Donalbain is a character in William Shakespeare's classic tragedy, 'Macbeth'.
• He is King Duncan's second son and the younger brother of Malcolm.
• He is present in the early scenes of the play, but he doesn't speak.
• After his father's death, he flees to Ireland.
• Claudio is a character in William Shakespeare's dark comedy, 'Measure for Measure'.
• He is a young gentleman of Vienna and brother of Isabella.
• He gets Juliet pregnant, because of which, he gets sentenced to death.
• Nerissa is a character in William Shakespeare's famous comedy in five-acts, 'Merchant of Venice'.
• She is Portia's maidservant but Shakespeare has portrayed her as a loyal and honest friend of Portia, her companion, verbal sparring partner and a confidante.
• Goneril is a character in William Shakespeare's famous tragedy, 'King Lear'.
• She is the eldest of the three daughters of King Lear.
• She is portrayed as a treacherous, selfish and amoral woman, who betrays her father and usurps his kingdom.

Therefore, Option 4 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon.
• Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre.
• Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps his most enduring legacy, but they are not all he wrote. His poems also remain popular to this day.

The correct answer is  The unconscious — langue — heresy of paraphrase — difference 

Key Points

• The correct chronological order of the key critical terms is 'The unconscious-langue-heresy of paraphrase-difference'.
• The concept of the 'unconscious mind' was introduced by the renowned Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud in 1915.
• Freud identified three levels of awareness-the preconscious, conscious, and unconscious.
• However, the term 'unconscious' was coined by the German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling.
• 'Langue' and 'Parole' are linguistic terms distinguished by the Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, in his seminal work, 'Course in General Linguistics' (1916).
• Langue denotes a system of rules and structures.
• It is a shared system of linguistic signs, that makes speech possible.
• 'The Heresy of Paraphrase' is the title of a chapter in Cleanth Brooks' seminal work of literary criticism, 'The Well-Wrought Urn'.
• The book was published in 1947. In this seminal work, Brooks has critically analyzed the poems of John Donne, Shakespeare, Milton, Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, Keats, Lord Tennyson, Yeats, Thomas Gray, and T. S. Eliot.
• The French term, 'Differance' was coined by the French philosopher, Jacques Derrida.
• He used the term for the first time in his 1963 paper 'Cogito et histoire de la folie'.
• The term, 'differance' is central to Derrida's theory of deconstruction.

Therefore, Option 3 is the correct answer.

 Additional Information

• Literary criticism is the comparison, analysis, interpretation, and/or evaluation of works of literature.
• Literary criticism is essentially an opinion, supported by evidence, relating to theme, style, setting or historical or political context.
• It usually includes discussion of the work’s content and integrates your ideas with other insights gained from research.
• Literary criticism may have a positive or a negative bias and may be a study of an individual piece of literature or an author’s body of work.