STUDY MATERIAL AND MODEL QUESTIONS

Essay type Question:

1- Topic: Old English period

1- Write a short essay on Old English prose with particular reference to Alfred and
Aelfric.
2- Name the major elegiac poems of Old English period. Discuss any two of these
poems as representative of the age.
3- Give a critical description of Old English heroic poetry.
4- Assess the contribution of Caedmon and Cynewulf to Old English Christian
poetry.
5- Briefly describe Old English Elegiac poetry.
6- Give a critical survey of Old English Christian poetry.
7- Consider Beowulf as an epic.
8- What role did the bards play in Anglo-Saxon literature? Answer with suitable
references.
9- Do you agree with the view that Beowulf presents an interesting though very
incomplete picture of the life of the upper, warrior class among the northern
Germanic tribes? Give reasons for your answer.
Specimen Answer:
Question: Briefly describe Old English Elegiac poetry
Answer:
Although Anglo-Saxon poetry is full of the Teutonic love of battle, boastfulness, pride
and glory and blood thirstiness, but there are some poems which are marked by different
from the Anglo-Saxon war poetry by virtue of their lyrical tendency and elegiac mood.
An elegy means a poem of morning or song of lamentation. We find then in origin both
in Greek literature and in Latin. However, term elegy was at first appeared to all kinds of
poetry written in a particular metre, called me elegiac metre. The subject of an elegy as
such could then be anything tragic, comic, serious, sad or sentimental. But the
subsequently the scope of elegy become confined and the name was applied to the specific
kind of poem of moaning or the song of lamentation. An elegy is now supposed to have
these features: reflective, pensiveness and subjectivity.

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Anglo Saxon has either a heroic theme or of lyrical learning. But among these lyrical
poems the exception is Widsith. It is preserved in The Exeter book. Widsith
means the far goer or far traveller. It is a poem of 143 lines divided into three parts:
a- A prologue first few lines.
b- A speech by Widsith next 125 lines.
c- An Epilogue last few lines.
It is the autobiography of an interment minstrel who recounts the story of his long travels
through the Germanic world. During his tour he visited different tribal chiefs, lords, kings
and princes and received rich presents, some of them are well known to History as
Ecermanie, kings of Goths, Attila king of Hauns, Albion king of the Lombard, Theodoric,
king of Franks and ever the reference of Hrothgovr and Hrothwulf.
It is a valuable source of social and historical documents of primitive life. What strikes
us most forcibly is its catholicity, praise, is meted out imperative to Huns, Goths,
Burgandiano, Franks, Danes, Swedes, and Angles, Wends, Saxon and Many others.
Of the Angles Saxon elegies, the specific mention may be made of the Ruined or
Ruined Burg, the wifes complaint, The Husband Massages, Deors Lament, the wanderer
and the Seafarer.
The Ruin or Ruined Burg: In the concept of the elegiac Note The Ruin of the Ruin
Burg appears most outstanding, the unknown poet & the Ruin laments impulsiveness
over the sad decay of this cities of Bath, for the loss of its pomp and splendour, crowd
and noise, attraction and business, the elegy ends with a plaintive note of reflection on
the unkindness of fate to that which once was so grand and prosperous.
The Wifes Complaint: It is a kind of monologue. It is an elegy in which the young wife
manors for her unjust separation from her beloved husband. The poem is impulsive and
pensive. A personal note rings throughout the poem, and the warmth of passion is
warbling in the poets feelings and expression.
The Husbands Message: In the Husband massage the poet describes the massage of
the husband engraved on wooden tablets, which is forwarded to the husband engraved on
a wooden tablet, which is forwarded to the beloved women like The wifes
complaints. This poem too bears an unpretentious and sincere feeling and a worm
passion. These two poems are regarded as the earliest instances of the English love poetry.
Deors lament: In Doers Lament we have another picture of the Saxon scope or minstrel,
but not in glad wandering but in mainly sorrow. It is an elegy of 42 lines. Once Deor was
the favour of a lord but his position have been supplanted by a dismissal. It is lyrical in

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form and may be called the first English lyric. It is much poetry then Widsith and in a
perfect lyric of the Anglo Saxon period.
The Wandered: It is an elegy of 115 Lines by an unknown Anglo Saxon poet. It is the
Lamentation of a young man for his dead master. The wanderer travels in a ship alone
and friendless, seeking a home for peace and protection under a new lord. In the sleep he
dreams the happiness of his former days but after awaking he finds nothing but grew
waves and feeling now which adds to his distress. Finally he draws the conclusion that
miseries are the common of men. The poem ends with a conventional Christian
sentimental that good is the man who never loses his faith on God.
The Seafarer: It is a poem of some hundred lines. It is different to surmise whether the
poem is a monologue of a seaman or a dialogue between two Sailors one old and another
young. It seems to be in two distinct parts the first part the heard ship of ocean life but
the subtle call of the sea is more alluring. The second part allegorically represents that the
troubles of the sea are the troubles of earthly life and the call of the ocean is the call in
the soul to go to its true some with God. The sombre and violent pictures it gives of
northern seas in which sufferings from cold mingles with the pains of water and wind.
Wulf and Edwacer: Wulf and Edwacer is another monologue expresses a romantic
yearning of a woman for her out-lawed lover. Edwacer may be her husband. In the
conclusion, it may be said that Anglo-axon poetry bears the lyrical and elegiac tendency
and moods, not of much quality demands literary status.

2- Middle English Period

1- Bring out the chief characteristics of the Middle English romance with special
reference to the Arthurian cycle.
2- Trace the origin and development of English drama up-to the period of the
Morality plays.
3- Write a short note on the contribution of William Langland with particular
reference to Piers Plowman.
4- Write a brief note on the Middle English Alliterative Revival.
5- Discuss Chaucer's contribution to English poetry.
6- Write a brief note on the development of drama in the Middle English period.
7- Write an essay on Middle English religious poetry.
8- Trace the development of Middle English metrical romances.

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 9- Comment on the role of the Scottish Chaucerians with particular reference to any
two.
10- Write a brief note on the development of prose writing during the Middle English
period.
Specimen Answer
Question: Discuss William Langland as a major poet of the age of Chaucer and
contribution of Langland to the development of English Poetry.
Answer:
Among the contemporaries of Chaucer the pride of place is given to John Gower, William
Langland and John Barbour of Scotland. In the sphere of poetry these poets left behind a
rich harvest of literature and their contribution to English poetry is quite substantial.
William Langland (1332-1400) and Piers Plowman:
William Langland or Langly is one of the early writers with whom modern research has
dealt adversely. All we know about him appears on the manuscripts of his poem, or is
based upon the remarks he makes regarding himself in the course of the poem. He was
born probably near Malvern in 1332 where he was educated at the Benedictine School.
He was a minor clerk with connection in Oxfordshire and Worcestershire.
The name of William Langland has a celebrity in the English language for his singular
workThe Book of Piers the Plowman. In the English literature of the 14th century,
Langlands Piers the Plowman stands out as the most renowned work, except Chaucers
The Canterbury Tales. Whereas the latter is a social chronicle with engaging tales, Piers
Plowman is an impressive allegory, more deeply concerned with religious, ethical, social
and economic problems of the time.
Like The Canterbury Tales, Piers Plowman has a Prologue that has the typical dream
convention of medieval literature. This describes how the author falls sleep on a May
morning on the Malvern Hills and has a vision of a fair field, fun of folk from different
ranks and occupations. This Prologue, as in Chaucers Prologue, records a picture of the
English society of the 14th century. Social scenes rather than social types are more evident
in Langlands Prologue. The frame work of the poem is allegorical. Piers the Plowman
or the Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman is available in several
versions. The chief forms of this poem are A-Text, B-Text and C-Text. Of these the first
version was written about 1362 and contains the vision about Piers Plowman and the
vision of the poem on the whole, consists of eleven visions and has the incoherence and

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inconsequence of a dream. In this poem on a May morning, the narrator, falls asleep
beside a brook on the Malvern Hills.
In a somere seyson. When softe was the sonne
I schop me into shroud as I a shepherd were.
After The Prologue, there are the two episodes: The Marriage of Lady Meed and The
Confession of the Seven Deadly Sins. Piers the Plowman is a mighty achievement of
Langland and ranks very high as a social and moral study, its significance lies in its
threefold manifestation. First, it is a graphic picture of contemporary life and manners.
Second, it is a penetrative satire on social and ecclesiastical follies and vices. Third, it is
a powerful allegory of human life and morality. The poem describes a series of
remarkable visions that pass before the dreamer and in their general draft we are reminded
of the great allegory of Bunyan.

Like Chaucer, Langland is found to have made the use of traditional materials and drawn
on the facts of contemporary society, but he has not achieved the literary eminence of his
great contemporary. Nevertheless the social and allegorical values of his work are
immense and its literary merit is not altogether insignificant. Though he has no immediate
successor, his influence on the subsequent authors of satires and allegories cannot be
ignored. The immortal Pilgrims Progress of Bunyan is certainly a direct descendant of
Langlands Piers Plowman. Do-well, Do-better and Do-best. The second version or B-
Text was written about 1377 and includes the fable of the rats and the cat. The C-Text
has few hundred lines more than the B-Text. Through these versions, Langland conveys
a quite pointed account of the moral Faith and the Social Vices of his age. The poet brings
forth different visions to indicate the supreme sermons of truth, work and love this ethical
point is distinct and indicates that mans chief duty is to seek truth, that faith without work
has no worth and that love leads to heaven.

Short Questions

1- Topic: Anglo-Saxon
1- Which Roman General conquered England in 43 B.C.?
2- When did the Romans depart from England?
3- In which letters, Cynewulf signed his poems?
4- How many manuscripts are there in Old English literature?

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5- Which is the year of composition of Beowulf?
6- Name the two monsters Beowulf killed?
7- Whom did Beowulf help to get rid of Grendel?
8- How many lines of Beowulf do survive now?
9- In which dialect is Beowulf written?
10- Who was Beowulf's father?
11- Who was Beowulf's Uncle?
12- What is the meaning of Widsith?
13- Write the name of two pagan poems.
14- Write the name of two old English elegiac poems.
15- How many poems are contained in Junius MS?
16- Write the name of the poems written by Caedmon.
17- How many poems do contain the signature of Cynewulf?
18- Name two love poems of old English literature.
19- Who is called the father of English prose?
20- What is the greatest book of Bede?
21- How many works did Alfred translate?
22- Name the biographer of King Alfred.
23- Who wrote The Dream of the Rood?
24- What is the greatest imaginative poem of the Anglo Saxon period?
25- Name two Anglo-Saxon prose writers other than Alfred.
26- What did Aelfric write?
27- Why is Wulfstan famous for?
28- What is kenning?
29- Name one poem from The Exeter Book' and 'The Vercelli Book.
30- Who was the English king in The Battle of Hasting?
31- Name two war poems in which one celebrate the victory and other defeat.
32- Name two homilies of Old English period.
33- What kind of poem is Wanderer?
34- Who wrote Catholic Homilies?
35- Which old English poem has the Cross as its speaker?
36- In whose reign did the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle have its beginning?
37- When did the Anglo-Saxons arrive in Britain?
38- Who is the author of Colloquy?

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39- Name an Old English elegy which contain a refrain?
40- What do the two birds in The Owl and the Nightingale?
41- Who were Scops?
42- Which Old English heroic poem is alluded to in Beowulf?
43- What is Caesura?
44- Why is 597 AD important?
45- What is the meaning of the word wyrd in Anglo-Saxon literature?

2- Topic: Middle English (1066-1400)

1- Name two romances dealing with the Matter of England?
2- Name the famous Middle English poem which is long debate between two birds.
3- Name a famous contemporary of Chaucer and his principal work.
4- Mention an important work by Chaucer written during a period of Italian influence
in the mid-1370s.
5- Mention two poem of Alliterative Revival.
6- Who is Duns Scotus?
7- Name two works by Roger Bacon.
8- Who wrote Brut? What does it describe?
9- Who wrote the Lives of the Saints?
10- Narrate briefly the theme of The Seafarer.
11- Who wrote The Ecclesiastical History of England?
12- What is the subject matter of Ancrene Riwle?
13- Name two alliterative poems?
14- Who was John Mandeville?
15- Who wrote Confessio Amantis?
16- Name two romances of the Middle English Period.
17- What is the subject matter of Layman's Brut?
18- Who wrote Morte d' Arthur and what is it about?
19- Who wrote Juliana?
20- Mention four of the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
21- Why is the year 1066 important?
22- Who wrote The Lives of the Saints?
23- Name two Anglo-Saxon elegiac poems.

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24- Who wrote Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins?
25- Name one of the works of Robert Manning Brunne.
26- What is Ormulum?
27- Name two important cycles of the Miracle plays.
28- Give the name of a poem written by Robert Manning of Brunne.
29- Why is Ormulum so called?
30- Name one popular morality play.
31- Name a Middle English metrical romance.
32- When did the Norman Conquest take place?
33- Who is the author of the Roman de la Rose?
34- Who is the author of Handlying Synne?
35- Mention a Middle English Prose work which serves as complete guide to the life
of anchoresses.
36- Name the English prose work written by John Gower.
37- Give the name of morality play.
38- To whom is Chaucer indebted for The Canterbury Tales? How many pilgrims
were there?
39- Which work did Wace translate?
40- Name the Middle English poem written in 15 syllable lines and which has a
feminine ending?
41- Mention any work written by Chaucer during the French period? Why they are
called French work?
42- Name any two works from Chaucer's Italian period.
43- Name two religious poems of the Alliterative Revival.
44- Who is the author of Bruce?
45- To whom is Chaucer indebted for Troilus and Criseyde?
46- Name a Middle English poem written in Octosyllabic couplets.
47- Name the guide book written for the benefit of the anchoresses.
48- Who wrote Courtiers Trifles?

Short Questions:
a- Topic: Classicism
1- Definition of Classicism?
2- What are the common factors or characteristic features of Classicism?

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 3- What are the practitioners of Classicism?
4- What do you mean by the word classic?
5- What do you mean by Classical?
6- Mention two classical writers and their works.
7- Mention any two exponents of Classicism and name at least one work by each of
them.
Specimen Answer
What do you mean by the word classic?
Answer: A number of meanings may be distinguished, but principally: (a) of the first rank
or authority; (b) belonging to the literature or art of Greece and Rome; and (c) a writer or
work of the first rank, and of generally acknowledged excellence.
Mention two classical writers and their works.
Answer: Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Ars Poetica were two major works in the
field of classical literature. And also Roman poet Virgil's work Eclogues is regarded
as one of the best works in this field.

b- Topic: Image
1- What is image?
2- How many types of images are there?
3- Characteristic features of image.
4- Difference between images and symbol.
5- What does C. Day Lewis comment on image?
6- What purpose does an image play in a poem?
7- Who is the author of the book Shakespeares Imagery and What It Tells Us and
Well Wrought Urn?
Specimen Answer
What is image?
Answer: Image is normally a concrete representation of an object or sensory experience.
Such representation helps to evoke the feelings associated with the object or experience
itself.
What does C. Day Lewis comment on image?
Answer: Poet, C. Day. Lewis comments in his Poetic Image (1948), that an image is a
picture made out of words, and that a poem may itself be an image composed from a
multiplicity of images.

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 c- Topic: Modernism
1- What is Modernism?
2- Characteristic features of Modernism.
3- Name some exponents of Modernism.
4- Works on Modernism.
5- Difference between Modernism and Post-Modernism.
6- What is the difference between Modernism and Romanticism?
7- What do you mean by avant-garde?
Specimen Answer
What is Modernism?
Answer: Modernism is a philosophical movement that along with cultural trends and
changes arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in western society in the
late 19th and 20th centuries. Among the factors that shaped Modernism were the
development of modern industrial societies and the rapid growth of cities followed then
by the horror of World War I.
Modernism also rejected the certainty of Enlightenment thinking and many modernists
rejected religious belief. In short, Modernists experimented with literary form and
expression, adhering to Ezra Pound's maxim to make it new.

d- Topic: Humanism
1- Definition of humanism.
2- How is humanism developed?
3- Who represented the humanist thought? Who were the practitioner of humanism?
4- Characteristic features of humanism?
5- When was the term humanist coined? What does the phrase studia
humanitatis mean?
6- What do you mean by Christian Humanism? Name an exponent of Christian
Humanism.
7- What do you mean by Renaissance Humanism?
8- Who wrote Life of Milton?
Specimen Answer
When was the term humanist coined? What does the phrase studia humanitatis
mean?

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Answer: In the sixteenth century the word humanist was coined to signify one who taught
or worked in the studia humanitatis, and by 1836 humanism was lent to English. The
Renaissance term, derived from the work of Cicero, studia humanitatis, or humanities,
denotes the study of grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy, as
distinguished from fields less concerned with the moral and imaginative aspects and
activities of man.
What do you mean by Christian Humanism? Name an exponent of Christian
Humanism.
Answer: Christian Humanism is mankind itself as a part of uncreated, eternal nature; its
goal is man's self-remediation without reference to or help from God. Many Christian and
secular humanists share a commitment to reason, free inquiry, the separation of church
and state, the ideal of freedom and moral education however they differ in many areas.
Christian Humanism thrived in the works and thought of Augustine, Aquinas, Erasmus
and others. Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, and John Milton, also are the exponent
of Christian humanism.

e- Topic: Naturalism
1- What is naturalism?
2- Who were the practitioner of Naturalism?
3- Write two features of Naturalism.
4- Difference between Realism and Naturalism. 2014
5- What do you mean by the phrase Le Roman Experimental?
6- What is the usual ending of a naturalistic novel?
Specimen Answer
What is naturalism?
Answer: Naturalism is ordinarily speaking, a made of very minute representation. As a
literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, naturalism aspired to examine
human life with the objectivity of scientific inquiry. Naturalism points out matters,
situations or scenes as they naturally are without any kind of alternation or derivation.
We can also say that Naturalism is the extreme form of realism.
What is the usual ending of a naturalistic novel?
Answer: The end of the naturalistic novel is usually tragic, but not, as in classical and
Elizabethan tragedy, because of a heroic but losing struggle of the individual mind and

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will against gods, enemies, and circumstances. Instead, the protagonist of the naturalistic
plot, a pawn to multiple compulsions, usually disintegrates, or is wiped out.

f- Topic: Neoclassicism
1- Definition of Neoclassicism.
2- Characteristic features of Neoclassicism.
3- Who are the creator or practitioners of Neoclassicism?
4- Difference between Classicism and Neoclassicism.
5- Name some exponents and their works of Neoclassicism.
Specimen Answer
Who are the creator or practitioners of Neoclassicism?
Answer: Neoclassical works were often regulated by the classical goal of moral teaching.
English Neoclassicists include A. Pope, Dryden, Milton, Johnson, Henry Fielding,
Gibbon, Chesterton, J. Swift, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, John Gay, Matthew Prior
etc.

g- Topic: New-Criticism
1- Definition of New-Criticism.
2- Who are the practitioners of New-Criticism?
3- Characteristic features of New-Criticism.
4- Name two books of I.A.Richards.
5- Name two English The New-Critics and at least one work of each of them.
6- What is affective fallacy?
7- What is Intentional Fallacy?
8- What are the procedures of evolution literature according to the New-Critics?
9- Who wrote the books The Well Wrought Urn and The Verbal Icon?
10- Name two books of Robert Penn Warren.
11- Who is in-fact, the founder of New-Criticism?
Specimen Answer
Who are the practitioners of New-Criticism?
Answer: The practitioners of New-Criticism was John Crow Ransom. Other important
practitioners of the school include Allen Tate, R.P Blackmur, Robert Penn Warran,
Cleanth Brooks, I.A.Richards, William. K. Wimsatt.
What is affective fallacy?

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Answer: Affective fallacy stands for the error of evaluating a poem by the emotional
effects on the readers. Here the reader does not analysis the specific attribute and devices
of the poem as a work of literature. The reader on the other-hand counts upon his own
emotional reaction to the poem. The term was defined by Wimsatt and Beardsley in The
Verbal Icon, 1954.

h- Topic: Postmodernism
1- What is Postmodernism?
2- Characteristic features of Postmodernism.
3- What are the major literary genres associated with Post-modernism?
4- What are the major literary developments of Postmodernism?
5- Name some exponents of Postmodernism.
6- Some works on Postmodernism.
Specimen Answer
What is Postmodernism?
Answer: Postmodernism is a late-20th-century movement in the arts, architecture, and
criticism that was a departure from modernism. Postmodernism includes skeptical
interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, economics, architecture,
fiction, and literary criticism. It is often associated with deconstruction and post-
structuralism because its usage as a term gained significant popularity at the same time
as twentieth-century post-structural thought.
The term postmodernism has been applied to a host of movements, mainly in art, music,
and literature, that reacted against tendencies in modernism, and are typically marked by
revival of historical elements and techniques.
What are the major literary developments of Postmodernism?
Answer: The convergence of Postmodernism literature with various modes of critical
theory, particularly reader-response and deconstructionist approaches, and the
subversions of the implicit contract between author, text and reader by which its works
are often characterized. Postmodernism also in literature and the arts has parallels with
the movement known as post-structuralism in linguistic and literary theory.

i- Topic: Realism
1- Definition of Realism.
2- Two characteristic features of Realism.

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 3- How is realism used in literature?
4- Describe the quality of the hero of realistic fiction.
5- Who are the painter/ creator/ practitioners of Realism?
6- What is psychological realism?
7- What is Magic-realism?
8- What is scientific realism?
9- What is socialist Realism?
10- Some works on realism:
Specimen Answer
Definition of Realism.
Answer: Realism is an artistic approach to arts, arose in the second half of 19th century
whose most general aim is to offer a truthful, accurate and objective representation of the
real world, both the external world and the human self. Realism rejects what is imaginary
and mythical.
Describe the quality of the hero of realistic fiction.
Answer: The hero of the realistic fiction belongs to the middle class or working class.
They live through ordinary experience of childhood, love, marriage, parenthood,
infidelity and death. They find live rather dull and unhappy though it may be brightened
by touches of beauty and joy.

j- Topic: Romanticism
1- What is Romanticism?
2- Give the characteristic features of Romanticism.
3- Who were the chief exponents or practitioner of Romanticism?
4- How was Romanticism originated or came in England?
5- Write some works on Romanticism.
6- Name two critical works published during the Romantic Period.
7- In what sense Romanticism a renascence of wonder?
8- Who wrote The decline and Fall of Romantic Ideal? How many definitions were
there of Romanticism?
9- Who established the term Romanticism?
10- What do you mean by neoclassic rule of decorum? How was it violated by
Romantics?
11- Difference between Romanticism and Neoclassicism.

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Specimen Answer
What is Romanticism?
Answer: Romanticism is the extraordinary expansion of mind and imagination in a
literary or artistic expression. It is a protest against the restraint of classicism and adds
beauty and strangeness to the literary production. According to Walter Pater, It is the
addition of strangeness to beauty that constitutes the romantic character of art. And also
Victor Hugo says Liberalism in Literature.
Who were the chief exponents or practitioner of Romanticism?
Answer: The chief exponents of Romanticism are William Wordsworth and
S.T.Coleridge whose joint work Lyrical Ballads began a new literary movement in the
history of English Literature known as Romanticism. John Keats, P.B. Shelley and
Byron are also its chief practitioners.

k- Topic: Structuralism
1- What is Structuralism?
2- Characteristic features of Structuralism.
3- Difference between Structuralism and post Structuralism.
4- Who are the chief exponents of Structuralism?
5- What is the difference between Langue and Parole?
6- What is the difference between diachronic and synchronic?
7- What is the difference between signifier and signified?
8- Name the chief exponent of the Structuralist theory. In which book he propounded
the theory and in which year?
9- Name the famous critic of the Russian formalism. Name two essays of the critic.
10- Mention two features of Post-structuralism.
11- Two limitations of Structuralism.
Specimen Answer
What is Structuralism?
Answer: Structuralism stands for the pattern or plan of Structure whatever this may be. It
denotes how the structures of a work may be executed. It determines (to limit)
significantly the character of a literary work, particularly in regard to its art of Structure,
the harmonious blending of different materials to have a total effect to achieve
impressiveness.
What is the difference between Langue and Parole?

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Answer: The term Langue and Parole were introduced into literary criticism by the
structuralist critic Ferdinand de Saussure. Their English equivalents are approximately
langue and speech. Langue denotes the systemic or totality of language shared by the
collective consciousness. A parole is any meaning utterances, spoken or written. Langue
is abstract idea whereas parole is concrete.

l- Topic: Symbol
1- Definition of symbol.
2- How many types of symbol are there?
3- What is the importance of symbol in literature?
4- Name some artists of symbolism and their use.
5- What is the origin of the symbol?
6- Give examples of private symbols.
Specimen Answer
Definition of symbol.
Answer: The word symbol derives from the Greek verb symbellain to throw together,
and its noun symbolon, meaning, mark, emblem, token or sign.
A symbol is something that stands for something else by reason of relationship,
association, convention or accidental resemblance, especially a visible sign or something
invisible.
Name some artists of symbolism and their use.
Answer: Symbolist artist like Charles Baudelaire, Mallarme, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul
Verlaine sought to express individual emotional experience through the subtle and
suggestive use of highly symbolized language. (These are French poets).
W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf used the term in their writings.

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Essay and short essay type questions:

a- Topic: Tragedy
1- Write a brief note on Aristotle's concept of the Tragic Hero
2- Write a brief note on Aristotle's concept of Catharsis
3- Write a note on Aristotle's concept of Six parts of Tragedy.
4- Tragedy can almost always be seen as a conflict- Discuss.
5- Write a brief note on Aristotle's concept of Three unities in Tragedy.
6- Write a note on Heroic Tragedy.
7- What do you mean by Dramatic Irony? Discuss it with suitable examples.
8- Write a note on Fate in Tragedy.
9- Write a note on the plot vs. character in tragedy
10- Write an essay on modern tragedy.
11- Bring out the importance of Comic relief in Tragedy.
12- Give the characteristics of Revenge Tragedy.
13- Difference between classical Greek tragedy and Shakespearean Tragedy.
14- What are basic similarities and difference between modern tragedy and
Shakespearean Tragedy?
15- Write a note on Supernatural in tragedy.
16- How does modern tragic hero differ from classical tragic hero?
17- Write an essay on 20th Century social tragedy.
18- What according to Aristotle is the function of tragedy?
19- Discuss the features of Romantic tragedy.
b- Topic: Comedy
1- Give a short account of Tragi-comedy.
2- Write a brief note on Romantic Comedy.
3- Write a brief note on The comedy of Manners.
4- Write a brief note on The comedy of humours.
5- What are the characteristic features Farce.
6- What are the characteristic features High comedy?
7- Write a brief note on Low Comedy.
8- Write Salient features of Classical comedy.
9- Distinguish between comedy and farce.
10- Comedy is the artistic medium for the expression of laughter. Discuss.

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11- Briefly describe satiric comedy.
12- Bring out the distinction between the comedy of Manners and the comedy of
humors.
13- Bring out the distinction between Romantic comedy and comedy of humors.
14- Comedy is the Criticism of life. Give reason for your answer.
c- Topic: Novel
1- Give the characteristic features of Epistolary Novel.
2- Write a brief note on Stream of Consciousness novel.
3- Write a brief note on Historical novel.
4- Write a brief note on Psychological Novel.
5- Write a brief note on The Gothic novel.
6- Write a brief note on The autobiographical novel.
7- Write a brief note on Picaresque novel.
8- Write a brief note on Novels of manner.
9- Bring out the distinction between flat and round character in a novel.
10- Give a short account of the Romantic novel with suitable examples.
11- Discuss any one of the narrative methods used by English novelists.
12- Bring out the distinction between a novel of incident and a novel of character.
13- Justify the view that the hero of the traditional novel has completely disappeared
from modern fiction.
d- Topic: Lyric
1- Write a brief note on Lyric.
2- What was the contribution of the Romantic poets towards the development of
Lyric poetry?
3- Write a note on Sonnet.
4- What are the characteristic features of Ode?
5- What do you mean by Elegy? Discuss it with suitable examples.
6- Would you agree that Lyric poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings?
7- What are the characteristic features Romantic Lyric?
8- Lyric poetry is both personal and universal. Discuss.
9- What are the characteristic features of Modern Lyric?
10- Write a short essay on the Dramatic Lyric.
11- Bring out the distinction between dramatic lyrics and personal lyrics.

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 12- How did Wordsworth contribute to the development of Lyric poetry?

Essay type Question:

1- Topic: Old English period

1- Write a short essay on Old English prose with particular reference to Alfred and
Aelfric.
2- Name the major elegiac poems of Old English period. Discuss any two of these
poems as representative of the age.
3- Give a critical description of Old English heroic poetry.
4- Assess the contribution of Caedmon and Cynewulf to Old English Christian
poetry.
5- Briefly describe Old English Elegiac poetry.
6- Give a critical survey of Old English Christian poetry.
7- Consider Beowulf as an epic.
8- What role did the bards play in Anglo-Saxon literature? Answer with suitable
references.
9- Do you agree with the view that Beowulf presents an interesting though very
incomplete picture of the life of the upper, warrior class among the northern
Germanic tribes? Give reasons for your answer.

2- Topic: Middle English period

1- Bring out the chief characteristics of the Middle English romance with special
reference to the Arthurian cycle.
2- Trace the origin and development of English drama up-to the period of the
Morality plays.
3- Write a short note on the contribution of William Langland with particular
reference to Piers Plowman.
4- Write a brief note on the Middle English Alliterative Revival.
5- Discuss Chaucer's contribution to English poetry.
6- Write a brief note on the development of drama in the Middle English period.
7- Write an essay on Middle English religious poetry.
8- Trace the development of Middle English metrical romances.

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9- Comment on the role of the Scottish Chaucerians with particular reference to any
two.
10- Write a brief note on the development of prose writing during the Middle English
period.

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