English Literature Lecture Examination Questions 2021

Anglo-Saxon Literature 9th-11th century

1. Explain the term “Old English/Anglo-Saxon literature”. When and where was it created? By
whom? What were its characteristic features?
2. What were the three literary traditions of the Old English literature and how do they differ?
3. Characterise the Old English heroic culture. What elements of this culture are reflected in
Beowulf?
4. Explain the term “heroic code of behaviour” and give at least two examples of its use in a literary
text.
5. Explain the term “the Old English fame/shame culture” and enumerate its elements.
6. What were the main cultural concepts connected to the Old English fame/shame culture?
7. What is “The Battle of Maldon”? How is the type of heroism presented there similar and different
from the one depicted in Beowulf?
8. “Thought must be the harder, heart the keener / Spirit shall be more – as our might lessens”. What
is the source of this quotation and what does it mean in the context of the literary work it comes
from?
9. What is Sutton Hoo and why is it important?
10. What is Beowulf? When was it composed? When was it written down? What events does it
narrate? What literary genre does it represent?
11. Characterise Beowulf as a heroic epic poem.
12. Characterise Beowulf as a heroic character.
13. Explain the following names and terms in the context of Beowulf: Heorot, Grendel, Hrothgar,
comitatus, ship burial.
14. What are the pagan and Christian elements in Beowulf?
15. Explain the following features of Old English poetry: alliteration, compounding, kenning,
variation.
16. What are the characteristic features of Old English elegiac tradition?
17. What is “Deor’s Lament” and what kind of consolation does it offer?
18. “That passed over, this can too” - What is the source of this quotation and what does it mean in the
context of the literary work it comes from?
19. What is the “ubi sunt” theme and how is it reflected in “The Wanderer”?
20. Discuss “The Wanderer” as an example of Anglo-Saxon elegy.
21. Give a definition of Anglo-Saxon elegy and mention examples that reflect this genre’s features.
22. What elements of Anglo-Saxon culture are reflected in “The Wanderer”?
23. What is “Cadmon’s Hymn” and how was it created?
24. Who was the Venerable Bede and why was he important?
25. Summarise the story of Cadmon.
26. What is “The Dream of the Rood” and what image of Christ does it present?
27. Explain the term prosopopoeia and explain how it is used in “The Dream of the Rood” and in Old
English riddles.
28. Explain the term “dream vision” and give examples from Old English and Middle English
literature.
Medieval Literature 11th-14th century
29. How does Old English language differ from Middle English?
30. Explain the term “Middle English literature”. When and where was it created? By whom? What
were its characteristic features?
31. What changes in language and literature was brought about by the Norman Conquest?
32. Define the medieval ballad and describe it as an example of metrical poetry.
33. Define the term “allegory” and give examples from English medieval literature.
34. Describe “The Vision of Piers Plowman” as allegory, dream vision and satire.
35. What does “alliterative revival” mean? What two examples from Middle English literature do you
know?
36. What types of English medieval plays do you know and how do they differ?
37. Describe “Everyman” as an allegorical drama. What is the play about? What are its major themes?
38. Give a definition of the chivalric romance. What is the Arthurian romance?
39. What is “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”? Who wrote it? When? What is its genre? What
literary tradition does it represent?
40. What are the formal features of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”?
41. Explain the term “translatio imperii” in the context of the opening of “Sir Gawain and the Green
Night”.
42. How is King Arthur’s court presented and why is this important in the story?
43. Explain the term “code of chivalry”. How does it differ from the heroic code?
44. Summarise the events in “Sir Gawain and the Green Night”. How do they reflect the code of
chivalry?
45. Explain the following names and terms in the context of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”:
Green Knight, Bertilack, the Lady of the castle, the beheading game, the exchange of winnings,
the green girdle, courtly love.
46. Describe the plot of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” as a typical romance plot.
47. What is the significance of Gawain’s shield and how does it reflect the chivalric ideal?
48. Who is the author of “The Canterbury Tales”? When was the work written? Why is it important?
What is its relation to St. Tomas Becket?
49. How does the framing device of pilgrimage function in Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”?
50. What three estates does Chaucer’s General Prologue describe and how do they differ. Give
examples of representatives of each estate.
51. How does Chaucer’s Prologue to “The Canterbury Tales” function as a satire of the 14 th century
English society?
52. What is the meaning of the famous opening of Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”?
53. What is the genre of Chaucer’s “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” and what story does this tale relate?
54. How is the mock-heroic mode used in “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale”? What human vices does this tale
satirise?
Renaissance Literature I 16th century
55. Explain the term “Renaissance English literature”. How is it divided? When was it created? What
were its characteristic features?
56. What are the most important socio-political events that had impact on and are reflected in the
literature of the English Renaissance?
57. Who was Thomas Wyatt and what is his contribution to the development of English literature?
58. What is the sonnet? What are its characteristic features? What three forms of sonnets do you
know? What were the reasons for the fashion for sonnet writing in Renaissance England? Name at
least three Renaissance writers who composed sonnets.
59. Who is Phillip Sidney and what is his contribution to the development of English literature?
60. Who is Edmund Spenser and what is his contribution to the development of English literature?
61. How are William Shakespeare’s play divided and what types of plays composed by him do you
know?
62. Why is Shakespeare so famous for his language?
63. What was the influence of classical theatre on Shakespeare as a playwright?
64. What are the conventions of Shakespeare’s theatre? How are they visible in the texts of his plays?
65. What does non-illusionary theatre mean and how is it reflected in Shakespeare’s plays?
66. Give examples of Shakespeare’s famous dramatic imagery referring to particular plays.
67. What is Shakespeare’s contribution to the development of the English sonnet? Give examples of
themes he employed in his sonnets.
Renaissance Literature II 17th century
68. What are the two poetic traditions of the English 17th century and how do they differ?
69. What is English 17th century metaphysical poetry? What is its cultural background? What are its
characteristic features?
70. What is the metaphysical conceit? Explain the term and give examples.
71. Who are the most important English metaphysical poets? Characterise their poetry referring to
examples of poems.
72. What is John Donne’s most famous religious poem? What is it about? What devices does it use?
73. What is pattern poetry. Explain the term and give examples referring to the poetry of George
Herbert.
74. What are the features of Cavalier poetry and how does it differ from metaphysical poetry. Give
names of two important Cavalier poets.
75. What is the “carpe diem” theme and how is it employed in the poetry of Robert Herrick and
Andrew Marvel?
76. Who was John Milton and was is he famous for?
77. What is Milton’s Paradise Lost? What is its genre? What are its formal features? What is the plot?
What are the themes?
78. What is the image of Satan in Milton’s Paradise Lost?
79. What is the problem with Paradise Lost as a Christian epic poem?
The Age of Satire/The Age of Prose 18th century
80. What are the characteristic features of English 18 th century literature? What intellectual
movements and social phenomena are specific to this period?
81. Explain the term “Augustan Age”. What period does it refer to? Who are its main representatives?
82. Who is Alexander Pope and what are his literary achievements?
83. What are the characteristic features of English neoclassical poetry?
84. Explain how Pope’s The Rape of the Lock functions as satire and as mock heroic poem.
85. Who was Jonathan Swift and what are his literary achievements?
86. How does Swift’s Gulliver Travels function as a satire? What kinds of satire do we find in
particular books?
87. What social aspects are important in the development of the English novel?
88. How does a novel differ from a romance? What are the features of a realistic novel?
89. Who was Daniel Defoe and what important books did he write? Who were the protagonists?
90. Explain the terms “epistolary novel”, “realistic novel,” “sentimental novel”. Give examples from
English 18th century literature.
91. What English 18th century writers do you know and what types of novel did they write?
Age of Sensibility and Romanticism/ 18th-19th century
92. How does the 1st half of 18th century in the English literature differ from the 2nd half of the 18 th
century?
93. Explain the term “sensibility” in the context of English literature. What are the characteristic
features of the literature of the Age of Sensibility?
94. What is the graveyard school of poetry and who are its main representatives?
95. Who was Thomas Gray and what are the characteristic features (formal and thematic) of his
famous “Elegy…”?
96. What are the Augustan and what are the pre-Romantic features of Gray’s “Elegy”?
97. What are the differences between the Augustan and the Romantic poet?
98. How is the idealisation of simple people reflected in the pre-Romantic and Romantic English
poetry?
99. Who was William Blake and what is he famous for? Explain, referring to some examples, the idea
of pair poems in The Songs of Innocence and Experience?
100. Explain Blakes poetic protest against social injustice referring to the poem “London” and
poems “The Chimney Sweeper” in both collections.
101. What is the importance of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s Lyrical Ballads?
102. What is Wordsworth’s famous definition of poetry and how is it reflected in his poems?
103. What types of poems did Coleridge compose? What makes his “Rhyme of the Ancient
Mariner” a Romantic ballad?
104. What three poetic forms do John Keats’s poems belong to? What are the features of each of
the forms?
105. Referring to two examples discuss the theme of revolution in P.B. Shelley’s poems.