Unit 8: Literary Criticism Mock Tests
Comprehensive topic-wise practice tests covering all major theories and approaches in Literary Criticism with detailed solutions
"Poetry is more philosophical and more worthy of serious attention than history." - Aristotle
Key Concepts: Mimesis, Catharsis, Three Unities, Didacticism, Decorum
• Spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
• Poetry as emotional expression
• Rejection of neoclassical rules
Key Terms: Fancy vs. Imagination, Negative Capability, Poetic Diction, Organic Form
"Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion." - T.S. Eliot
Key Concepts: Objective Correlative, Heresy of Paraphrase, Close Reading, Autotelic Art
Economic BASE → Cultural SUPERSTRUCTURE
(Material conditions determine consciousness)
Key Concepts: Ideology, Reification, Dialectical Materialism, Cultural Hegemony
"The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious." - Freud
Key Concepts: Uncanny, Repression, Symbolism, Phallogocentrism, Mirror Stage
Key Terms: Différance, Binary Oppositions, Aporia, Intertextuality
1. Women's writing (1960s)
2. Gynocriticism (1970s)
3. Gender as performance (1990s-)
Key Concepts: Patriarchy, Gaze Theory, Phallocentrism, Queer Theory
"The empire writes back to the center." - Salman Rushdie
Key Concepts: Othering, Mimicry, Neo-colonialism, Diaspora, Subaltern
Text-Centered → Reader-Centered
(New Criticism) (Subjective Criticism)
Key Terms: Affective Fallacy, Interpretive Strategies, Concretization
"The text is historical, and history is textual." - Louis Montrose
Key Concepts: Thick Description, Cultural Poetics, Power-Knowledge, Hegemony
