Classicism
is an attitude to literature that is guided by admiration of the qualities of
formal balance, proportion, decorum, and restraint attributed to the
major works of ancient Greek and Roman literature ('the classics') in
preference to the irregularities of later vernacular literatures, and
especially (since about 1800) to the artistic liberties proclaimed by romanticism.
A classic is a work of the highest class, and has also been taken to mean a
work suitable for study in school classes. During and since the renaissance,
these overlapping meanings came to be applied to the writings of major Greek
and Roman authors from Homer to Juvenal, which were regarded as unsurpassed
models of excellence. The adjective classical, usually applied to this body of
writings, has since been extended to outstandingly creative periods of other
literatures: the 17th century may be regarded as the classical age of French
literature, and the 19th century the classical period of the Western novel,
while the finest fiction of the United States in the mid-19th century from Cooper
to Twain was referred to by D. H. Lawrence as Classic American Literature
(despite the opposition between 'classical' and 'romantic' views of art, a
romantic work can now still be a classic). A classical style or approach to
literary composition is usually one that imitates Greek or Roman models in
subject-matter (e.g. Greek legends) or in form (by the adoption of GENRES like
TRAGEDY, EPic, ODE, or verse SATIRE), or both. As a literary doctrine,
classicism holds that the writer must be governed by rules, models, or
conventions, rather than by wayward inspiration: in its most strictly codified
form in the 17th and 18th centuries (see neoclassicism), it required the
observance of rules derived from Aristotle's Poetics (4th century BCE) and
Horace's Ars Poetica (c.20 BCE), principally those of decorum and the dramatic unities.
The dominant tendency of French literature in the 17th and 18th centuries,
classicism in a weaker form also characterized the augustan age in
England; the later German classicism of the late 18th and early 19th centuries
was distinguished by its exclusive interest in Greek models, as opposed to the
Roman bias of French and English classicisms. After the end of the 18th
century, 'classical' came to be contrasted with 'romantic' in an opposition of
increasingly generalized terms embracing moods and attitudes as well as
characteristics of actual works. While partisans of Romanticism associated the
classical with the rigidly artificial and the romantic with the freely
creative, the classicists condemned romantic self-expression as eccentric
self-indulgence, in the name of classical sanity and order. The great German
writer]. W. von Goethe summarized his conversion to classical principles by
defining the classical as healthy, the romantic as sickly. Since then, literary
classicism has often been less a matter of imitating Greek and Roman models
than of resisting the claims of Romanticism and all that it may be thought to
stand for (Protestantism, liberalism, democracy, anarchy): the critical
doctrines of Matthew Arnold and more especially of T. S. Eliot are classicist
in this sense of reacting against the Romantic principle of unrestrained
self expression.
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Showing posts sorted by date for query matthew arnold. Sort by relevance Show all posts
01704--Celtic Revival
Celtic
Revival is a term sometimes applied to the period of Irish literature in
English (c.1885-1939) now more often referred to as the Irish Literary Revival
or Renaissance. There are other similar terms: Celtic Renaissance, Celtic Dawn,
and Celtic Twilight. These Celtic titles are misleading as descriptions of the
broader Irish Revival, but they indicate a significant factor in the early
phase of the movement: Celticism involves an idea of Irishness based on
fanciful notions of innate racial character outlined by the English critic
Matthew Arnold in On the Study of Celtic Literature (1866), in which Celtic
traits are said to include delicacy, charm, spirituality, and ineffectual
sentimentality. This image of Irishness was adopted in part by W. B. Yeats in
his attempt to create a distinctively Irish literature with his dreamy early
verse and with The Celtic Twilight (1893), a collection of stories based on
Irish folklore and fairy-tales.
00315--LIONEL TRILLING and his works
LIONEL TRILLING
.jpg) |
1.Matthew Arnold
2.E.M. Forster
3.The Middle of the Journey [novel of ideas]
4.The Liberal Imagination: Essays on Literature and Society
5.Freud and the Crisis of Our Culture
6.The Opposing Self: Nine Essays in Criticism
7.Beyond Culture: Essays on Literature and Learning
8.Sincerity and Authenticity
9.Mind in the Modern World (
10.Prefaces to the Experience of Literature
11.Speaking of Literature and Society
|
00201--'Dover Beach' mourns the loss of faith in the modern times. OR Discuss the poem as an elegy on the spiritual degeneration in modern times. [Matthew Arnold] [English Literature free notes]
Mathew Arnold's 'Dover Beach' is a beautiful lyric which describes the helpless uncertainty and doubt of the Victorian period. There was a gradual decline in man's faith in God and religion. The Victorian mind was dazzled by the achievements of science and material progress. Faced with this choice between the world of faith and the world of materialism, the Victorian found himself in a sad Plight. In Dover Beach Mathew Arnold pictures this inability of man to make the right choice. The poet uses the sea as a symbol to bring home this idea.
The poem has a very beautiful setting. It is a very peaceful quiet moonlit night at
the Dover Beach.
The sea is calm and full. The Dover cliff stands out
glimmering and vast. The night air is
sweet. The tides coming to the shore
fling down pebbles on the stand with a clattering sound. The poet watches this ceaseless action of
the waves. He listens to the rhythmic
cadence of the waves and he detects the eternal note of sadness in it.
The sad note is not only the poet's own personal
feeling. It is the universal note of
sadness. The poet now takes us back
through history to the time of Sophocles.
He too listened to the sad music of the waves; it brought into his mind
the miserable plight of humanity, its turbid ebb and flow. Though the reference is to Sophocles, Arnold
bridges the present with the past.
From the real sea Arnold
now goes to the metaphorical sea. It is
the sea of faith. It was once full,
beautifully spread out and deep. This
sea of faith once encircled and protected the entire world's faith in God and
religion sustained humanity in those days of glory. The poet feels a sense of loss and utter despair
as he looks on the dimly lit scene before him.
The sea of faith is no longer full. It has receded with a long melancholy roar
like the sea in front of him has receded exposing the pebbles and leaving the
shore littered with shingles. Arnold has in mind a
society which has moved away from religious faith cherished in the past and is
now torn between faith and the glamour of materialism.
Arnold thinks that there is only one clear solution for
man to get out of this dilemma. It is
the power of true love. The last part of
the poem thus reveals Arnold's abiding faith in the power of true love to console
man when he is plunged in despair.
The world of science and technology seems to be a dream
world, so beautiful, so varied and so new.
The poet feels that there is no real joy and happiness in this
world. No joy, no light, no certitude,
it is only a beautiful mirage.
The poet is once again plunged in despair as he looks on
the dimly lit sea scape. The tide has
receded so low that the sea shore seems to expand in to a vast dark plain. The poet now visualizes ignorant armies
clashing on this battle field. They are
in utter confusion and fight without knowing friend from foe. Thus Arnold closes the poem giving us a
terrifying picture of anarchy and futility.
00190--UGC-NET, English Literature Objective Type Question Answers 61 to 75
.
61) “…the
error of evaluating a poem by its effects—especially its emotional effects—upon
the reader” is:
A.
Affective
Fallacy
B.
Intentional
Fallacy
C.
Both A and B
D.
Pathetic
Fallacy
Answer:
…………………………………………
62) Match A with B
A B
a.
Robert Penn Warren 1.
Ode to the Confederate Dead
b.
Allen Tate 2.
Understanding Poetry
c.
John Crowe Ransom 3.
Literary Criticism: A Short History
d.
W.K. Wimsatt 4.
The New Criticism
A.
a-4, b-3, c-1, d-2
B.
a-2, b-4, c-3, d-1
C.
a-2, b-1, c-4, d-3
D.
a-1, d-4, c-2, d-3
Answer:
……………………………………………
63) Marlowe’s all four great tragedies share
two features in common. Which are they?
1.
Magic Realism
2.
Theme of overreaching
3.
Blank Verse
4.
Romantic presentation
A.
Only 1, 2 and 3
B.
Only 3 and 4
C.
Only 2, 3 and 4
D.
Only 2 and 3
Answer:
………………………………………..
64) Who said
that the writer should be “outside the whale”, because otherwise, the state or
society could swallow the writer up, as the whale had swallowed Jonah.
A.
Andrew Marvell
B.
S.T.Coleridge
C.
T.S.Eliot
D.
George Orwell
Answer:
……………………………..
65) “I have
used similitude.” Who said this about his which work?
A.
Thomas Hobbes about ‘Leviathan’.
B.
Bunyan about ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’
C.
Milton about ‘Paradise Lost’
D.
Alexander Pope about ‘The Dunciad’
Answer:
…………………………………
66) Which
of the following is wrong?
A.
Jonathan Swift—A Modest
Proposal—Pamphlet—1728
B.
Samuel Johnson—The Vanity of Human
Wishes—Imitation of Juvenal’s 10th satire
C.
Robinson Crusoe—Friday—Colonialism
D.
Henry Feilding—Tom Jones—Story of a
foundling
Answer:
……………………………………….
67) The two
gentlemen in the Two Gentlemen of Verona
are (a) Douglas and Calvin
(b) Valentine and Protons
(c) Henry Bailey and Davenant
(d) Lovelace and Herrick
Answer: …………………………….
68) Who popularized the inductive method for arriving at a conclusion through his Novum Organum?
(a) Ben Jonson
(b) Francis Bacon
(c) Addison and Steele
(d) Dr. Johnson
Answer: …………………….
69) Thomas Hardy’s life and career are obliquely depicted in:
A. The Return of the Native
B. Jude the Obscure
C. Tess of the d’ Urbervilles
D. The Mayor of Casterbridge
Answer: …………………………….
70) Which of the following statements is/are wrong based on the novel “Heart of Darkness”?
1. Kurtz pretends to be mad.
2. The novel opens on the mouth of the Thames.
3. Marlow is the hero-narrator of the tale
4. Chinu Achebe denounced this novel as “bloody racist”.
A. Only 1
B. Only 2
C. Only 3 and4
D. Only 4
Answer: ………………….
71) “The
humblest craftsman over near the Aemilian school will model fingernails and
imitate waving hair in bronze; but the total work will be unhappy because he
does not know how to represent it as a unified whole. I should no more wish to
be like him, if
I desired to compose something, than to be praised for my dark hair and eyes
and yet go through life with my nose turned awry. You who write, take a subject
equal to your powers, and consider at length how much your shoulders can bear. Neither
proper words nor lucid order will be lacking to the writer who chooses a
subject within his powers. The excellence and charm of the arrangement,
I believe, consists in the ability to say only what needs to be said at the
time, deferring or omitting many points for the moment. The author of the
long-promised poem must accept and reject as he proceeds.”
Horace
here:
A.
Gives advice
B.
Criticises
C.
Evaluates
D.
Inspires
Answer:
……………………..
72) “The ancient poets animated all sensible
objects with gods or geniuses, calling them by the names and adorning them with
the properties of woods, rivers, mountains, lakes, cities, nations, and
whatever their enlarged and numerous senses could perceive.
“And
particularly they studied the genius of each city and country, placing it under
its mental deity.
“Till
a system was formed, which some took advantage of, and enslaved the vulgar by
attempting to realize or abstract the mental deities from their objects: thus
began priesthood; choosing forms of worship from poetic tales.
“And
at length they pronounced that the gods had ordered such things.
“Thus
men forgot that all deities reside in the human breast.
……………….
Who
speaks here?
A.
Addison
B.
Matthew Arnold
C.
William Blake
D.
Alexander Pope
Answer:
………………………………….
73) “I had not a dispute but a disquisition with
Dilke on various subjects; several things dovetailed in my mind, and at once it
struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement especially in
literature and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously-I mean negative
capability, that
is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without
any irritable reaching after fact and reason-Coleridge, for instance, would let
go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the penetralium of mystery,
from being incapable of remaining content with half-knowledge.”
This
is taken:
A.
from Letter to Benjamin Bailey.
A.
from Letter to George and Thomas Keats .
B.
from Letter to John Taylor .
C.
from
Letter to Richard
Woodhouse.
Answer:
……………………..
74) Well, we are all condamnes. as
Victor Hugo says: "les
hommes sont tous condamnes a mort avec des sursis indejinis ": we have an interval, and then our place knows
us no more. Some spend this interval in listlessness, some in high passions,
the wisest in art and song. For our one chance is in expanding that interval,
in getting as many pulsations as possible into the given time. High passions
give one this quickened sense of life, ecstasy and sorrow of love, political or
religious enthusiasm. or the "enthusiasm of humanity." Only, be sure
it is passion, that it does yield you this fruit of a quickened, multiplied
consciousness. Of this wisdom, the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the
love of art for art's sake has most; for art comes to you professing frankly to
give nothing but the highest quality to your moments as they pass, and simply for
those moments' sake.
This
is from:
A.
Is There a Text in This Class?
B.
The Contingency of Language
C. Studies
in the History of the Renaissance
D.
The Metaphoric and Metonymic Poles
Answer:
………………………….
75) Or, after dark, will dubious women come
To make their children touch a particular stone;
Pick simples for a cancer; or on some
Advised night see walking a dead one?
Power of some sort will go on
In games, in riddles, seemingly at random;
But superstition, like belief, must die,
And what remains when disbelief has gone?
This is taken from Philip Larkin’s
A. The Less Deceived
B. An Arundel Tomb
C. Church Going
D. Toads
Answer:
…………………………….ANSWERS:
61-A
62-C
63-D
64-D
65-B
66-A
67-B
68-B
69-B
70-A
71-A
72-C
73-B
74-C
75-C
00189--UGC-NET, English Literature Objective Type Question Answers 51 to 60
51) Marlowe's tragedies are:
A. tragedies of noble men
B. love tragedies
C. one-man tragedies
D. revenge plays
Answer: …………………………….
52) Who coined the phrase, "Marlowe's mighty line"?
A. Ben Jonson
B. Samuel Johnson
C. R.L. Stevenson
D. Richard Steele
Answer: ………………………………..
53) Out of the four chief dialects that flourished in the pre-Chaucerian period, the one that became the standard English in Chaucer's time is:
A. the Northern
B. the East-Midland
C. the West-Midland
D. the Southern
Answer: ……………………..
54) Which of the following statements is incorrect regarding medieval literature?
A. Allegory was frequent and usual
B. The dream-vision convention was prevalent
C. Chaucer exploited the dream-vision convention in The Canterbury Tales.
D. There was often an undercurrent of moral and dialectic strain.
Answer: …………………………………..
55) In Prologue and Canterbury Tales Chaucer employed the
A. Ottawa Rhyme
B. Rhyme Royal
C. Heroic Couplet
D. Both A and C
Answer: …………………………………………..
56) Chaucer has been criticized for presenting an incomplete picture of his times, because
A. he overemphasizes the rights of the lower class
B. he exaggerates the courtly benevolence
C. he writes for the court and cultivated classes and neglects the suffering of the poor
D. he supports the Lolland and the Peasant Revolution too fervently
Answer: …………………………………………..
57) Which of the following are correctly matched?
a. Captain Singleton 1. a sailor
b. Moll Flanders 2. a prostitute
c. Colonel Jack 3. a valiant solider
d. Cavalier 4. a prince
A. Only a-1 and b-2
B. Only b-2
C. Only c-3 and d-4
D. Only d-4
Answer: ………………….
58) " Lunatics, lovers, and poets all are ruled by their overactive imaginations. " These words of Shakespeare are taken from:
A. Love's Labor Lost
B. Hamlet
C. Henry IV
D. Midsummer Night's Dream
Answer:……………………………………
59) An author sums up the human condition thus, "human life is everywhere a state, in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed." Who said this and where?
A. Alexander Pope - Essay on Man
B. Oliver Goldsmith - The Vicar of Wakefield
C. Albert Camus - The Stranger
D. Dr. Johnson – Rasselas
Answer: …………………………..
60) “Yet
if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways
of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its
successes, ''tradition" should positively be discouraged. We have seen many
such simple currents soon lo.st in the sand; and novelty is better than repetition.
Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. Ii cannot be inherited, and
if you want it you must obtain it by
great labor.”
A.
T.S.Eliot
B.
Alexander Pope
C.
P.B.Shelley
D.
Matthew Arnold
Answer:
…………………………………………
51- C
52- A
53- B
54- C
55- C
56- C
57-A
58-D
59-D
60-A
00188--UGC-NET, English Literature Objective Type Question Answers 41 to 50 [English Literature free notes]
41) “ Hudibras” is:
1. an English mock heroic and narrative poem
2.
from the 17th century
3.
written by Samuel Butler
4.
from the 18th century
A.
Only 1, 3 and 4
B.
Only 1 and 3
C.
Only 1, 2 and 3
D.
Only 1 and 4
Answer:
………………………
42) Match A with B
A B
a.
The Prelude 1.
T.S.Eliot
b.
Preludes 2.
Wordsworth
c.
Ode On The Nativity 3.
Matthew Arnold
d.
Tristram and Iscult 4.
Milton
A.
a-4, b-3, c-1, d-2
B.
a-3, b-1, c-4, d-2
C.
a-3, b-2, c-1, d-4
D.
a-2, b-1, c-4, d-3
Answer:
………………………………….
43) “Our
sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the
mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the
greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or
satiated with its proper enjoyments. The sense of feeling can indeed give us a
notion of extension, shape, and all other ideas that enter at the eye, except
colors; but at the same time it is very much straitened and confined in its
operations, to the number, bulk, and distance of its particular objects.”
This
is taken from:
A.
The Study of Poetry
B.
The Salon of 1859
C.
Studies in the History of the
Renaissance
D.
On the Pleasures of the Imagination
Answer:
………………………….
44) Match A with B
A B
a.
Thyrsis 1.
Elegy on John Keats
b.
In Memoriam 2.
Elegy on Hugh Clough
c.
Adonias 3.
Elegy on Edward King
d.
Lycidas 4.
Elegy on Henry Hallam
A.
a-1, b-4, c-2, d-3
B.
a-2, b-4, c-3, d-1
C.
a-3, b-1, c-4, d-1
D.
a-2, b-4, c-1, d-3
Answer:
……………………………
45) Match A with B
A B
a. Autolycus 1. Aldous
Huxley
b. Mark Twain 2. Samuel Cemens
c. George
Eliot 3. Mary Ann
Evans
d. Elia 4.
Charles Lamb
A.
a-1,
b-2, c-3, d-4
B.
a-2,
b-1, c-4, d-3
C.
a-3,
b-2, c-1, d-4
D.
a-4,
b-3, c-2, d-1
Answer:
…………………………………….
46) Cynewulf is :
1.
one of the 12 Anglo-Saxon poets
2.
an epic
3.
a parody of Beowulf
4.
the author of ‘Juliana’ and ‘Elene’
A.
Only 1
B.
Only 1, 2 and 3
C.
Only 3
D.
Only 1 and 4
Answer:
……………………………………
47) “Having
thus explained a few of my reasons for writing in verse, and why I have chosen
subjects from common life, and endeavored to bring my language near to the real
language of men, if I have been too minute in pleading my own cause, I have at
the same time been treating a subject of general interest; and for this reason
a few words shall be added with reference solely to these particular poems, and
to some defects which will probably be found in them. I am sensible that my associations
must have sometimes been particular instead of general, and that, consequently,
giving to things a false importance, I may have sometimes written upon unworthy
subjects; but I am less apprehensive on this account, than that my language may
frequently have suffered from those arbitrary connections of feelings and ideas
with particular words and phrases, from which no man can altogether protect
himself.”
This
is taken from:
A.
An Essay on Criticism
B.
Preface to the Second Edition of
Lyrical Ballads
C.
Biographia Literaria
D.
A Defense of Poetry
Answer:
…………………….
48) According
to Longinus which are the sources of sublimity that cannot be cultivated?
1.
Dignity of Composition
2.
Appropriate use of Figures
3.
Capacity for strong emotion
4.
Nobility of Diction
5.
Grandeure of Thought
A.
Only 1, 2, and 5
B.
Only 3 and 4
C.
Only 2, 4 and 5
D.
Only 3 and 5
Answer:
……………………………………..
49) According
to S.T. Coleridge:
1.
Primary imagination has the
“esemplastic” power.
2.
On the way to the supernatural from
natural if the poet fails to carry on he ends up as a “materialist”.
3.
Allegory is superior to symbol.
4.
Being an ‘organic whole’ is the quality of
good poetry.
A.
Only 2, 3 and 4
B.
Only 1, 2 and 3
C.
Only 2 and 4
D.
1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer:
……………………………
50) Who
translated the “Seafarer”?
A.
A.L. Tennyson
B.
Ezra Pound
C.
T.S.Eliot
D.
Sylvia Plath
Answer:
…………………………
ANSWERS:
41-C
42- D
43-D
44-D
45-A
46-D
47-B
48-D
49-C
50-B