ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

LITERATURE QUESTIONS

LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
A critic examining John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” focuses on the physical description of the Garden of Eden, on the symbols of hands, seed, and flower, and on the characters of Adam, Eve, Satan, and God. He pays special attention to the epic similes and metaphors and the point of view from which the tale is being told. He looks for meaning in the text itself, and does not refer to any biography of Milton. He is most likely a ____ critic.
A
Reader Response
B
Feminist
C
Mimetic
D
Formalist
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -A critic examining John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” focuses on the physical description of the Garden of Eden, on the symbols of hands, seed, and flower, and on the characters of Adam, Eve, Satan, and God. He pays special attention to the epic similes and metaphors and the point of view from which the tale is being told.

Detailed explanation-2: -Paradise Lost is an epic poem (12 books, totalling more than 10, 500 lines) written in blank verse, telling the biblical tale of the Fall of Mankind – the moment when Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and God banished them from the Garden of Eden forever.

Detailed explanation-3: -The purpose or theme of Paradise Lost then is religious and has three parts: 1) disobedience, 2) Eternal Providence, and 3) justification of God to men. Frequently, discussions of Paradise Lost center on the latter of these three to the exclusion of the first two.

Detailed explanation-4: -A critic argues that in John Milton’s “Samson Agonistes, ” the shearing of Samson’s locks is symbolic of his castration at the hands of Delilah.

Detailed explanation-5: -What do structuralist and formalist critics have in common? a. Both sets of critics reject the importance of historical context in studying literature.

There is 1 question to complete.