ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

LITERATURE QUESTIONS

LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Plato condemned all literature because ____
A
it makes men lazy
B
it stirs up the passions-lust, desire, pain, anger-rather than nurtures the intellect.
C
it makes one imagine things.
D
it entertains
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Plato believed that poetry is breeder of falsehood and thus mother of all lies because poetry dealt with illusion and not reality. Poet’s creation is twice removed from reality and thus false and all lies are dealt in poetry.

Detailed explanation-2: -His greatest work, The Republic, developed an insightful analogy between harmony in the state and harmony in the individual, and it is often considered one of the greatest works ever written. Plato wrote dialogues that considered the nature of virtue itself, as well as the nature of particular virtues.

Detailed explanation-3: -Classical Literary Theories Greek philosopher Plato’s literary theory can be found in his ten-volume Republic, in which he discusses the concept of mimesis and argues that art, and therefore literature, can only imitate the physical world, and the physical world itself is but an imitation of the world of ideas.

Detailed explanation-4: -The purpose of literary criticism is to broaden a reader’s understanding of an author’s work by summarizing, interpreting, and exploring its value. After giving the text a close reading, a critic formulates a comprehensive literary analysis that can inform or challenge another reader’s understanding of the text.

There is 1 question to complete.