2017
(a). What are the organic societies?
Ans: The Organic societies are just favorable myths for belaboring(নিন্দা করা) the modern mechanical life.
(b). What does Arnold mean by “Poetry is a criticism of life”?
Ans: Poetry deals with the ideas of life that the poet finds when he writes a poem, it becomes the criticism of life.
(c). Whom does Arnold regard as the ideal poets?
Ans: Arnold regards Milton, Shakespeare, Virgil, Dante and Homer as the ideal poets.
(d). What is dissociation(পৃথকীকরণ) of sensibility?
Ans: The separation of thought from emotion is the dissociation of sensibility(L)./ Dissociation of sensibility is a literary term first used by T. S. Eliot in his essay ‘The Metaphysical Poets’. It refers to the way in which intellectual thought was separated from the experience of feeling in seventeenth-century poetry.
(e). Why does T. S. Eliot praise the metaphysical poets?
Ans: Eliot praises the metaphysical poets for their tendency to be enraged in the task of trying to find the verbal equivalent for states of mind and feeling.
(f). What is the connection between ‘Culture and Imperialism’ and ‘Orientalism’?
Ans: The connection between ‘Culture and Imperialism’ and ‘Orientalism’ is that both books are written by Edward Said.
(g). What is ‘Orientalism’ by Edward Said about?
Ans: Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism‘ is about the Middle East.
(h). Why do the colonizers deserve the right of ruling the colonized?
Ans: The colonizers were superior to the colonized and so the colonizers deserve the right of ruling the colonized.
(i). Who, according to Said, are the children of decolonization and why?
Ans: A new generation of scholars and critics is called by Said the children of decolonization because they have seen in great texts of Western literature a standing interest in the colonized people as inferior races and so they have encouraged human freedom.
(j). What is the theme of ‘The Rise of English’?
Ans: The theme of ‘The Rise of English is the development of English literature and language from the eighteenth century onwards under British imperial rule.
(k). What is the meaning of the word ‘neoclassical’?
Ans: The word ‘neoclassical’ refers to the style of art and literature of the eighteenth-century England, based on the classical models of ancient Greek and Rome.
(l). What is creative imagination?
Ans: Creative imagination refers to the ability to reunify past experiences to create new images for a definite goal.
2018
(a). What, according to Arnold, is the future of poetry?
Ans: According to Arnold, the future of poetry is immeasurable(অপরিমেয়) as it is grabbing the place of religion in the human mind.
(b). What does Arnold mean by ‘historical estimate’?
Ans: According to Arnold, the estimate based on the historical importance of writing is called a ‘historical estimate’.
(c). Define ‘Charlatanism'(ভণ্ডামি).
Ans: The presentation of false and fake knowledge devoid(বর্জিত) of true knowledge is ‘Charlatanism'(L)./Charlatanism is a show of knowledge where actually there is no true knowledge(FBC).
(d). What does Eliot mean by ‘sensibility’?
Ans: By sensibility, Eliot means a fusion of thought and feeling.
(e). How did Johnson, according to Eliot, define metaphysical poetry?
Ans: By its flaws and defects, according to Eliot, Johnson defined metaphysical poetry.
(f). Why is Donne more successful than Cowley?
Ans: Donne’s use of brief words and sudden contrasts to Cowley in developing comparisons makes him more successful.
(g). How does Edward Said associate ‘culture’ with ‘art’?
Ans: Culture exists in all forms of art whose main objective is to give pleasure in that sense Edward Said associates culture with art(L)./Said associates ‘culture’ with ‘art’ in the sense that it exists in aesthetic forms aiming at giving pleasure and it includes all the practice in the art of descriptions, communication, and representation which are autonomous from economic, social and political fields.
(h). When does culture become a source of identity?
Ans: Culture becomes a source of identity when there is a difference between “us”(the colonizers) and “them”(the colonized).
(i). What is post-colonialism in literature?
Ans: Post-colonialism in literature includes the study of theory and literature as it relates to the colonizer-colonized experience. Edward Said is the leading theorist in this field.
(j). What was Scrutiny?
Ans: Scrutiny was a quarterly periodical of literary criticism, founded in 1932 by L. C. Knights and F. R. Leavis, who remained its chief editor until the final issue in 1953.
(k). What is the essay ‘The Rise of English’ about?
Ans: The essay ‘The Rise of English’ deals with the development of English literature and language from the 18th century onwards under British rule.
(l). Why did English literature come into power?
Ans: English literature came into power mostly because of wartime nationalism. The new subject was created by the offspring of the bourgeoisie(স্বার্থবাদী শ্রেণী), rather than those who currently held social power.
2019
(a). What is poetic truth?
Ans: The term, ‘poetic truth’ means that the subject matter of poetry should correspond to truth or be true to nature.
(b). What, according to Eliot, is extremely difficult about metaphysical poetry?
Ans: According to Eliot, it is extremely difficult to define metaphysical poetry, and to decide what poets practice it and in which of their verses.
(c). What was the truth about the non-European world?
Ans: There was armed resistance as well as cultural resistance in the dominated world(L)./It was a truth everywhere in the non-European world that the coming of the White-man brought forth some sort of resistance.
(d). What is the nature of great literature?
Ans: Great literature is the product of great men, and its value lies mainly in allowing the reader’s intimate perception of their souls.
(e). What is the touchstone method in literary criticism?
Ans: Touchstone method is a method of comparison between the truly great poets of the past with the new poets to judge the qualities of their creations.
(f). How is the experience of an ordinary man?
Ans: An ordinary man’s experience is irregular, fragmentary, and chaotic.
(g). Why does Edward Said call culture a sort of theatre?
Ans: According to said, culture is a sort of theatre because different political and ideological causes engage one another in the field of culture.
(h). How does Eagleton identify English after the First World War?
Ans: Eagleton identifies English after the First World War not as a mere subject of study but as the moral and spiritual essence of social reformation.
(i). What is the first great principle of criticism?
Ans: The first great principle of criticism enunciated by Arnold is that disinterestedness or detachment. Disinterestedness on the part of the critic implies freedom from all prejudices, personal or historical.
(j). With whom does Eliot compare the poets of the metaphysical school?
Ans: Eliot compares the poets of the metaphysical school with their predecessors like Dante, Guido Caualcanti, Guinicelli, and Cino.
(k). What is decolonization?
Ans: Decolonization is the giving of political independence to a country that was previously a colony under another powerful country.
(l). What is New Criticism?
Ans: New Criticism is an approach to literary criticism, dominant in the United States from the late 1930s to the 1950s, that focuses on a poem or other literary work as an artistic object possessing value in and of itself.
2020
(a). What is meant by “Unconscious Poetry”?
Ans: The unconscious poetry is known as beyond human hope.
(b). What does Arnold mean by ‘high seriousness’?
Ans: The term, ‘high seriousness’ aims at the serious treatment of the subject matter or the grand style.
(c). What is ‘Orientalism’ and when was it published?
Ans: Orientalism, the famous critical work of Edward Said was published in 1978. It is a ground-breaking work demystifying the attitude of the West towards the East.
(d). How is ‘creative imagination’ defined by Eagleton?
Ans: Creative imagination refers to the ability to reunify past experiences to create new images for a definite goal(L)./Eagleton defines creative imagination as an of non-alienated labor, the intuitive and spiritual essence of the poetic mind which can provide a living criticism of the rationalist ideologies enslaved to fact.
(e). Define ‘charlatanism’.
Ans: The presentation of false and fake knowledge devoid(বর্জিত) of true knowledge is ‘Charlatanism'(L)./Charlatanism is a show of knowledge where actually there is no true knowledge(FBC).
(f). How is the language of the metaphysical poets?
Ans: The language of the metaphysical poets is as a rule simple and pure.
(g). What, according to Edward said, is crucial to culture and imperialism?
Ans: Narratives with their power to narrate or to stop other narratives from emerging, are crucial to culture and imperialism, and constitute the principal connection between them.
(h). What is Eagleton’s view of ‘Organic society’?
Ans: The Organic societies are just favorable myths for belaboring(নিন্দা করা) the modern mechanical life.
(i). What does Arnold say about the ‘future of poetry’?
Ans: According to Arnold, the future of poetry is immeasurable as it is grabbing the place of religion in the human mind.
(j). What does Eliot want to conclude about the ‘metaphysical poets’?
Ans: Eliot wants to conclude that the metaphysical poets are in the direct current of English poetry, and their faults should be disgraced by this standard rather than pampered by antiquarian affection.
(k). Who, according to Said, are the children of ‘decolonization’?
Ans: A new generation of scholars and critics is called by Said the children of decolonization because they have seen in great texts of Western literature a standing interest in the colonized people as inferior races and so they have encouraged human freedom.
(l). What is ‘Marxist Literary Criticism’?
Ans: Marxist literary criticism describes literary criticism that is based on socialist theories. It interprets a literary work as both a reflection and a product of economic conflict between social classes, a type of historical criticism of literature.
