History of British Literature Exam

Section A

Answer all questions

1. Which of the following is the best definition of the novel genre:

1. Concerned with realistic settings, people and action

2. Concerned with heroic individuals and action

3. Written to be performed on the stage

2. Which of the following is considered to be one of the first novels:

1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

2. Pamela

3. Pride and Prejudice

3. Which of the following novels introduced the word “yahoo” to the English language:

1. Tristram Shandy

2. Gulliver's Travels

3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

4. Which of these poems is an heroic epic:

1. Beowulf

2. To his Coy Mistress

3. Milton

5. Which of the following is NOT a Victorian novel:

1. Tess of the D'Urbervilles

2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

3. Gulliver's Travels

6. In which novel does Thomas Gradgrind appear:

1. Gulliver's Travels

2. Hard Times

3. 1984

7. Which poets wrote poems concerned with “organic form”:

1. The Augustans

2. The Romantics

3. The Elizabethans

8. Which novel has the injustice of social laws and conventions as its main theme:

1. Gulliver's Travels

2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles

3. Lord of the Flies

9. Who wrote the lines “we're all mad here”:

1. Lewis Carroll

2. William Shakespeare

3. William Blake

10. In which novel do we have the idea of “doublethink”:

1. 1984

2. Brave New World

3. The Lord of the Rings

11. The conch is a symbolic device in which novel:

1. 1984

2. Brave New World

3. Lord of the Flies

12. In which novel do we have the state of Oceania:

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

2. Brave New World

3. 1984

13. “Maiden No More ” is a section in which novel:

1. Hard Times

2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles

3. Brave New World

14. In which novel do we have the idea of “doublethink”:

1. 1984

2. Brave New World

3. The Lord of the Rings

15. According to Ted Hughes, which writer suffered from a “sexual dilemma”:

1. William Blake

2. Samuel Coleridge

3. William Shakespeare

16. Grendel is a character in which poem:

1. The Wife of Bath's Tale

2. Beowulf

3. King Richard II

17. Which period in English history promoted the idea of “gentilesse”:

1. The Elizabethan

2. The Victorian

3. The Medieval

18. Which period in English history had a major obsession with the notion of “duty”:

1. The Medieval

2. The Victorian

3. The Augustan

19. Which of the following is considered to be a Neo-Classical poet:

1. Alexander Pope

2. William Blake

3. Geoffrey Chaucer

20. Who is seen as the first novelist to begin “an exploration of man's interior life”:

1. James Joyce

2. Henry Fielding

3. Samuel Richardson

21. Who defined poetry as the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”

1. Alexander Pope

2. Geoffrey Chaucer

3. William Wordsworth

22. Which famous author was also a professor of logic at Oxford:

1. Daniel Defoe

2. James Joyce

3. Lewis Carroll

23. Which writer, according to W.B. Yeats, wrote about “blind ambitions, untoward accidents, and capricious passions”:

1. William Shakespeare

2. William Blake

3. Samuel Coleridge

24. Which novel was a modern adaptation of The Coral Island:

1. The Lord of the Rings

2. The Lord of the Flies

3. Ulysses

25. Who wrote the famous lines “Celia shits”:

1. William Shakespeare

2. Jonathan Swift

3. Alexander Pope

Section B

Write a short essay on ONE of the following questions:

1. What are the characteristics that makes Beowulf a heroic epic?

2. Is Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale a true feminist text in your opinion?

3. How does Shakespeare illustrate the theme of power in his plays?

4. How did the Metaphysical Poets not suffer from the” dissociation of sensibility” that happened in poetry after them?

5. How do the Augustan poets treat the theme of Reason in their poetry?

6. In what ways was Romantic poetry a reaction against the Augustan, Neo-Classical poets?

7. How does Dickens portray the Industrial Revolution in Hard Times?

8. Is Tess a “pure woman” as the subtitle of the novel suggests, in your opinion?

9. Is Alice in Wonderland simply a children's book, or does it have something more?

10. How does Golding treat the theme of the “evil men do” in Lord of the Flies?

11. Is Orwell's description of a totalitarian society in 1984 a realistic one, in your opinion?

12. Is Huxley's vision of the future in Brave New World a positive one or not?

13. Is there a specific characteristic unique to British literature (in comparison to, say, Polish literature, for example)?

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