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Complete answers and expert explanations for exam preparation
A historical play focused on Tipu Sultan, written by the Indian playwright and poet Lakhan Deb.
A children's play written by P. A. Krishnaswami, dramatizing scenes from Lord Krishna's life.
A landmark Indian play written in 1971, exploring identity, completeness, and folklore.
Hali is a long poem written by Altaf Hussain Hali, not a play, and not by Rabindranath Tagore.
Nalini is actually an early play by Rabindranath Tagore, not Gurucharan Das. Gurucharan Das is known for plays like Mira and Larins Sahib.
✔️ Correct — Chaucer is the author of all three:
• The Canterbury Tales: A famous collection of stories told by pilgrims.
• Troilus and Criseyde: A tragic love poem based on classical sources.
• The Legend of Good Women: A dream vision poem focused on virtuous women.
❌ Incorrect — The Masque of Comus and Paradise Lost were indeed written by John Milton. But Astrophel and Stella was written by Sir Philip Sidney, not Milton.
❌ Incorrect — The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel are by Coleridge. But The Curse of Kehama was written by Robert Southey, not Coleridge.
✔️ Correct — All three are authentic works by William Shakespeare:
• Two Gentlemen of Verona: One of his early comedies.
• The Rape of Lucrece: A narrative poem.
• Troilus and Cressida: A tragicomedy blending history and classical myth.
✔️ Correct — These are all major works by Alexander Pope:
• The Dunciad: A satirical poem.
• The Rape of the Lock: A mock-epic.
• Epistles: Includes Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot and others from Moral Essays.
This question tests your foundational knowledge of canonical authors and their major works — a core area in UGC NET English. Always double-check for attribution errors, especially with authors like Coleridge and Milton, who are often confused with contemporaries. A well-maintained timeline of authors and titles helps crack such questions swiftly in the exam.
❌ Incorrect — Patrick White and Christina Stead are indeed Australian novelists. However, Robertson Davies was a Canadian novelist, not Australian. He is known for works like The Deptford Trilogy.
✔️ Correct — This statement accurately reflects Haggard's critique of Victorian civilization in Allan Quatermain. The phrase "savagery silver-gilt" suggests that civilization is merely barbarism with a superficial coating of refinement.
✔️ Correct — These postmodern novels challenge conventional narrative structures and historical representations:
• The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles
• Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
• Waterland by Graham Swift
❌ Incorrect — While both works were indeed banned in Ireland, they were published in the 1960s, not the 1950s. The Country Girls trilogy by Edna O'Brien began in 1960, and The Dark by John McGahern was published in 1965.
✔️ Correct — The anxieties of the Cold War, nuclear threat, and social upheavals of the mid-20th century influenced these dystopian works:
• A Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess
• Lanark (1981) by Alasdair Gray
• The Handmaid's Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood
This question tests knowledge of Commonwealth and postmodern literature. Pay attention to national origins of authors and precise publication dates, as these details often differentiate correct from incorrect statements in UGC NET exams.
✔️ Correct — Lamb met Coleridge at Christ's Hospital School and remained friends throughout their lives. He championed Wordsworth's poetry and Romantic ideals, though he had his own distinctive style.
❌ Incorrect — This is completely false. Lamb loved London deeply and was fascinated by its crowds, streets, and urban life. His essays frequently celebrate London's atmosphere and its people.
✔️ Correct — Lamb's Essays of Elia contain vivid character sketches of his literary contemporaries. His personal essays offer intimate glimpses into the personalities of major Romantic figures.
❌ Incorrect — While Lamb did write Essays of Elia and Tales from Shakespeare (with his sister Mary), The Revolt of the Tartars was written by Thomas De Quincey, not Charles Lamb.
✔️ Correct — Lamb had a deep affection for 17th-century writers and frequently employed archaic language and expressions in his essays, giving them a distinctive antiquarian flavor that complemented his nostalgic themes.
Charles Lamb questions frequently appear in UGC NET English. Remember his love for London, his collaborative work with his sister Mary, and his distinctive prose style influenced by older English writers. Don't confuse his works with those of his contemporaries like De Quincey.
✔️ Correct — This accurately describes the symbolic nature of language and correctly identifies related subfields. Language is fundamentally a symbolic system that can be expressed through multiple modalities.
✔️ Correct — This statement accurately emphasizes the communicative function of language and lists valid subfields that study how language is used in actual communication contexts.
❌ Incorrect — While the first part about conventionalized meanings is accurate, the listed items are not all subfields of linguistics. Universal grammar, innateness, and emergentism are theoretical concepts or hypotheses, not subfields.
✔️ Correct — This is a comprehensive and accurate definition of language, capturing its systematic nature, communicative purpose, and the conventional relationship between form and meaning.
❌ Incorrect — While language does have regional variations and the subfields listed are valid, the statement is incomplete and misleading. It overemphasizes regional specificity as a defining characteristic while the subfields listed are universal aspects of linguistic study, not specific to regional variation.
Linguistics questions in UGC NET English test your understanding of language as a system and its various dimensions of study. Focus on distinguishing between theoretical concepts (like universal grammar) and actual subfields of linguistic inquiry (like pragmatics or phonology).
❌ Incorrect — The Official Languages Commission was established under Article 344 of the Indian Constitution and submitted its report in 1956, not 1936. The Commission was tasked with making recommendations regarding the progressive use of Hindi and the restriction of English.
✔️ Correct — The first English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI) was indeed established in Allahabad in 1954 to improve the quality of English language teaching in India, particularly for teachers.
✔️ Correct — The Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages (CIEFL), now known as the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), was established in Hyderabad in 1958. It became a premier institution for English language teaching and research in India.
❌ Incorrect — The first National Policy on Education was formulated in 1968, not 1960. It was revised in 1986 and modified in 1992.
���️ Correct — The National Education Policy (NEP) and Programme of Action (POA) were both introduced in 1986 under Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's government. This was a major overhaul of India's education system.
Questions on the history of English language teaching in India and educational policies are common in UGC NET English. Remember key dates: ELTI (1954), CIEFL (1958), first NEP (1968), and NEP revision with POA (1986). The Official Languages Commission report came in 1956, not 1936.
❌ Incorrect — This is not Woolf's view; it is contrary to her feminist stance. Woolf consistently argued against the notion that women are intellectually inferior. This statement contradicts her entire body of work advocating for women's education and creative freedom.
✔️ Correct — This is a key observation made by Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own about how women are idealized and powerful in fiction but silenced in reality. She notes the paradox that women who were powerless in real life are portrayed as influential figures in literature.
✔️ Correct — This comes directly from Woolf's critique of historical erasure of women despite their ubiquitous literary presence. She highlights how women appear constantly as subjects in poetry and literature, yet their own voices and historical records are largely missing.
❌ Incorrect — Woolf did not criticize Shakespeare for his portrayal of women. In fact, she praised his imaginative sympathy and his ability to create complex female characters. In A Room of One's Own, she famously uses the fictional character "Judith Shakespeare" to lament the lack of opportunity for a woman with Shakespeare's talent, not to criticize Shakespeare himself.
✔️ Correct — Woolf famously contrasts the imaginative power granted to women in literature with their restricted roles in real life. This statement captures her analysis of how women were denied education and legal rights, being treated as property rather than autonomous individuals.
UGC NET English frequently includes questions on Virginia Woolf's feminist thought. Focus on A Room of One's Own for recurring themes like gendered history, literary representation of women, and the social constraints on female creativity. Woolf's central argument contrasts women's prominence in fiction with their absence from historical records and their restricted lives in reality.
✔️ Correct — Matthew Arnold, in Culture and Anarchy (1869), defines culture as the ability to recognize "the best that has been thought and said in the world." This is one of Arnold's most famous formulations, emphasizing culture as a form of discernment and knowledge of excellence.
❌ Incorrect — This is not an Arnoldian idea and goes against the core of his humanistic and idealistic vision. Arnold's concept of culture is entirely oriented toward excellence, refinement, and perfection, not toward identifying or studying what is worst.
✔️ Correct — Arnold emphasizes that culture is not just knowledge but its internalization and application, particularly in the spiritual and moral realm. He sees culture as active engagement with the highest ideals, transforming both the individual and society through mental and spiritual discipline.
✔️ Correct — Arnold sees culture as an active, ongoing process—a continual pursuit of human perfection by seeking the best ideals and values. Culture is not static but dynamic, requiring constant effort to approach perfection through "sweetness and light" (beauty and intelligence).
❌ Incorrect — This contradicts Arnold's entire philosophy. Arnold's vision of culture is aspirational and perfectionist, focused on elevating humanity through exposure to and internalization of the finest achievements of human civilization. The pursuit of "what is worst" has no place in his theory.
In UGC NET English, Arnold's views on culture, anarchy, and "sweetness and light" are crucial. His notion of culture as moral and intellectual refinement rooted in the best traditions of thought appears frequently in cultural studies and criticism-related questions. Remember Arnold's three key aspects: knowing the best, applying the best, and pursuing the best as an ongoing process of perfection.
✔️ Correct — J. S. Mill clearly criticizes the historical legal subordination of women in The Subjection of Women (1869), stating that men were often referred to as the lords over their wives, both legally and socially. This reflects the patriarchal power structures Mill sought to dismantle.
❌ Incorrect — This exact phrasing does not appear in Mill's text. It uses hyperbolic language that is uncharacteristic of Mill's more measured, rational, and philosophical tone. Mill's arguments were grounded in legal and philosophical reasoning rather than emotional rhetoric.
✔️ Correct — Mill makes direct analogies between wives and slaves throughout The Subjection of Women, pointing out the lack of legal rights, personal autonomy, and agency women had in marriage. He argues that the legal position of married women was comparable to that of enslaved people.
✔️ Correct — Mill explicitly compares wives to bondservants, describing how patriarchal marriage structures reduce women's status to that of lifelong servitude. He emphasizes that women had no legal independence and were bound to obey their husbands in all matters.
❌ Incorrect — This is a well-known feminist slogan from second-wave feminism in the 1970s, often attributed to Susan Brownmiller in her work Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape (1975). This statement does not appear in Mill's 19th-century work and reflects a later feminist discourse on sexual violence.
Mill's The Subjection of Women (1869) is foundational in early feminist theory and liberal political thought, making it a crucial text in UGC NET English, especially in units related to gender studies, Victorian prose, and political philosophy in literature. For gender studies questions, understanding Mill's rational, legal, and philosophical approach helps distinguish his early liberal feminism from later radical and socialist feminist movements. Mill advocated for legal equality, voting rights, and educational opportunities for women, grounding his arguments in Utilitarian philosophy and Enlightenment ideals of individual liberty. Recognizing Mill's measured tone and legal focus helps distinguish his ideas from the more radical rhetoric of later feminist movements.
✔️ Correct — Example: On July 4, 1776, the Declaration was signed. The comma after the year is required unless a period or other punctuation follows.
❌ Incorrect — No comma is used between the month and year or season and year when no specific day is mentioned. For example: "July 1776" not "July, 1776".
✔️ Correct — Both "the eighties" and "the 1980s" are acceptable, as long as the style is consistent throughout your document.
❌ Incorrect — Centuries should be spelled out using lowercase letters, not uppercase. For example: "the nineteenth century" not "the Nineteenth Century".
✔️ Correct — Example: "He arrived at 4:00 p.m." is acceptable in prose. Times are usually written in numerals using the twelve-hour clock system.
MLA 9th Edition formatting questions are critical for UGC NET English Paper II, especially for research methodology sections. Remember: no comma between month and year alone, centuries in lowercase, and the twelve-hour clock for times. These seemingly minor details can make the difference in multiple-choice questions.
✔️ Correct — Arthur Miller initially experimented with writing The Crucible in verse form, though the final version was in prose. His aim was to capture the heightened, almost biblical language of the Puritan era.
✔️ Correct — Edward Albee's The American Dream (1961) is an absurdist one-act play that critiques the emptiness and artificiality of American family life and consumerism.
❌ Incorrect — Eug��ne Ionesco did not write The American Dream. He was known for plays like The Bald Soprano and Rhinoceros. The American Dream is by Edward Albee, and it's a play, not a novel.
❌ Incorrect — The Price (1968) by Arthur Miller is not set in a baroque palace in Eastern Europe. It takes place in an attic full of old furniture in New York City, focusing on two brothers dealing with their father's estate and unresolved emotional histories.
✔️ Correct — This is a central theme of the play. The Price examines how the two brothers, Victor and Walter, have constructed different narratives about their past and their father, revealing how memory and history are subjectively shaped by our present needs and perspectives.
American drama questions in UGC NET English frequently test your knowledge of Arthur Miller and Edward Albee. Remember: Miller's The Crucible was initially attempted in verse, and The Price is set in New York, not Europe. Don't confuse Albee's The American Dream with Ionesco's absurdist works—though both are absurdist playwrights, their specific works and origins differ.
✔️ Correct — A mixed metaphor occurs when two or more incompatible metaphors are combined in a single expression, often creating confusion or unintended humor. Example: "We'll burn that bridge when we come to it" (mixing "burn bridges" and "cross that bridge").
❌ Incorrect — This describes synecdoche, not metonymy. In metonymy, something is referred to by the name of something closely associated with it (e.g., "The White House announced" = the President's administration). Synecdoche uses a part to represent the whole (e.g., "All hands on deck" = all sailors).
❌ Incorrect — Scanning (or scansion) refers specifically to analyzing the metrical patterns of verse—identifying stressed and unstressed syllables, feet, and rhythm. It does not primarily concern content, theme, or diction, which are analyzed through close reading or literary analysis.
✔️ Correct — A kenning is a compound metaphorical phrase used in Old English and Old Norse poetry. Examples include "whale-road" for sea, "sky-candle" for sun, and "bone-house" for body. These poetic devices were characteristic of Anglo-Saxon and Viking literature.
✔️ Correct — Tropes involve a deviation or change in the meaning of words (metaphor, metonymy, irony, synecdoche), while schemes involve a deviation in the arrangement or pattern of words (alliteration, parallelism, chiasmus, anaphora). This classical division is fundamental to rhetoric and poetics.
Questions on literary terminology are frequent in UGC NET English Paper II. Pay close attention to precise definitions: distinguish synecdoche from metonymy, understand that scansion deals with meter (not theme), and remember that kennings are specific to Germanic poetry. The tropes vs. schemes distinction is crucial for understanding classical rhetoric and poetic analysis.
✔️ Correct — Bakhtin, in The Dialogic Imagination, suggests that the roots of the novel lie in ancient forms of prose fiction, including Menippean satire and Hellenistic romances. He argues that the novel has ancient, diverse origins rather than emerging solely from 18th-century European culture.
❌ Incorrect — This idea actually comes from Georg Lukács, not Henry James. While James championed the psychological and artistic depth of the novel and wrote extensively about its craft in essays like "The Art of Fiction," he didn't define it in these epic terms.
✔️ Correct — In her book The True Story of the Novel (1996), Doody asserts that the novel's origins are ancient, non-European, and rooted in the Mediterranean world, challenging the conventional view that it began in 18th-century Europe with Richardson and Defoe.
❌ Incorrect — This phrase comes from Robert Louis Stevenson, not F. R. Leavis. Leavis, in The Great Tradition, emphasized moral seriousness and the continuity of English fiction through writers like Austen, Eliot, James, and Conrad, but he didn't coin this particular phrase.
✔️ Correct — In The Theory of the Novel (1916), Lukács famously defines the novel as "the epic of a world that has been abandoned by God," reflecting its existential and modern character. He contrasts the novel with the classical epic, which represented a world of integrated meaning and transcendent values.
This question is rooted in literary criticism and the history of the novel. Knowing the contributions of Bakhtin, Lukács, and Doody helps frame the novel as a historically evolving genre with ancient roots rather than a purely modern invention. This insight is critical for Paper II discussions on prose forms, genre theory, and literary history. Don't confuse Henry James's focus on craft and consciousness with Lukács's philosophical definitions.
✔️ Correct — Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) was indeed a practical statesman, politician, and historian. He played a key role in British India's educational reforms and celebrated Victorian progress and British achievements in his History of England. His prose style was clear, confident, and reflected his optimistic faith in progress and civilization.
✔️ Correct — John Ruskin (1819–1900) was a fierce social critic who denounced Victorian materialism, industrialization, and moral decay. Like an Old Testament prophet, he condemned complacency and warned society of the spiritual consequences of its pursuit of wealth and neglect of beauty, justice, and human dignity. Works like Unto This Last embody this prophetic tone.
✔️ Correct — Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) championed Hellenism and classical culture as ideals of harmony, reason, and beauty. His tone was urbane and refined, yet his criticism often implied that readers needed to rise to higher standards of culture and intellectual sophistication. His famous phrase "sweetness and light" reflects his ideal of cultured refinement.
❌ Incorrect — While John Henry Newman (1801–1890) was indeed an elegant prose stylist, comparing him specifically to "the best French prose writers" is not a conventional characterization. Newman's style is more typically associated with English rhetorical tradition, clarity, and spiritual introspection. His Apologia Pro Vita Sua is noted for its sincerity and personal eloquence rather than French rationalist clarity.
This question tests your understanding of the distinctive voices and intellectual personas of major Victorian prose writers. For UGC NET English, remember: Macaulay = optimistic progressive; Ruskin = prophetic social critic; Arnold = cultured Hellenist with a tone of superiority; Newman = spiritual autobiographer with elegant, personal prose. Understanding these characterizations helps you identify passages and contextualize Victorian non-fiction prose in the exam.
✔️ Correct — One of the fundamental goals of linguistics is descriptive and historical linguistics. Linguists study the structure of languages as they are actually used and trace their development over time through comparative and historical methods. This includes both written and spoken languages, extinct and living languages.
✔️ Correct — This describes the goal of theoretical and universal linguistics. Linguists seek to identify language universals—features and principles that apply across all human languages, such as universal grammar (Chomsky), phonological patterns, semantic principles, and cognitive constraints on language structure.
❌ Incorrect — Linguistics studies ALL human languages equally, without hierarchical distinctions based on "civilization" or development. Modern linguistics operates on the principle of linguistic equality: all languages, whether spoken by technologically advanced societies or small indigenous communities, are equally complex and valid subjects of study. This statement reflects an outdated, colonial bias.
❌ Incorrect — Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive. It studies language as it is actually used, including informal speech, dialects, slang, and vernacular forms. Linguists do not impose standards of "correctness" or aesthetic judgments; they analyze all forms of linguistic expression objectively. "Flowery language" is a stylistic choice, not a requirement for linguistic study.
✔️ Correct — As an evolving scientific discipline, linguistics must continuously define its scope, methods, and boundaries. This includes distinguishing linguistics from related fields like psychology, anthropology, and computer science, and establishing its theoretical frameworks, terminology, and research methodologies.
This question tests your understanding of linguistics as a scientific discipline. Remember that modern linguistics is descriptive (not prescriptive), universal (not limited to "civilized" languages), and concerned with language as a system rather than aesthetic judgments. For UGC NET English, focus on the scientific, objective nature of linguistic inquiry and avoid prescriptivist assumptions about "correct" or "proper" language.
✔️ Correct — King's College, London, was one of the first institutions in England to offer English literature as an academic subject in 1831. This was significant because the ancient universities (Oxford and Cambridge) resisted teaching English literature for several more decades, viewing it as less prestigious than classical studies.
❌ Incorrect — This is factually wrong. Oxford and Cambridge did not establish English literature as an independent subject until much later. Oxford introduced an English School in 1893, and Cambridge established an English Tripos in 1917. The date 1828 and the claim that both universities simultaneously offered English are incorrect.
✔️ Correct — This highlights the colonial paradox: English literature was used as a tool of cultural imperialism and moral instruction in India from the 1850s onwards (following Macaulay's Minute on Education, 1835), yet it was not considered academically respectable in England's elite universities until the 1890s–1910s. The "new" subject was deemed suitable for colonized subjects and women but not for gentlemen studying classics at Oxbridge.
❌ Incorrect — While English literature gradually gained prominence, it did not "replace" classics in 1931. Classics continued to be taught and valued at Oxford and Cambridge throughout the 20th century and to this day. The rise of English was gradual, not a sudden replacement at a specific date. Also, Latin was the language of the Church, not Greek.
✔️ Correct — At Oxford and Cambridge, "literature" traditionally referred to the classical canon—works in Greek and Latin by authors like Homer, Virgil, Cicero, and Aristotle. English literature was not considered serious academic study until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The prestige of classics was so entrenched that English was initially viewed as fit only for women's colleges, extension programs, and colonial education.
This question tests your knowledge of the institutional history of English literature as an academic discipline. Remember the colonial and gendered dimensions: English was taught to Indians and women before being accepted at elite British universities. For UGC NET English, understand the irony that English literature was a tool of empire abroad while being resisted as insufficiently rigorous at home. Key dates: King's College London (1831), Oxford (1893), Cambridge (1917).
✔️ Correct — Barbara Johnson makes this clarification in her work to counter the common misunderstanding that deconstruction aims to destroy texts or meaning. Instead, deconstruction reveals the inherent complexities, contradictions, and instabilities within texts. It's an analytical method, not a destructive one.
✔️ Correct — Johnson emphasizes that deconstruction is a rigorous, systematic reading practice. It's not about randomly questioning everything or nihilistically undermining meaning. Rather, it follows the internal logic and tensions of the text itself, revealing how texts undermine their own stated claims through careful analysis.
❌ Incorrect — While this statement accurately captures a key principle of deconstruction, it is more closely associated with J. Hillis Miller or Paul de Man rather than Barbara Johnson. Johnson's explanations focus more on the careful, methodical nature of deconstructive reading rather than this particular formulation about self-dismantling.
✔️ Correct — This is a quintessentially Johnsonian statement. Barbara Johnson emphasizes that deconstruction challenges binary hierarchies and the illusion of stable, univocal meaning. What deconstruction "destroys" is not the text itself but the pretension to absolute authority, fixed interpretations, and hierarchical oppositions (presence/absence, speech/writing, literal/figurative).
❌ Incorrect — While the metaphor of the "textual labyrinth" is associated with deconstruction and poststructuralism, this particular phrasing is more characteristic of J. Hillis Miller's style. Barbara Johnson's formulations tend to be more direct and focused on the logical operations of deconstructive reading rather than labyrinthine imagery.
Barbara Johnson (1947–2009) was a leading American deconstructive critic and translator of Jacques Derrida. For UGC NET English, remember that Johnson's contributions emphasize: (1) deconstruction as rigorous analysis, not nihilism; (2) the undermining of binary hierarchies; (3) the difference between destruction and deconstruction. Her work The Critical Difference is essential for understanding deconstructive reading practices. Don't confuse her formulations with those of other Yale School critics like de Man, Miller, or Hartman.
✔️ Correct — Walter Benjamin was a German-Jewish philosopher, cultural critic, and essayist closely associated with the Frankfurt School, though he was never formally a full member of the Institute for Social Research. His work on art, culture, mechanical reproduction, and modernity profoundly influenced critical theory. Famous works include "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and The Arcades Project.
✔️ Correct — Max Horkheimer was a founding figure of the Frankfurt School and director of the Institute for Social Research. He developed critical theory alongside Theodor Adorno and wrote extensively on the Enlightenment, instrumental reason, and mass culture. His major work, Dialectic of Enlightenment (co-authored with Adorno), is a cornerstone of Frankfurt School thought.
✔️ Correct — Leo Lowenthal was a German-American sociologist and key member of the Frankfurt School. He specialized in the sociology of literature and mass culture, analyzing how popular culture and media shape consciousness and ideology. His work bridged literary criticism and sociological analysis, examining figures like Shakespeare and the cultural impact of mass-produced entertainment.
❌ Incorrect — Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist, not a member of the Frankfurt School. She is famous for her essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (1975), which introduced the concept of the "male gaze" in film theory. While her work draws on psychoanalysis and ideology critique, she belongs to feminist film theory and the British cultural studies tradition, not the Frankfurt School.
❌ Incorrect — Travis Henderson is not a literary critic or philosopher—he is the fictional protagonist of Wim Wenders' 1984 film Paris, Texas. This is likely a distractor meant to test whether candidates recognize names from popular culture versus academic critics.
The Frankfurt School was founded at the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1923. Key members include Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Walter Benjamin (affiliated), Erich Fromm, and Leo Lowenthal. The school developed critical theory, combining Marxism, psychoanalysis, and cultural criticism to analyze capitalism, mass culture, and the Enlightenment's failures. For UGC NET English, remember that Frankfurt School thinkers critiqued the culture industry, instrumental reason, and mass media's role in perpetuating capitalist ideology. Key texts: Dialectic of Enlightenment, One-Dimensional Man, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."
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Commentary:
This type of matching question is common in UGC NET English, testing both literary knowledge and precision in attribution. Remembering lesser-known authors and their unique contributions — such as Lakhan Deb or P. A. Krishnaswami — can give you an edge. Always verify early plays and poetry to avoid confusion between genres and authors.