introduction to literary theory Mcqs
1. Ultimately, the literary theory of deconstruction argues that___________?
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A. any system for the production of meaning is inevitably bound by context, yet also limitless.

B. the instability of a text is actually evident in the text itself.

C. All of the above.

D. texts are always heterogeneous.

2. New trends in literary theory tend to do which of the following ?
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A. Reject all previous modes of literary theory

B. Work only with ideas developed by post-Marxist theorists

C. Focus on a return to traditional critical methods

D. Make use of different literary theories in order to develop new theories
3. What is mimesis ?
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A. A reversal

B. A poetic metaphor

C. A satire

D. An imitation
4. What is dialogism ?
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A. All of the above.

B. A term that explains resistance to a monolithic text

C. A term used to describe how texts include a variety of styles

D. A term used to explain the use of multiple points of view in literature

5. Which of the following ideas relates to J.L. Austins performativity theory ?
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A. Individuals perform gender actively.

B. Performance is the ultimate objective of all human beings.

C. Language is used to indicate action as well as thought.

D. Individuals develop consciousness through speech

6. In her essay The Laugh of the Medusa, what does Hlne Cixous suggest for women ?
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A. Women should primarily dedicate themselves to studying womens literature from the past.

B. Women should write, but they should do so only within the existent male canon.

C. Women should be unconcerned with the struggle for identity.

D. Women should write for and about themselves in order to counter phallocentric texts.
7. Trauma theory is tremendously influenced by which theoretical school ?
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A. Deconstruction

B. Psychoanalysis

C. Feminism

D. Marxism

8. Which of the following best describes the difference between literary criticism and literary theory?
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A. Literary theory is concerned with the method used to interpret a work, while literary criticism is the application of literary theory.

B. Literary criticism is concerned only with the meaning of a literary work, while literary theory is concerned only with the structure of a literary work.

C. Literary criticism is concerned with how characters in a text act, while literary theory is concerned with why characters act.

D. Literary criticism draws upon research derived from sources outside literature, while literary theory draws upon sources within a text.

9. What does Judith Butler mean when she suggests that gender is performed ?
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A. Gender does not reflect an essential truth, but rather is a role people play based on their internalization of socially constructed gender roles.

B. Real gender roles are scripted by excellent writers.

C. Only individuals who have the capacity to perform have gender.

D. Gender roles do not exist.

10. In her essay The Poem as Event, Louise M. Rosenblatt sees the reader as performing what function ?
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A. All of the above.

B. The reader acts upon the text.

C. The reader is acted upon by the text.

D. The reader brings individual knowledge to his or her reading of the text.

11. How does Wolfgang Iser envision the reader ?
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A. The reader fills in the gaps imposed by an authors intention.

B. The reader is less important than the authors context.

C. The reader is sublimated beneath the author.

D. The reader is totally subject to the authors intention.

12. Reader-response theory is focused on considering which of the following ?
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A. How readers regard critics

B. How readers imagine visual images in a text

C. How readers participate in creating the meaning of a text

D. How readers learn to read

13. Which of the following offers the best definition of criture fminine ?
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A. Second-wave feminism

B. The inscription of womanhood and femininity in texts

C. Psychological studies of women

D. How women really feel about male writers

14. What does the term meta-language mean, according to Andrzej Warminski ?
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A. A language that does not yet constitute a real language

B. A supernatural language

C. A language about another language

D. A language used by a particular marginalized group of people within a larger dominant culture

15. What is the central idea of Ferdinand de Saussures Course in General Linguistics ?
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A. Linguistics is too complicated to be distilled to a formula.

B. Language is inseparable from its historical context.

C. Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements.

D. There are five phases of linguistic development.

16. What are some common criticisms of literary theory ?
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A. Many theories are no longer accepted by their parent disciplines.

B. Many theories have been pushed too far into abstraction.

C. All of the above.

D. The reasoning of theory is often too circular.

17. What is humanism ?
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A. All of the above.

B. A theory that values restraint, form, and imitation

C. A humanity-centered view of the universe

D. A school of theory devoted to the revival of Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) literature

18. To what idea does the ancient Greek term aporia refer in terms of deconstruction theory ?
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A. The ability of a text to contain truth

B. The idea that a text has a specific meaning that can be understood through a process of deconstruction

C. Jacques Derridas style of writing

D. The undecidability and essentially unstable nature of a text
19. What is generally considered to be Theodor W. Adornos primary concern as a theorist ?
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A. The effect of the economy on womens concerns

B. The effect of the unconscious mind on the conscious self

C. The effect of modern society on human suffering

D. The effect of literature in enlightening the human mind

20. What is dialectical materialism ?
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A. A term related to gender theory that argues that men are dominant in society by virtue of their economic privilege

B. A form of literary criticism that is based on historical context

C. A form of literary criticism based on linguistic analysis

D. A form of literary criticism that does not incorporate economic concerns

21. Which of the following texts is the BEST example of the argument that a works meaning does not come entirely from the imagination of the author ?
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A. T.S. Eliots Tradition and the Individual Talent

B. Platos The Republic

C. Roland Barthess The Death of the Author

D. Jacques Derridas Of Grammatology

22. Which of the following human behaviors is important to a Freudian psychoanalytic study of William Shakespeares Hamlet ?
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A. Obsessions

B. Slips of the tongue

C. All of the above.

D. Changes in emotional states

23. Which of the following is a theme of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwicks book Epistemology of the Closet ?
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A. Literary study is unaffected by a lack of interest in sexuality.

B. Understanding homosexuality has little effect on understanding culture.

C. Understanding homosexual themes in novels has become too routine

D. Understanding sexuality is crucial to understanding culture.
24. What is the philosophical theory known as pragmatism ?
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A. All of the above.

B. A concept derived from the ancient Greek word pragma, meaning action

C. An idea used to guide conduct towards clear objectives

D. A theory of practical actions developed by William James

25. What is hermeneutics ?
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A. A term that describes the interpretation of meaning

B. A term that describes the effect of autobiography on text

C. A term that describes the attempt to read homosexuality into literature

D. A term that describes the absence of racial others in the canon

26. Trauma theory primarily developed out of the work of which psychoanalyst ?
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A. Carl Jung

B. Sigmund Freud

C. Michel Foucault

D. Jacques Derrida

27. How does Virginia Woolfs essay A Room of Ones Own contribute to feminist theory ?
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A. It suggests that gender has power over class.

B. It suggests that gender roles are conditioned by the possession of money and power.

C. It suggests that education, rather than money, is needed for the liberation of women.

D. It suggests that the suppression of women is part of a historical climate that will naturally fade away.

28. Which of the following best defines the work of a deconstructionist critic ?
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A. Suggesting that the study of literature is based on the breakdown of language into signs

B. Calling into question the capacity of language to communicate

C. Arguing that language, and therefore literary texts, relies on the difference between terms and therefore constantly defers meaning.

D. All of the above.
30. What is double consciousness ?
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A. All of the above.

B. An understanding of how double experiences create identity

C. An attempt to explain dual identity

D. A concept developed by W.E.B Du Bois

31. With which theorist is the term implied reader associated ?
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A. Cleanth Brooks

B. Harold Bloom

C. William Wimsatt

D. Wolfgang Iser

32. With which theorist is the term identity thinking most closely associated ?
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A. Sigmund Freud

B. Carl Jung

C. William James

D. Theodor W. Adorno
33. In Of Grammatology, Jacques Derrida argues what about literature ?
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A. Literature is timeless, and thus meaning does not change.

B. There is no potential for multiple and differing meanings in a work of literature.

C. No fixed, stable meaning is possible.

D. Language must be studied in conjunction with history in order to create meaning.

34. With which theorist is phenomenology associated ?
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A. All of the above.

B. Emmanuel Lvinas

C. Wolfgang Iser

D. Jean-Paul Sartre

35. To what idea does the term heteroglossia refer ?
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A. The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work

B. An infants inability to speak prior to the mirror stage

C. The formulaic shift between economic and political themes

D. The referential relationships among symbols, signifiers, and signs

36. Modern literary theory began with the work of which theorist ?
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A. Viktor Shklovsky

B. Roland Barthes

C. Ferdinand de Saussure

D. Claude Lvi-Strauss

37. In general, what is Judith Butlers concept of gender ?
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A. Gender is largely a cultural construct.

B. Gender is a problematic, but essentially true, category.

C. While gender is not real, the stereotypes that accompany it are true.

D. Womens gender is artificial, while mens gender is not.

38. Which is a common postcolonial critique of the West ?
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A. The West tends to look at Asian countries as individual units rather than lump them together.

B. TheWest spends too much time trying to consider an Asian perspective.

C. The West views matters through its own limited historical position.

D. The West refuses to apply economic and political coercion to Asian writers.

40. Which of the following statements best describes Cleanth Brookss attitude towards studying literature ?
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A. Critics should attempt to paraphrase texts in order to find out what they mean

B. Critics should develop universal readings of texts.

C. Critics should examine historical information surrounding a literary work.

D. Critics should consider evolving notions of a text over time.

41. According to the Geneva School, what is the function of the reader ?
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A. Entering the authors mind through his or her literary works

B. All of the above.

C. Understanding the authors consciousness

D. Reproducing the authors thoughts in a critical context

43. What is Christopher Rickss attitude toward literary theory ?
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A. He considers it to be vital in order to understand literary texts.

B. He considers theory to be the only way that literary texts can be interpreted.

C. He feels that literary theory is ultimately too limited in scope to serve as a proper method of interpretation.

D. He has no misgivings about the practical usability of literary theory.

44. Which of the following statements offers the best definition of the concept of strange attractors in chaos theory ?
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A. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are entirely random.

B. Strange attractors are complex forces that are determined by the laws of physics.

C. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are both random and determined.

D. Strange attractors are complex forces that are entirely random.

45. From whom did New Historicists draw the idea of self-regulating systems ?
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A. Jacques Derrida

B. Julia Kristeva

C. Theodor W. Adorno

D. Claude Lvi-Strauss
46. How do Marxist theorists react to ideology ?
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A. They subject all ideologies to critique in order to expose biased interests.

B. They promote ideology because it helps to create a dominant social order

C. They accept ideology as an essential, although sometimes problematic, part of society.

D. They reject the idea that ideology has real effects on social progress.

47. What fundamental idea does psychoanalytic criticism hold about literary texts ?
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A. Literary texts should not be read as a projection of the authors psyche.

B. Literary texts reveal secret elements of an authors unconscious.

C. Literary texts are unlike dreams because they have a system of order and produce meaning.

D. Literary texts solely reflect an authors intentions.

48. Which of the following descriptions best defines the literary theory known as formalism ?
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A. An approach that emphasizes the historical context of a text

B. An approach that emphasizes the biographical intent of a text

C. An approach that emphasizes literary devices in a text

D. An approach that emphasizes racial issues in a text

49. What is the main function of postcolonial criticism ?
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A. To explain why there are few examples of successful non-Western literature

B. To show the ways in which mostWestern literature is superior

C. To represent the relationship between colonizers and the colonized

D. To draw attention to the positive effects of colonization on literature

50. Which theorist is most closely associated with the idea of art as imitation ?
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A. Edward Said

B. Stephen Greenblatt

C. Jacques Lacan

D. Plato