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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Peter Barry explains that ________'s most significant thinking was contained in the essays "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" and "The Study of Poetry."
(a) Matthew Arnold.
(b) Voltaire.
(c) Mark Twain.
(d) William Shakespeare.

2. The notion of the ________, posited by Levi-Strauss, denoting the minimal units of narrative "sense," is formed on the analogy of the morpheme, which, in linguistics, is the ________ unit of grammatical sense.
(a) Bliss / largest.
(b) mytheme / smallest.
(c) Semantics / largest.
(d) Rhetoric / moderate.

3. ________ was probably the most influential figure in twentieth-century British criticism according to author Peter Barry.
(a) Edward Jablonski.
(b) Douglas Adams.
(c) F.R. Leavis.
(d) Patrick Tilley.

4. All of the following authors were considered some of the literary "high priests" of the modernist movement according to the narrator in the chapter titled "Postmodernism," except for which one?
(a) Gertrude Stein.
(b) John Milton.
(c) T.S. Eliot.
(d) Virginia Woolf.

5. What was the term used in the Introduction that is defined as the science of signs?
(a) Phenomenology.
(b) Logocentrism.
(c) Mimesis.
(d) Semiotics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following term best can be defined as one in which we cannot know where we are, since all the concepts which previously defined the center, and hence also the margins, have been "deconstructed," or undermined?

2. From which of Babara Johnson's literary pieces can the following definition of deconstructive reading be found according to author Peter Barry: "Deconstruction is not synonymous with 'destruction.' It is in fact much closer to the original meaning of the word 'analysis,' which etymologically means 'to undo'"?

3. According to the narrator in the chapter "Psychoanalytic Criticism," many of Sigmund Freud's ideas concern aspects of ________.

4. The chapter "Psychoanalytic Criticism" states that ________ is the notion that sexuality begins not at puberty, with physical maturing, but in infancy, especially through the infant's relationship with the mother.

5. Author Peter Barry explains that all of the following are part of the three stages of the deconstructive process except for which one?

Short Essay Questions

1. Briefly explain what post-structuralist critics do.

2. Why was the representation of women in literature felt to be one of the most important forms of socialization?

3. What is a theoretical difference between structuralist and post-structuralist?

4. According to the "Introduction," what does the saying that "after the moment of theory comes the 'hour' of theory" mean?

5. Explain what Peter Barry means when he informs the reader "that it is much better to read intensely in theory than to read widely".

6. Compare post-colonialism to postmodernism as discussed in the chapter "Theory Before Theory--Liberal Humanism."

7. Discuss how J.A. Cuddon describes postmodernism in his "Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory."

8. How is French feminism different from American feminism?

9. Who was Jean Baudrillard? How was he associated with "the loss of the real"?

10. Do liberal humanists use the term "human nature"? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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