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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Jean Baudrillard was associated with what is usually known as ________ according to the narrator.

2. Who was the major theorist of postmodernism and French writer of the book "Simulations"?

3. According to the narrator in the chapter "Psychoanalytic Criticism," who did Sigmund Freud link the situation of Hamlet in the play to?

4. What language does the narrator describe as being a Romance language that takes most of its words directly from Latin, and lacks the reassuring Anglo-Saxon layer of vocabulary?

5. The narrator explains that post-structuralism emerged in France in the late ________.

Short Essay Questions

1. What is "ecriture feminine"?

2. Who was I.A. Richards?

3. In the first half of the twentieth century, who, according to Barry, were the critical names in British literary theory? Who were at Cambridge University in the 1920s and 1930s?

4. What are the three particular areas that are debated and disagreed upon when it comes to feminist criticism?

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

6. In which way is post-structuralism more fundamental than structuralism?

7. How is French feminism different from American feminism?

8. What are the five (5) codes identified by Barthes in S/Z? Explain.

9. Why was Freudian interpretation interesting to literary critics?

10. Briefly summarize author Peter Barry's own introduction to literary theory as seen in "My own stock-taking" found within the "Introduction."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Identify, analyze, and discuss the following quote: "The most basic difference between liberal humanist and structuralist reading is that the structuralist's comments on structure, symbol, and design, become paramount, and are the main focus of the commentary, while the emphasis on any wider moral significance, and indeed on interpretation itself in the broad sense, is very much reduced."

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss how the women's movement is relevant to feminine criticism, as well as lesbian feminine criticism.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the relevance of Beginning Theory to English literature today.

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