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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Introduction: What is Literature?.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is "imaginative" literature or literature that is not necessarily true?
(a) Biography.
(b) Nonfiction.
(c) Memoir.
(d) Fiction.

2. Why is the example Eagleton gives of the sign in the London Underground system that "dogs must be carried on the escalator" a case of estrangement?
(a) Because the directive is unambigious and therefore inherently meaningful.
(b) Because the statement is a directive where people who do not follow are estranged from society.
(c) Because of the ambiguities inherent in the statement, which raises questions about its meaning.
(d) Because the language is prosaic and straightforward.

3. Eagleton's goal in "Literary Theory: An Introduction" is to provide a comprehensive account of literary theory for whom?
(a) Those with extensive knowledge of literary theory.
(b) Those who have specialised knowledge of literary theory.
(c) Those who have some knowledge of literary theory.
(d) Those with little knowledge of literary theory.

4. According to Eagleton, what kind of age do we live in, where "meaning, like everything else, is expected to be instantly consumable"?
(a) Postmodern.
(b) Modern.
(c) Esoteric.
(d) Traditional.

5. What kind of language does Eagleton say people think of literature as?
(a) Strange.
(b) Dull.
(c) Difficult.
(d) Ordinary.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Eagleton, the sentence "this is awfully squiggly handwriting" from Knut Hamsun's "Hunger" tells him its literary because of what reason?

2. How far has the "theoretical revolution" spread according to Eagleton?

3. How do linguists describe the effect of language where "the texture, rhythm and resonance of words are in excess of their abstractable meaning."

4. Eagleton provides the analogy of finding a "scrap of writing from a long-vanished civilization" to make what point about deciphering its meaning?

5. For Eagleton, opposition between "historical" and "artistic" truth does NOT apply to what?

(see the answer key)

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