View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Eagleton, why did the Russian formalists NOT see a literary work as a vehicle for ideas, reflection of reality, or transcendental truth?
(a) Because they saw language as potentially empowering the masses.
(b) Because they saw language as obtuse, vague, and ephemeral.
(c) Because they saw language as a mode of speech for the wealthy.
(d) Because they saw language as words and not objects or feelings.

2. 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 some knowledge of literary theory.
(c) Those who have specialised knowledge of literary theory.
(d) Those with little knowledge of literary theory.

3. According to the Russian critic Roman Jakobson, literature represents "organized ______committed on ordinary _______."
(a) Protest; speech.
(b) Violence; people.
(c) Religion; writing.
(d) Violence; speech.

4. What person is NOT included in the ranks of Russian formalists?
(a) Roman Jakobson.
(b) Viktor Shklovsky.
(c) Heinrich Wolffin.
(d) Boris Tomashevsky.

5. For Eagleton, hostility toward theory means what?
(a) Opposition to other people's theories and oblivion of one's own.
(b) Acceptance to some people's theories.
(c) Opposition to other people's theories.
(d) Acceptance to some people's theories and protective of one's own.

Short Answer Questions

1. What kind of language does Eagleton say people think of literature as?

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

3. What year did Terry Eagleton's "Literary Theory: An Introduction" first appear?

4. According to Eagleton, the Russian formalist shifted their attention to the "material reality" of what?

5. According to Eagleton, when did the Russian formalists emerge?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 309 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample