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. 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 of the ambiguities inherent in the statement, which raises questions about its meaning.
(b) Because the statement is a directive where people who do not follow are estranged from society.
(c) Because the language is prosaic and straightforward.
(d) Because the directive is unambigious and therefore inherently meaningful.

2. What is the name of the pioneering essay the Russian formalist wrote that is the "beginnings of the transformation which has taken over literary theory in this century"?
(a) Literature as Image.
(b) Film as Thought.
(c) Art as Device.
(d) Theory as Practise.

3. The Russian formalists rejected what kind of doctrines that had influenced literary criticism?
(a) Quasi-mystical psychoanalytic doctrines.
(b) Quasi-mystical fictional doctrines.
(c) Quasi-mystical religious doctrines.
(d) Quasi-mystical symbolist doctrines.

4. Eagleton argues that the readership his book has attracted dispels the notion that literary theory is what?
(a) Elitist.
(b) Boring.
(c) Misguided.
(d) Simple.

5. How do linguists describe the effect of language where "the texture, rhythm and resonance of words are in excess of their abstractable meaning."
(a) "A disproportion between one signifier for every other signified."
(b) "A disproportion between signifiers and signifieds."
(c) "A disproportion between two signifieds."
(d) "A disproportion between two signifiers."

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Eagleton, what is ironic about those who complain of the difficulty of literary theory?

2. According to Eagleton, what idea is "truly elitist" in literary studies?

3. According to Eagleton, what happens when literary theory becomes "turgidly unreadable"?

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

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

(see the answer key)

This section contains 432 words (approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample