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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. 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 words and not objects or feelings.
(b) Because they saw language as a mode of speech for the wealthy.
(c) Because they saw language as potentially empowering the masses.
(d) Because they saw language as obtuse, vague, and ephemeral.

2. According to Eagleton, the Russian formalist shifted their attention to the "material reality" of what?
(a) The fiction.
(b) The critic.
(c) The facts.
(d) The text.

3. According to Eagleton, "Literary Theory: An Introduction" has managed to reach readers beyond __________.
(a) Literature.
(b) Students.
(c) Academia.
(d) Historians.

4. According to Eagleton, the formalists were not out to define literature but they were out to define what?
(a) Realism.
(b) Criticism.
(c) Inventiveness.
(d) Literariness.

5. According to Eagleton, what idea is "truly elitist" in literary studies?
(a) "The idea that literature is the only way to understand a particular culture."
(b) "The idea that literature should not be read by those without a higher degree."
(c) "The idea that works of literature can only be appreciated by those with a particular sort of cultural breeding."
(d) "The idea that literature can only be understood by writers of literature."

Short Answer Questions

1. Who silenced the Russian formalists, according to Eagleton?

2. What is the name of the economist Eagleton discusses in his preface?

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

4. What person is NOT included in the ranks of Russian formalists?

5. Eagleton argues that if literature includes much factual writing, it also excludes "quite a lot of" what?

(see the answer key)

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