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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What year did France's student movement strike against the authoritarianism of the educational institutions and in solidarity with the working-class?
(a) 1968.
(b) 1978.
(c) 1958.
(d) 1988.

2. What commonality does structuralism and phenomenology share, according to Eagleton?
(a) They both immerse themselves in the material world in order to understand the subconscious.
(b) They both shut out the material world in order to revert to pre-consciousness.
(c) They both shut out the material world in order to understand our consciousness of it.
(d) They both immerse themselves in the material world in order to become conscious of it.

3. How are "writable" texts different from ones that can be read?
(a) Writable texts encourage the author/writer to reject the reader/critic of the text.
(b) Writable texts encourage the reader/critic to become a consumer of the text.
(c) Writable texts encourage the reader/critic to become a producer of the text.
(d) Writable texts encourage the author/writer to become the reader/critic of the text.

4. What is the "literary canon"?
(a) Writing excluded from a certain discourse.
(b) Writing selected as representative of real life.
(c) Writing selected as amenable to a certain discourse.
(d) Writing selected as more valuable than real life.

5. According to the Soviet semiotician Yury Lotman, a poetic text is "semantically _________."
(a) Rational.
(b) Transparent.
(c) Saturated.
(d) Irrational.

6. What is the example Eagleton provides of a metalanguage, where one sign-system denotes another sign-system?
(a) The relation between philosophy and literature.
(b) The relation between literary criticism and literature.
(c) The relation between literary criticism and religion.
(d) The relation between philosophy and religion.

7. What is the "final logical move" for literary theory, according to Eagleton?
(a) To distance itself from the text.
(b) To privatize theory for the general public.
(c) To subjugate literature for its own ends.
(d) To recognize that it is an illusion.

8. For Jacques Lacan, "meaning is always in some sense an _______."
(a) Allocation.
(b) Approximation.
(c) Amalgamation.
(d) Abdication.

9. From a structuralist perspective, why could literature could no longer claim to be a unique discourse?
(a) Because structures could be found in all texts.
(b) Because structures could not be found in literature.
(c) Because structures placed a hierarchy on texts other than literature.
(d) Because structures considered literature a base form of discourse.

10. According to Jacques Lacan, what stage does a child first develop an ego?
(a) During the imaginary stage.
(b) During the mirror stage.
(c) During the Oedipal stage.
(d) During the post-Oedipal stage.

11. The English philosopher J. L. Austin saw language as what?
(a) Performative.
(b) Penultimate.
(c) Pejorative.
(d) Progressive.

12. What does Jacques Derrida label any thought system which depends on an unassailable foundation?
(a) Mythical.
(b) Metaphysical.
(c) Philosophical.
(d) Teleological.

13. According to Sigmund Freud, what is the name of the complex whereby a child experiences an unconscious desire for sexual union with its same sex parent?
(a) The Medusa complex.
(b) The Eros complex.
(c) The Oedipus complex.
(d) The Pandora complex.

14. According to Eagleton, what is the "point" of literary theory?
(a) Its history is part of the political and ideological history of our times.
(b) Its work rejects the political and ideological forces in power.
(c) Its work creates the political and ideological forces in power.
(d) Its history is not a part of the political and ideological history of our times.

15. In psychoanalytic treatment, what happens during transference?
(a) The analyst "transfers" on to the patient the diagnosis.
(b) The patient "transfers" on to the analyst the conflicts she or he suffers from.
(c) The patient "transfers" on to the analyst feelings she or he experiences.
(d) The analyst "transfers" on to the patient the conflicts she or he suffers from.

Short Answer Questions

1. For Eagleton, what are the two ways in which literary theory can have a distinct purpose and identity?

2. According to Eagleton, why is it an illusion to think that he can be present to us in what he says and writes?

3. What is the name of the author whose story "Sarrasine" Roland Barthes examines in "S/Z"?

4. According to Eagleton, structuralism has proved that there is nothing _____ about codes.

5. According to Eagleton, "the idea that there are 'non-political' forms of criticism" is a what?

(see the answer keys)

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