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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The transition from structuralism to post-structuralism is partly in response to what movement?
(a) Women's movement.
(b) Marxist's movement.
(c) Christian movement.
(d) Student movement.

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

3. What is one problem of adopting a plurality of critical methods, for Eagleton?
(a) One should adopt the latest method.
(b) Not all methods are compatible.
(c) Some methods are no longer available.
(d) One should start from the beginning.

4. According to Eagleton, why did intellectuals preoccupy themselves with language in the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries?
(a) Because discourse had become degraded to an instrument of industrial capitalism.
(b) Because discourse had become irrelevant in industrial society.
(c) Because discourse had become an instrument of opposition in academia.
(d) Because discourse had become elevated by intellectuals.

5. 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 immerse themselves in the material world in order to become conscious of it.
(c) They both shut out the material world in order to understand our consciousness of it.
(d) They both shut out the material world in order to revert to pre-consciousness.

6. According to Eagleton, structuralism maintains that "individual units of any system have meaning only by virtue of" what?
(a) Their connection to religion.
(b) Their meaning for the critic.
(c) Their relations to one another.
(d) Their status in the world.

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

8. Eagleton writes that his book is less an introduction to literary theory than a what?
(a) A polemic.
(b) An answer.
(c) An obituary.
(d) A homage.

9. For Eagleton, what are the two ways in which literary theory can have a distinct purpose and identity?
(a) It can define itself in terms of eradicating inquiry or the object being enquire into.
(b) It can define itself in terms of methods of inquiry and the manner of enquiry.
(c) It can define itself in terms of methods of inquiry or the object being enquired into.
(d) It can define itself in terms of other methods of inquiry and the manner of enquiry.

10. According to Eagleton, "the meaning of a sign is a matter of what the sign is _____."
(a) Not.
(b) For.
(c) Signifying.
(d) Doing.

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

12. According to Eagleton, structuralism exposed what "shocking truth"?
(a) The even our most private thoughts is caused by structure.
(b) That even our most pleasurable experience is outside the realm of structure.
(c) That even our most intimate experience is the effect of a structure.
(d) That even our most painful experience is outside the realm of structure.

13. According to Eagleton, what is the disadvantage of claiming literature as more valuable and rewarding than other texts?
(a) Because it is true.
(b) Because it is no longer true.
(c) Because it is untrue.
(d) Because it partly true.

14. 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 Eros complex.
(b) The Oedipus complex.
(c) The Pandora complex.
(d) The Medusa complex.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What are Northrop Frye's three recurrent patterns of symbolism in literature?

2. What is NOT a material reality in the oppression of women?

3. According to Eagleton, what is the "point" of literary theory?

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

5. When did Sigmund Freud develop psychoanalysis?

(see the answer keys)

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