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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. For the economist Eagleton discusses, "those economists who dislike theory or claimed to get along better without it" were what?
(a) In the grip of an older theory.
(b) Had no knowledge of any theory.
(c) Didn't understand the importance of theory.
(d) In the grip of the most current theory.

2. During the last decades of the eighteenth-century, the word prosaic begins to acquire what a kind of connotation?
(a) A negative connotation.
(b) A unfamiliar connotation.
(c) A familiar connotation.
(d) A positive connotation.

3. What three sequential stages does Eagleton point out in the development of modern literary theory?
(a) The preoccupation with the text, the exclusive concern with the reader, and a shift toward the author.
(b) The preoccupation with the author, the exclusive concern with the text, and a shift toward the reader.
(c) The preoccupation with the critic, the exclusive concern with the author, and a shift toward the text.
(d) The preoccupation with the reader, the exclusive concern with the text, and a shift toward the critic.

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

5. What period did our own definition of literature begin to emerge, according to Eagleton?
(a) Modernist period.
(b) Romantic period.
(c) Victorian period.
(d) Enlightenment period.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Eagleton, eighteenth-century literature embodied more than social values, it also was an instrument for what?

2. According to Eagleton, the approaches outlined in his book have implications where?

3. What is the name Edmund Husserl gave to his philosophical method?

4. According to Eagleton, formalism is the application of what to the study of literature?

5. Who wrote "What is Literature" on literary reception and was published in 1948?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is Eagleton's argument regarding the literary canon as the "unquestioned" great tradition of national literature?

2. How does Eagleton respond to critics who claim that literary theory as irrelevant or elitist and what are its implications?

3. What was the romantics relationship to the symbol and why is it significant?

4. What was the dominant ideology of eighteenth-century England?

5. What is Eagleton's goal in writing "Literary Theory: An Introduction"?

6. What is the significance of Viktor Shklovsky's 1917 essay "Art as Device," according to Eagleton?

7. How did new criticism emerge in England and America?

8. What is Eagleton's major problem with formalism and why is it significant?

9. Who developed reception theory and why is it significant?

10. How has the population in higher education changed in Britain since the 1960s and what it its significance?

(see the answer keys)

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