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

2. How far has the "theoretical revolution" spread according to Eagleton?
(a) Far beyond the circle of specialists and enthusiasts.
(b) To the outer circle of critics and readers.
(c) Within the inner circle of critics and readers.
(d) Not beyond the circle of specialists and enthusiasts.

3. According to Eagleton, the sentence "this is awfully squiggly handwriting" from Knut Hamsun's "Hunger" tells him its literary because of what reason?
(a) The facts.
(b) The context.
(c) The ideas.
(d) The content.

4. From the viewpoint of Roland Barthes, Eagleton argues that "reading is less like a _______ than a _________."
(a) "Boudoir; laboratory."
(b) "Boudoir; system."
(c) "Laboratory; boudoir."
(d) "Philosophy; laboratory."

5. How many decades, according to Eagleton, has there been a "striking proliferation of literary theory" since the publication of the Russian formalist's pioneering essay?
(a) Five.
(b) Two.
(c) Six.
(d) One.

Short Answer Questions

1. During the 1960s, what kind of students began to enter higher education that broke down assumptions about literary studies?

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

3. According to Eagleton, why is Hans-Georg Gadamer not concerned about bringing our cultural preconceptions to a literary work?

4. Who developed hermeneutics?

5. How did the Romantic artist reflect her or his work in its detachment from history itself?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, what was considered "fact" and what was considered "fiction," and how is it significant?

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

3. How did the Russian formalists answer the question "what is literature?" and why was it significant?

4. In the nineteenth century, what was the outcome of religion as a result of the industrial revolution where new technologies and science were being developed?

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

6. What is phenomenology and when did it emerge as a serious discipline?

7. What kind of thought does a literary education not encourage, according to Eagleton, and what does this signify?

8. During the eighteenth century, how was art perceived in England and why is it significant?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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