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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. According to Eagleton, structuralism has proved that there is nothing _____ about codes.
(a) Progressive.
(b) Innocent.
(c) Evaluative.
(d) Guilty.

2. Jacques Lacan argues that like _______ desire emerges from a lack, which it strives to fulfill.
(a) Myth.
(b) Language.
(c) Faith.
(d) Identity.

3. What are the three points Eagleton notes about the method of structuralism?
(a) It is rational not idealistic; it accepts the obvious meaning of the text; and the content of the narrative is its structure.
(b) It is analytic not evaluative; it refuses obvious meaning of the text; and the content of the narrative is its structure.
(c) It is evaluative not analytic; it refuses obvious meaning of the text; and the narrative content is its meaning.
(d) It is idealistic not rational; it doesn't understand the obvious meaning of the text; and the narrative content is its meaning.

4. The modern history of literary theory has been characterized by a flight from what?
(a) Real history.
(b) Shifting ideas.
(c) Absolute morality.
(d) False doctrines.

5. According to Eagleton, structuralism is a ________of inquiry whereas semiotics is a ______ of study.
(a) Method; field.
(b) Manner; field.
(c) Type; manner.
(d) Field; type.

Short Answer Questions

1. For Jacques Lacan, "meaning is always in some sense an _______."

2. According to Eagleton, the Western philosophical tradition has "consistently vilified" what?

3. When did Sigmund Freud develop psychoanalysis?

4. According to Eagleton, structuralism exposed what "shocking truth"?

5. According to the Soviet semiotician Yury Lotman, a poetic text is "semantically _________."

Short Essay Questions

1. How did post-structuralism develop and why is it significant?

2. What does Julia Kristeva define as "semiotic" and why is it significant?

3. Why does Eagleton claim that Northrop Frye's work emphasized the "utopian root'" of all literature and what is his response?

4. How did Mikhail Bakhtin view language?

5. According to Eagleton, why should rhetorical science replace literary theory and what is its objective?

6. What was the significance of the Prague structuralists?

7. Beyond helping the status of women, what is the women's movement's goal and why is it significant?

8. What are the four areas Eagleton discusses rhetoric should target that would bring about transformation in society?

9. How does the philosopher Jacques Derrida conceive of language?

10. What is Eagleton's main critique of the some forms of post-structuralism and why is it significant?

(see the answer keys)

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