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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 is the "impotence" of liberal humanism a symptom of, according to Eagleton?
(a) Its contradictory relationship to capitalism.
(b) Its absurd claims in the face of suffering.
(c) Its refusal to examine the facts.
(d) Its sense of entitlement in relation to the world.

2. What is NOT a material reality in the oppression of women?
(a) Motherhood.
(b) Job Discrimination.
(c) Equal wages.
(d) Unequal wages.

3. What aspect of Jacques Lacan's work is of particular interest to literary theorists?
(a) Lacan's work on history.
(b) Lacan's work on women.
(c) Lacan's work on religion.
(d) Lacan's work on language.

4. According to Eagleton, "the idea that there are 'non-political' forms of criticism" is a what?
(a) Myth.
(b) Ideal.
(c) Reality.
(d) Fact.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. The transition from structuralism to post-structuralism is partly in response to what movement?

2. According to Roland Barthes, what kind of sign draws attention to its own arbitrariness?

3. Why should politics engage with questions of sexual ideology, according to Eagleton?

4. In structuralism, the relationship between the sign and what it refers to is what?

5. What is the "final logical move" for literary theory, according to Eagleton?

Short Essay Questions

1. Who developed semiotics and what was his contribution to literary theory?

2. What is significant about the ways in which Sigmund Freud treated women and men?

3. What is the dominant ideology within academia and what are its major problems?

4. According to Sigmund Freud, what are the two conflicting principles that all people are motivated by and why is it significant?

5. Why does Eagleton reject the idea of a disconnected individual in society?

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

7. For Roland Barthes, what does literature embody and why is it significant?

8. How did Mikhail Bakhtin view language?

9. What is structuralism and how what does it share in common with formalism?

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

(see the answer keys)

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