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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. Who said "there is no cultural document that is not at the same time a record of barbarism"?
(a) Julia Kristeva.
(b) Michel Foucault.
(c) Walter Benjamin.
(d) Karl Marx.

2. How did post-structuralism respond to France's student movement's failed attempt to break state power?
(a) Post-structuralism sought to create a more powerful language.
(b) Post-structuralism sought to break the structures of language.
(c) Post-structuralism sought to break state power.
(d) Post-structuralism sought to create a free language.

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

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. Roland Barthes "double" sign is the "grandchild" of what kind of language of the Formalist and Czech structuralists?

2. 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?

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

4. According to Eagleton, why does Northrop Frye emphasize the "utopian root of literature"?

5. According to Eagleton, there are forms of post-structuralism that represent what kind of withdrawal from history?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What is Sigmund Freud's Oedipus complex and why is it significant?

6. Who is Ferdinand de Saussure and what was his contribution to the field of literary theory?

7. How did Mikhail Bakhtin view language?

8. What are the three stages of development in psychoanalysis and how do they relate to literary theory?

9. According to Eagleton, why should the notion of literary theory be abolished?

10. What was the significance of the Prague structuralists?

(see the answer keys)

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