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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Eagleton, one of the gains of structuralism is that it represents a "remorseless _____of literature."

2. According to Eagleton, what is the oldest form of literary criticism?

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

4. For Roland Barthes, what kind of literature attempts to conceal the constructed nature of language?

5. According to Eagleton, who would an ideal reader be for a structuralist?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What was a "healthy" sign according to Roland Barthes and why is it significant?

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

5. What is multiple pluralism and why does Eagleton object to it?

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

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

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

9. How did Northrop Frye attempt to combine the formalist focus on the text with the essence of new American criticism?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Roland Barthes work on signs. In particular, how did he categorize signs in terms of their function?

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast structuralism with phenomenology.

1) What are the basic tenets of each school of thought?

2) What are the similarities between them?

2) What are their differences?

Essay Topic 3

Choose one work of literature (a story, essay, poem, play, or novel) and one method of literary analysis (new criticism, structuralism, post-structuralism, phenomenology, psychoanalysis) and examine the work by utilizing a specific literary theory.

(see the answer keys)

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