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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. Who does Peter Barry claim described the feminist change in the late 1970s as a shift of attention from "andro-texts" to "gyno-texts"?

2. According to the narrator in the Introduction, the ________ probably saw the high-water mark of literary theory.

3. What does Peter Barry say was the earliest work of theory written by Aristotle?

4. Which of F.R. Leavis's teachings was essentially a syllabus, manageable within a year-long undergraduate course?

5. Who said the following quote found in the chapter titled Theory Before Theory--Liberal Humanism: "We are told that the study of literature 'cultivates the taste, educates the sympathies and enlarges the mind'"?

Short Essay Questions

1. Discuss how J.A. Cuddon describes postmodernism in his "Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory."

2. What is the most basic difference between liberal humanist and structuralist reading?

3. Explain the Oedipus complex of Sigmund Freud.

4. What are some of the important characteristics of the literary modernism practice?

5. Why was Freudian interpretation interesting to literary critics?

6. In the first half of the twentieth century, who, according to Barry, were the critical names in British literary theory? Who were at Cambridge University in the 1920s and 1930s?

7. What is the purpose of displacement and condensation?

8. According to the "Introduction," what does the saying that "after the moment of theory comes the 'hour' of theory" mean?

9. Who was I.A. Richards?

10. Briefly summarize author Peter Barry's own introduction to literary theory as seen in "My own stock-taking" found within the "Introduction."

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss how women are represented by both men and women in a piece of literature that you have read in the past. Explain how this representation of women would be viewed by feminist critics.

Essay Topic 2

Describe and discuss how the women's movement is relevant to feminine criticism, as well as lesbian feminine criticism.

Essay Topic 3

Explain how deconstruction ties into post-structuralism. Use specific examples from the text to support your answer.

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