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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to Eagleton, why is it an illusion to think that he can be present to us in what he says and writes?
(a) Because the language he uses is not a tool but something he is made of and therefore always divided.
(b) Because he is no longer present in the world but in some other present in the future.
(c) Because language is only a tool, not something he is made of.
(d) Because he is a concrete entity but language is not.

2. From a structuralist perspective, why could literature could no longer claim to be a unique discourse?
(a) Because structures could be found in all texts.
(b) Because structures considered literature a base form of discourse.
(c) Because structures could not be found in literature.
(d) Because structures placed a hierarchy on texts other than literature.

3. In psychoanalytic treatment, what happens during transference?
(a) The patient "transfers" on to the analyst feelings she or he experiences.
(b) The patient "transfers" on to the analyst the conflicts she or he suffers from.
(c) The analyst "transfers" on to the patient the diagnosis.
(d) The analyst "transfers" on to the patient the conflicts she or he suffers from.

4. According to Eagleton, "the tactic of _________criticism ... is to show how texts come to embarrass their own ruling systems of logic."
(a) Feminist.
(b) Psychoanalytic.
(c) Post-structuralist.
(d) Deconstructive.

5. According to Eagleton, what term is "most-widely touted" in cultural theory?
(a) Modernism.
(b) Premodernity.
(c) Postmodernity.
(d) Postmodernism.

6. What does Jacques Derrida label any thought system which depends on an unassailable foundation?
(a) Philosophical.
(b) Mythical.
(c) Metaphysical.
(d) Teleological.

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

8. The English philosopher J. L. Austin saw language as what?
(a) Performative.
(b) Pejorative.
(c) Penultimate.
(d) Progressive.

9. What does Sigmund Freud see as the "royal road" to the unconscious?
(a) Therapy.
(b) Dreams.
(c) Sex.
(d) Education.

10. What are Northrop Frye's three recurrent patterns of symbolism in literature?
(a) Tragic, comic, romantic.
(b) Apocalyptic, demonic, analogical.
(c) Comic, apocalyptic, romantic.
(d) Analogical, demonic, tragic.

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

12. According to Eagleton, why does Northrop Frye emphasize the "utopian root of literature"?
(a) Because it is marked by a deep immersion in the actual social world.
(b) Because it is marked by a deep fear of the actual social world.
(c) Because it is marked by a deep sorrow for the actual social world.
(d) Because it is marked by a deep relation to the actual social world.

13. According to Eagleton, what is the oldest form of literary criticism?
(a) Rhetoric.
(b) Sociology.
(c) Religion.
(d) Philosophy.

14. What does Sigmund Freud call the first stage of sexual life?
(a) The erogenous stage.
(b) The anal stage.
(c) The oral stage.
(d) The phallic stage.

15. What text did Tzvetan Todorov attempt a grammatical analysis of so that the characters were nouns, their attributes adjectives, and actions verbs?
(a) Updike's "Rabbit."
(b) Twain's "Tom Sawyer."
(c) Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment."
(d) Boccaccio's "Decameron."

Short Answer Questions

1. How did post-structuralism respond to France's student movement's failed attempt to break state power?

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

3. Why do feminists embrace the work of Jacques Lacan, despite the fact that he was contemptuous of the women's movement?

4. According to Eagleton, "any method or theory which will contribute to the strategic goal of human emancipation" is what?

5. According to Jacques Lacan, what stage does a child first develop an ego?

(see the answer keys)

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