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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. According to Eagleton, Gibbon and the authors of Genesis share what in common?
(a) Both wrote fiction that is read as fact by some and fiction by others.
(b) Both wrote fiction that is read as historical fact.
(c) Both wrote historical truth that is read as fiction.
(d) They both thought they were writing historical truth, but are read as fact by some and fiction by others.

2. Why is the example Eagleton gives of the sign in the London Underground system that "dogs must be carried on the escalator" a case of estrangement?
(a) Because of the ambiguities inherent in the statement, which raises questions about its meaning.
(b) Because the directive is unambigious and therefore inherently meaningful.
(c) Because the language is prosaic and straightforward.
(d) Because the statement is a directive where people who do not follow are estranged from society.

3. What genre of writing does Eagleton provide that is an example of writing that is NOT considered to be literature?
(a) Comics.
(b) Science fiction.
(c) Romance.
(d) Young Adult.

4. According to Eagleton, what kind of thought does literary education NOT encourage?
(a) Rational thought.
(b) Irrational thought.
(c) Creative thought.
(d) Analytical thought.

5. According to Eagleton, why is Hans-Georg Gadamer not concerned about bringing our cultural preconceptions to a literary work?
(a) Because like the literary work, they come from tradition.
(b) Because unlike the literary work, they come from modernity.
(c) Because like the literary work, they come from modernity.
(d) Because unlike the literary work, the come from tradition.

Short Answer Questions

1. What novel by John Updike does Eagleton discuss from the position of reception theory?

2. By the early 1930s, the study of English literature became what kind of pursuit?

3. How many decades, according to Eagleton, has there been a "striking proliferation of literary theory" since the publication of the Russian formalist's pioneering essay?

4. What role does reception theory examine?

5. What date does Eagleton settle on as the "beginnings of the transformation which has taken over literary theory in this century"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is Martin Heidegger's philosophy similar to that of the Russian formalists?

2. Why does Eagleton argue that the demarcation between fiction and fact in writing is "questionable"?

3. How has the population in higher education changed in Britain since the 1960s and what it its significance?

4. What is the significance of Viktor Shklovsky's 1917 essay "Art as Device," according to Eagleton?

5. What kinds of writing were considered literature in the eighteenth-century and why is this significant?

6. What was the dominant ideology of eighteenth-century England?

7. What is hermeneutics and how is it significant?

8. What is the reach of the "theoretical revolution" and why is it significant?

9. What is Eagleton's major problem with formalism and why is it significant?

10. Who developed reception theory and why is it significant?

(see the answer keys)

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