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

2. According to Eagleton, what "staggering fact" could not be put right by a theoretical technique?

3. Why is psychosis difficult to cope with, according to Sigmund Freud?

4. What is the name of the Yale theorist who believed that all language is metaphorical?

5. According to Eagleton, if structuralism examined the "product" of literature, but left out what?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does Julia Kristeva view language and why is it significant?

4. How did Mikhail Bakhtin view language?

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

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

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

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

9. During the 1960s and 1970s why did feminist scholars reject Marxist thought on the left?

10. Who developed semiotics and what was his contribution to literary theory?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the relationship between individualism and authoritarian capitalism? Why does Eagleton argue that literary theory's attempt to validate the individual as disconnected from society a myth?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss liberal humanism.

1) Identify liberal humanism as a group, viewpoint, and methodology.

2) What is liberal humanism an instrument for, according to Eagleton?

3) Are liberal humanists politically conscious? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

Define, discuss, and analyze the emergence and development of romantic aesthetic theory.

1) What were the romantic writers responding to in terms of the society in which they lived and worked?

2) What was the role of the romantic artist in society?

3) According to the romantics, why was the symbol so central to the meaning of a text?

4) What are some of the lasting effects of romantic theory?

(see the answer keys)

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