QUESTIONNAIRE
PREPARED BY:
LORIE JOY C. MONJE
BSED IV
SUBMITTED TO:
ROSE MARIE C. CANGAS
SUBJECT INSTRUCTOR
LITERARY CRITICISM
DIRECTION: Encircle the correct answer
1. According to Plato, what is the moral purpose of art?
a. To connect human beings with a higher ideal c. To criticize society through satire
b. To entertain those who enjoy it d. To bring to light social oppressions
2. How does literary theory resemble the practice of philosophy as it was developed by Plato
and Aristotle?
a. Literary theory engages with theoretical rather than real-world issues.
b. Literary theory asks fundamental questions about literary interpretation, and at the same
time builds specific systems of literary interpretation.
c. Literary theory relies totally on speculation rather than history.
d. Literary theory is detached from the reality of politics and the economy.
3. Modern literary theory began with the work of which theorist?
a. Claude Lévi-Strauss c. Viktor Shklovsky
b. Ferdinand de Saussure d. Roland Barthes
4. What is mimesis?
a. A reversal c. A satire
b. An imitation d. A poetic metaphor
5. What is the main function of literary theory?
a. To understand the importance of the formal elements of literary structure
b. To formulate relationships among an author, a reader, and a literary work
c. To understand the role of sexuality, gender, race, and ethnicity in literary study
d. All of the above answers are correct.
6. Which of the following best describes the difference between literary criticism and literary
theory?
a. Literary criticism is concerned only with the meaning of a literary work, while literary theory
is concerned only with the structure of a literary work.
b. Literary criticism draws upon research derived from sources outside literature, while literary
theory draws upon sources within a text.
c. Literary criticism is concerned with how characters in a text act, while literary theory is
concerned with why characters act.
d. Literary theory is concerned with the method used to interpret a work, while literary
criticism is the application of literary theory.
7. Which of the following literary theorists is most closely associated with the concept that
became known as liberal humanism?
a. Aristotle c. Cleanth Brooks
b. Viktor Shklovsky d. Stanley Fish
8. Which theorist is associated with the idea that art is a copy of a copy?
a. Plato c. Julia Kristeva
b. Claude Lévi-Strauss d. Walter Benjamin
9. Which theorist is most closely associated with the idea of art as imitation?
a. Jacques Derrida c. Edward Said
b. Jacques Lacan d. Plato
10. What is humanism?
a. An idea traditionally associated with the Renaissance
b. A humanity-centered view of the universe
c. A school of theory devoted to the revival of Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) literature
d. All of the above answers are correct.
11. How did the New Critics view literature?
a. As an aesthetic object that is independent of historical context
b. As an aesthetic object that is influenced by historical context
c. As a historical object that is also aesthetic
d. As a historical object that is not necessarily aesthetic
12. What do structuralist and formalist critics have in common?
a. Both sets of critics reject the importance of historical context in studying literature.
b. Both sets of critics look for an objective way to view texts.
c. Both sets of critics study the underlying forms of texts.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
13. What is affective fallacy?
a. A term first used by literary theorists William Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley
b. A term that suggests that a critic should study the structural and thematic elements of a
poem rather than the effect it has on the emotions of the reader
c. A term that describes the confusion between a poem and its result
d. All of the above answers are correct.
14. What is defamiliarization?
a. A term that describes how literature exposes its own artificiality
b. A concept associated with Russian formalism
c. An idea explored by Viktor Shklovsky
d. All of the above answers are correct.
15. Which of the following descriptions best defines the literary theory known as formalism?
a. An approach that emphasizes literary devices in a text
b. An approach that emphasizes the historical context of a text
c. An approach that emphasizes the biographical intent of a text
d. An approach that emphasizes racial issues in a text
16. Which of the following figures is considered to be the father of the linguistic theory known
as structuralism?
a. Cleanth Brooks c. Karl Marx
b. Ferdinand de Saussure d. Sigmund Freud
17. Which of the following statements best describes Cleanth Brooks's attitude towards
studying literature?
a. Critics should examine historical information surrounding a literary work.
b. Critics should develop universal readings of texts.
c. Critics should consider evolving notions of a text over time.
d. Critics should attempt to paraphrase texts in order to find out what they mean.
18. Which of the following texts is the BEST example of the argument that a work's meaning
does not come entirely from the imagination of the author?
a. Plato's The Republic c. Jacques Derrida's Of Grammatology
b. T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and the Individual Talent" d. Roland Barthes's "The Death of the
Author"
19. Which of the following texts provides the best example of defamiliarization?
a. Aristotle's Poetics c. John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
b. Leo Tolstoy's The Kreutzer Sonata d. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
20. Which of the following theorists is associated with formalism?
a. Viktor Shklovsky c. Terry Eagleton
b. Cleanth Brooks d. Judith Butler
21. Which school of literary theory is associated with the phrase "to make the stones stonier"?
a. Humanism c. Structuralism
b. Formalism d. Poststructuralism
22. What is the central idea of Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics?
a. Language is inseparable from its historical context.
b. There are five phases of linguistic development.
c. Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements.
d. Linguistics is too complicated to be distilled to a formula.
23. According to Jacques Lacan, the mirror stage is the point at which a child:
a. refuses maternal bonds. c. looks into a mirror for the first time.
b. is able to separate the "I" from the "Other." d. first engages with speech.
24. In his essay "The Death of the Author," Roland Barthes argues what about literature?
a. Biographical information about the author must be considered when evaluating literature.
b. A text and its author text are unrelated.
c. It is possible to distill meaning from a work based on the author's politics.
d. Authorial intent must be considered when evaluating literature.
25. In his essay "What Is an Author?" what position(s) on authorship does Michel Foucault
take?
a. The idea of the author came into being at a certain point in history.
b. The names of authors serve a classificatory function.
c. The author is not a source of infinite meaning.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
26. In Of Grammatology, Jacques Derrida argues what about literature?
a. No fixed, stable meaning is possible.
b. Language must be studied in conjunction with history in order to create meaning.
c. There is no potential for multiple and differing meanings in a work of literature.
d. Literature is timeless, and thus meaning does not change.
27. Jacques Derrida's concept of différance challenges us to think about language as a system
that:
a. mirrors our physical evolution as human beings.
b. prevents us from communicating through writing or speech.
c. involves a constant process of deferred meaning.
d. evolved exclusively as a function of our individual psyche. .
28. To what idea does the ancient Greek term aporia refer in terms of deconstruction theory?
a. The ability of a text to contain truth
b. The "undecidability" and essentially unstable nature of a text
c. The idea that a text has a specific meaning that can be understood through a process of
deconstruction
d. Jacques Derrida's style of writing
29. Ultimately, the literary theory of deconstruction argues that:
a. the meaning of a text always relies on context.
b. texts are always heterogeneous.
c. the instability of a text is actually evident in the text itself.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
30. What did Sigmund Freud believe about the unconscious?
a. It contains secret instincts and desires that are repressed.
b. It has little impact on human behavior.
c. It is the only significant aspect of the human psyche.
d. It can never be accessed.
31. What fundamental idea does psychoanalytic criticism hold about literary texts?
a. Literary texts should not be read as a projection of the author's psyche.
b. Literary texts solely reflect an author's intentions.
c. Literary texts are unlike dreams because they have a system of order and produce meaning.
d. Literary texts reveal secret elements of an author's unconscious.
32. What is the philosophical theory known as pragmatism?
a. A maxim of logic developed by Charles Sanders Peirce
b. A theory of practical actions developed by William James
c. An idea used to guide conduct towards clear objectives
d. All of the above answers are correct.
33. Which literary theorist argues that "there is nothing outside the text"?
a. T.S. Eliot c. Jacques Derrida
b. Jacques Lacan d. Stanley Fish
34. Which of the following human behaviors is important to a Freudian psychoanalytic study of
William Shakespeare's Hamlet?
a. Neurotic behavior c. Obsessions
b. Changes in emotional states d. All of the above answers are correct.
35. Which of the following is a rule of semiotics?
a. All linguistic concepts evolve solely out of the responses of people within a specific historical
era.
b. All linguistic and social phenomena are texts, and the object of studying these texts is to
reveal the underlying codes that make them meaningful.
c. All linguistics is in some way related to class struggle.
d. All linguistics is related to history, and therefore the meaning of linguistics relies exclusively
on historical context.
36. Which text argues that, as infants, human beings begin to define their identities against
the identities of others?
a. Judith Butler's Gender Trouble
b. W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk
c. Roland Barthes's "The Death of the Author"
d. Jacques Lacan's "The Mirror Stage … "
37. With what literary critic is the term the author function most closely associated?
a. Claude Lévi-Strauss
b. Jacques Derrida
c. Jacques Lacan
d. Michel Foucault
38. Which of the following best defines the work of a deconstructionist critic?
a. Calling into question the possibility of the coherence of discourse
b. Suggesting that the study of literature is based on the breakdown of language into signs
c. Arguing that language, and therefore literary texts, relies on the difference between terms
and therefore constantly defers meaning.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
39. How are Julia Kristeva's psychoanalytic theories distinct from traditional Freudian
concepts?
a. Kristeva rejects the idea that neuroses provide insight into the unconscious.
b. Kristeva suggests that women are not subject to traditional fetishes.
c. Kristeva offers a more central place for women's issues within psychological development.
d. Kristeva fundamentally disagrees with the idea of the mirror stage.
40. How does Virginia Woolf's essay "A Room of One's Own" contribute to feminist theory?
a. It suggests that the suppression of women is part of a historical climate that will naturally
fade away.
b. It suggests that gender roles are conditioned by the possession of money and power.
c. It suggests that gender has power over class.
d. It suggests that education, rather than money, is needed for the liberation of women.
41. In general, what is Judith Butler's concept of gender?
a. Women's gender is artificial, while men's gender is not.
b. While gender is not real, the stereotypes that accompany it are true.
c. Gender is a problematic, but essentially true, category.
d. Gender is largely a cultural construct.
42. In her essay "The Laugh of the Medusa," what does Hélène Cixous suggest for women?
a. Women should write for and about themselves in order to counter phallocentric texts.
b. Women should write, but they should do so only within the existent male canon.
c. Women should primarily dedicate themselves to studying women's literature from the past.
d. Women should be unconcerned with the struggle for identity.
43. In what way does Julia Kristeva build on Jacques Lacan's theory of psychosexual
development?
a. Kristeva wholly rejects Lacan's theory of psychosexual development.
b. Kristeva centralizes the maternal and the feminine in her revisions of Lacan's theory.
c. Kristeva argues that the mirror stage does not occur until the individual embraces a distinct
gender role.
44. What does Elaine Showalter argue about gender in terms of representations of the
character of Ophelia in William Shakespeare's Hamlet?
a. Ophelia's madness represents the social oppression of women.
b. It is nearly impossible to represent women as anything other than mad in patriarchal
discourses.
c. Feminist critics need to re-appropriate Ophelia for their own purposes.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
45. What does gynocriticism recommend as an approach to literature?
a. Examining only female-authored literature more critically
b. Considering women's literature outside of its historical context
c. Studying women's literature for its linguistic qualities only
d. Becoming more familiar with the history of women and women's writing
46. What does Judith Butler mean when she suggests that gender is "performed"?
a. Gender does not reflect an essential truth, but rather is a role people play based on their
internalization of socially constructed gender roles.
b. Gender roles do not exist.
c. Real gender roles are scripted by excellent writers.
d. Only individuals who have the capacity to perform have gender.
47. What is the purpose of feminist theory?
a. To advocate for women's rights
b. To create literary subjects with which female readers can identify
c. To critique phallocentric assumptions about literature
d. To counter stereotypes about women
48. Which of the following ideas relates to J.L. Austin's performativity theory?
a. Performance is the ultimate objective of all human beings.
b. Language is used to indicate action as well as thought.
c. Individuals perform gender actively.
d. Individuals develop consciousness through speech.
49. Which of the following is a theme of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's book Epistemology of the
Closet?
a. Understanding sexuality is crucial to understanding culture.
b. Understanding homosexuality has little effect on understanding culture.
c. Literary study is unaffected by a lack of interest in sexuality.
d. Understanding homosexual themes in novels has become too routine.
50. Which of the following offers the best definition of écriture féminine?
a. How women really feel about male writers c. Second-wave feminism
b. The inscription of womanhood and femininity in texts d. Psychological studies of
women
51. With which feminist theorist is gynocriticism most closely associated?
a. Elaine Showalter c. Lucy Irigaray
b. Julia Kristeva d. Hélène Cixous
52. Which of the following writers might be considered one of the early founders of first-wave
feminism?
a. Hélène Cixous c. Lucy Irigaray
b. Judith Butler d. Mary Wollstonecraft
53. In Fredric Jameson's book The Political Unconscious, what does Jameson suggest about
literature?
a. History comprises the essential framework for the performance of literary analysis
b. Politics and the economy are the most important factors in literary analysis
c. Biography is essential to literary analysis
d. Psychoanalysis is critical to literary analysis
54. The Frankfurt School of literary theory was most greatly influenced by which of the
following schools of thought?
a. Formalism c. Poststructuralism
b. Structuralism d. Marxism
55. To what idea does the term heteroglossia refer?
a. An infant's inability to speak prior to the mirror stage
b. The referential relationships among symbols, signifiers, and signs
c. The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work
d. The formulaic shift between economic and political themes
56. What is dialectical materialism?
a. A form of literary criticism that is based on historical context
b. A form of literary criticism that does not incorporate economic concerns
c. A form of literary criticism based on linguistic analysis
d. A term related to gender theory that argues that men are dominant in society by virtue of
their economic privilege
57. What is dialogism?
a. A term developed by Mikhail Bakhtin
b. A term used to describe how texts include a variety of styles
c. A term used to explain the use of multiple points of view in literature
d. All of the above answers are correct.
58. What is false consciousness?
a. A term for the false neuroses expressed in dreams
b. A feminist term for the state that occurs when texts written by women are not considered in
the study of literature
c. Another term for the unconscious
d. An ideology that involves dominating the consciousness of exploited classes
59. What is generally considered to be Theodor W. Adorno's primary concern as a theorist?
a. The effect of literature in enlightening the human mind
b. The effect of modern society on human suffering
c. The effect of the economy on women's concerns
d. The effect of the unconscious mind on the conscious self
60. Which of the following statements best explains Mikhail Bakhtin's philosophy of language?
a. Language includes multiple social dialects and jargons.
b. Language can include socio-ideological contradictions from the past.
c. Language exhibits and is bound up in the social lives and historical context of the people
who speak it.
d. Language is loaded with the intentions of others.
61. With which theorist is the term identity thinking most closely associated?
a. Sigmund Freud c. William James
b. Carl Jung d. Theodor W. Adorno
62. How do Marxist theorists react to ideology?
a. They accept ideology as an essential, although sometimes problematic, part of society.
b. They subject all ideologies to critique in order to expose biased interests.
c. They reject the idea that ideology has real effects on social progress.
d. They promote ideology because it helps to create a dominant social order.
63. According to the Geneva School, what is the function of the reader?
a. Understanding the author's ideas in the context of the real world
b. Entering the author's mind through his or her literary works
c. Understanding the author's consciousness
d. All of the above answers are correct.
64. How does Wolfgang Iser envision the reader?
a. The reader fills in the gaps imposed by an author's intention.
b. The reader is sublimated beneath the author.
c. The reader is less important than the author's context.
d. The reader is totally subject to the author's intention.
65. In her essay "The Poem as Event," Louise M. Rosenblatt sees the reader as performing
what function?
a. The reader participates in a transaction with the text.
b. The reader is acted upon by the text.
c. The reader acts upon the text.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
66. What does hermeneutic theory suggest about how readers view literature?
a. It is impossible to view a piece of literature as its author intended.
b. It is impossible to divorce a text from capitalist ideology.
c. It is impossible to view a piece of literature correctly, because we can only work within the
hetero-normative paradigm.
d. It is impossible to separate a text from the linguistics that compose it.
67. What is hermeneutics?
a. A term that describes the absence of racial others in the canon
b. A term that describes the attempt to read homosexuality into literature
c. A term that describes the effect of autobiography on text
d. A term that describes the interpretation of meaning
68. What is phenomenology?
a. The examination of structures informing our conscious experience
b. The examination of desires informing our consciousness
c. The examination of our unconscious experience
d. The examination of intricate structures within our unconscious
69. Which school of theorists is most closely associated with phenomenology?
a. The Moscow School
b. The Chicago School
c. The Frankfurt School
d. The Geneva School
70. With which theorist is phenomenology associated?
a. Edmund Husserl
b. Wolfgang Iser
c. Jean-Paul Sartre
d. All of the above answers are correct.
71. With which theorist is the term implied reader associated?
a. Wolfgang Iser c. Cleanth Brooks
b. William Wimsatt d. Harold Bloom
72. Reader-response theory is focused on considering which of the following?
a. How readers learn to read
b. How readers imagine visual images in a text
c. How readers participate in creating the meaning of a text
d. How readers regard critics
73. From whom did New Historicists draw the idea of "self-regulating systems"?
a. Theodor W. Adorno
b. Claude Lévi-Strauss
c. Julia Kristeva
d. Jacques Derrida
74. How does New Historicism differ from traditional historicism?
a. New Historicism rejects the idea that history is neutral.
b. New Historicism does not make strict delineations between literary and non-literary texts.
c. New Historicism takes a particular interest in marginalized peoples.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
75. The concept of otherness is related to which of the following theories?
a. Psychoanalytic theory
b. Feminist theory
c. Ethnic criticism
d. All of the above answers are correct.
76. What do many contemporary theorists find problematic about the literary canon?
a. It includes too few works by non-European writers.
b. It includes too few works by non-white writers.
c. It includes too few works by women.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
77. What does Edward Said argue about the concept of the Orient?
a. It has little relationship to the colonization of Asian countries by the West.
b. It illustrates the fundamental political equality of all nations.
c. It was produced by Western scholarship.
d. Its literature is less proud that that of the West.
78. What is double consciousness?
a. An early aspect of ethnic criticism
b. An understanding of how double experiences create identity
c. A concept developed by W.E.B Du Bois
d. All of the above answers are correct.
79. What is the main function of postcolonial criticism?
a. To represent the relationship between colonizers and the colonized
b. To draw attention to the positive effects of colonization on literature
c. To explain why there are few examples of successful non-Western literature
d. To show the ways in which most Western literature is superior
80. What is the main goal of ethnic criticism?
a. To bring attention to false Euro-centric paradigms
b. To rectify the double experiences of certain racial groups
c. To reconcile cultural identity with individual identity
d. All of the above answers are correct.
81. Which is a common postcolonial critique of the West?
a. The West spends too much time trying to consider an Asian perspective.
b. The West tends to look at Asian countries as individual units rather than lump them
together.
c. The West views matters through its own limited historical position.
d. The West refuses to apply economic and political coercion to Asian writers.
82. Which of the following statements best explains the main objective of New Historicism?
a. Texts are examined to see how colonizers and the colonized interact.
b. Texts are examined to see how the formal aspects of the text create meaning.
c. Texts are examined to determine how they reveal social realities.
d. Texts are examined to determine the author's intent.
83. Which of the following texts is considered the first example of postcolonial criticism?
a. Harold Bloom's "An Elegy for the Canon" c. Cleanth Brooks's "Keats's Sylvan
Historian"
b. Jacques Lacan's "The Mirror Stage … " d. Edward Said's Orientalism
84. Who coined the term New Historicism?
a. Jacques Derrida c. Fredric Jameson
b. Terry Eagleton d. Stephen Greenblatt
85. With which theorist is the concept imaginative geography associated?
a. Julia Kristeva c. Terry Eagleton
b. Fredric Jameson d. Edward Said
86. What is New Historicism?
a. A theory that sees history as a form of writing and discourse
b. A theory that abandons the idea of history as an imitation of events
c. A theory that regards history as a series of narratives
d. All of the above answers are correct
87. According to trauma theorists, a testifying subject needs which of the following to deliver a
successful testimony?
a. A figure of judgment c. A witness
b. Religious belief d. Psychological treatment
88. Christopher Ricks would most likely DISAGREE with which of the following claims about
literary theory?
a. Literary theory is limited in its ability to interpret a text.
b. Literary theory often depends on esoteric knowledge to be properly understood.
c. Literary theory is employed mostly by academics.
d. Literary theory is the only proper way to conceptualize literary texts.
89. Ecotheorists tend to show an interest in which of the following?
a. How writers conceptualize natural environments and the representation of environmental
issues in literature and culture
b. How writers have damaged the environment
c. How the environment can be repaired
d. Who is responsible for damaging the environment
90. In his essay "The Business of Theory," William Deresiewicz argues which of the following
about Terry Eagleton's book After Theory?
a. It offers a strong outline for how theory can be conducted in the 21st century.
b. It should not be read or considered by any student or scholar.
c. It offers some valid ideas and critiques, but its author is not entirely trustworthy.
d. It offers a strong counterpoint to Jacques Derrida's notion of deconstruction.
91. New trends in literary theory tend to do which of the following?
a. Reject all previous modes of literary theory
b. Focus on a return to traditional critical methods
c. Make use of different literary theories in order to develop new theories
d. Work only with ideas developed by post-Marxist theorists
92. Some critics of literary theory argue that literary theory is problematic for which reason?
a. Literary theory tends to be too political.
b. Literary theory does not offer a holistic interpretation of a text.
c. Literary theory depends on specialized knowledge that is outside the realm of literary
studies.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
93. Trauma theory is tremendously influenced by which theoretical school?
a. Psychoanalysis c. Feminism
b. Marxism d. Deconstruction
94. Trauma theory primarily developed out of the work of which psychoanalyst?
a. Sigmund Freud c. Michel Foucault
b. Carl Jung d. Jacques Lacan
95. What are some common criticisms of literary theory?
a. Theory has replaced literary appreciation with formulas for understanding.
b. The reasoning of theory is often too circular.
c. Many theories have been pushed too far into abstraction.
d. All of the above answers are correct.
96. What does the term meta-language mean, according to Andrzej Warminski?
a. A language about another language
b. A supernatural language
c. A language that does not yet constitute a real language
d. A language used by a particular marginalized group of people within a larger dominant
culture
97. What is Christopher Ricks's attitude toward literary theory?
a. He considers it to be vital in order to understand literary texts.
b. He considers theory to be the only way that literary texts can be interpreted.
c. He has no misgivings about the practical usability of literary theory.
d. He feels that literary theory is ultimately too limited in scope to serve as a proper method of
interpretation.
98. Which literary theory would most directly explore questions of the role of spatial setting in
a poem?
a. Trauma theory c. Game theory
b. Ecotheory d. Marxist theory
99. Which of the following statements offers the best definition of the concept of strange
attractors in chaos theory?
a. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are entirely random.
b. Strange attractors are complex forces that are determined by the laws of physics.
c. Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are both random and determined.
d. Strange attractors are complex forces that are entirely random.
100. Which school of literary theory shows a particular interest in the role of testimony in
literature?
a. Trauma theory c. Chaos theory
b. Ecotheory d. Formalism
ANSWER KEY
1. A 26. A 51. A 76. D
2. B 27. C 52. D 77. C
3. B 28. B 53. A 78. D
4. B 29. D 54. D 79. A
5. D 30. A 55. C 80. D
6. D 31. D 56. A 81. C
7. A 32. D 57. D 82. C
8. A 33. C 58. D 83. D
9. D 34. D 59. B 84. D
10. D 35. B 60. C 85. D
11. A 36. D 61. D 86. D
12. D 37. D 62. B 87. C
13. D 38. D 63. D 88. D
14. D 39. C 64. A 89. A
15. A 40. B 65. D 90. C
16. B 41. D 66. A 91. C
17. B 42. A 67. D 92. D
18. B 43. C 68. A 93. A
19. B 44. D 69. D 94. A
20. A 45. D 70. D 95. D
21. B 46. A 71. B 96. A
22. C 47. D 72. C 97. D
23. B 48. B 73. B 98. B
24. B 49. A 74. D 99. C
25. D 50. B 75. D 100. A
