Introduction To Literary Theory MCQs

Option A: Entering the author’s mind through his or her literary works

Option B: Understanding the author’s consciousness

Option C: Reproducing the author’s thoughts in a critical context

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Wolfgang Iser

Option B: Jean-Paul Sartre

Option C: Emmanuel Lévinas

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: It includes too few works by nonwhite writers.

Option B: It includes too few works by women.

Option C: It includes too few works by non- Western writers.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: It includes too few works by non- Western writers. ✔

Option A: It suggests that the suppression of women is part of a historical climate that will naturally fade away.

Option B: It suggests that gender roles are conditioned by the possession of money and power.

Option C: It suggests that gender has power over class.

Option D: It suggests that education, rather than money, is needed for the liberation of women.

Correct Answer: It suggests that gender roles are conditioned by the possession of money and power. ✔

Option A: Gender does not reflect an essential truth, but rather is a role people play based on their internalization of socially constructed gender roles.

Option B: Gender roles do not exist.

Option C: Real gender roles are scripted by excellent writers.

Option D: Only individuals who have the capacity to perform have gender.

Correct Answer: Gender does not reflect an essential truth, but rather is a role people play based on their internalization of socially constructed gender roles. ✔

Option A: refuses maternal bonds.

Option B: is able to separate the “I” from the “Other.”

Option C: looks into a mirror for the first time.

Option D: first engages with speech.

Correct Answer: B. is able to separate the “I” from the “Other.” ✔

Option A: Kristeva rejects the idea that neuroses provide insight into the unconscious.

Option B: Kristeva suggests that women are not subject to traditional fetishes.

Option C: Kristeva offers a more central place for women’s issues within psychological development.

Option D: Kristeva fundamentally disagrees with the idea of the mirror stage.

Correct Answer: Kristeva offers a more central place for women’s issues within psychological development. ✔

Option A: How readers learn to read

Option B: How readers imagine visual images in a text

Option C: How readers participate in creating the meaning of a text

Option D: How readers regard critics

Correct Answer: How readers participate in creating the meaning of a text ✔

Option A: Plato

Option B: Claude Lévi-Strauss

Option C: Julia Kristeva

Option D: Walter Benjamin

Correct Answer: Plato ✔

Option A: Language includes multiple social dialects and jargons.

Option B: Language can include socioideological contradictions from the past.

Option C: Language exhibits and is bound up in the social lives and historical context of the people who speak it.

Option D: Language is loaded with the intentions of others.

Correct Answer: Language exhibits and is bound up in the social lives and historical context of the people who speak it. ✔

Option A: A theory that abandons the idea of history as an imitation of events

Option B: A theory that regards history as a series of narratives

Option C: A theory that capitalizes on the interplay between literature and history

Option D: All of the above

Correct Answer: All of the above ✔

Option A: Plato’s The Republic

Option B: T.S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent”

Option C: Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology

Option D: Roland Barthes’s “The Death of the Author”

Correct Answer: B. T.S. Eliot’s “Tradition and the Individual Talent” ✔

Option A: Literary texts should not be read as a projection of the author’s psyche.

Option B: Literary texts solely reflect an author’s intentions.

Option C: Literary texts are unlike dreams because they have a system of order and produce meaning.

Option D: Literary texts reveal secret elements of an author’s unconscious.

Correct Answer: Literary texts reveal secret elements of an author’s unconscious. ✔

Option A: A reversal

Option B: An imitation

Option C: A satire

Option D: A poetic metaphor

Correct Answer: An imitation ✔

Option A: The Moscow School

Option B: The Chicago School

Option C: The Frankfurt School

Option D: The Geneva School

Correct Answer: The Geneva School ✔

Option A: Sigmund Freud

Option B: Carl Jung

Option C: Michel Foucault

Option D: Jacques Derrida

Correct Answer: Sigmund Freud ✔

Option A: All linguistic concepts evolve solely out of the responses of people within a specific historical era.

Option 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.

Option C: All linguistics is in some way related to class struggle.

Option D: All linguistics is related to history, and therefore the meaning of linguistics relies exclusively on historical context.

Correct Answer: All linguistic and social phenomena are texts, and the object of studying these texts is to reveal the underlying codes that make them meaningful. ✔

Option A: A language about another language

Option B: A supernatural language

Option C: A language that does not yet constitute a real language

Option D: A language used by a particular marginalized group of people within a larger dominant culture

Correct Answer: A language about another language ✔

Option A: He considers it to be vital in order to understand literary texts.

Option B: He considers theory to be the only way that literary texts can be interpreted.

Option C: He has no misgivings about the practical usability of literary theory.

Option D: He feels that literary theory is ultimately too limited in scope to serve as a proper method of interpretation.

Correct Answer: He feels that literary theory is ultimately too limited in scope to serve as a proper method of interpretation. ✔

Option A: Examining only female-authored literature more critically

Option B: Considering women’s literature outside of its historical context

Option C: Studying women’s literature for its linguistic qualities only

Option D: Becoming more familiar with the history of women and women’s writing

Correct Answer: Becoming more familiar with the history of women and women’s writing ✔

Option A: Biographical information about the author must be considered when evaluating literature.

Option B: A text and its author text are unrelated.

Option C: It is possible to distill meaning from a work based on the author’s politics.

Option D: Authorial intent must be considered when evaluating literature.

Correct Answer: A text and its author text are unrelated. ✔

Option A: The ability of a text to contain truth

Option B: The “undecidability” and essentially unstable nature of a text

Option C: The idea that a text has a specific meaning that can be understood through a process of deconstruction

Option D: Jacques Derrida’s style of writing

Correct Answer: B. The “undecidability” and essentially unstable nature of a text ✔

Option A: Literary theory does not offer a holistic interpretation of a text.

Option B: Literary theory depends on specialized knowledge that is outside the realm of literary studies.

Option C: Literary theory is sometimes very abstract and difficult to read.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Viktor Shklovsky

Option B: Cleanth Brooks

Option C: Terry Eagleton

Option D: Judith Butler

Correct Answer: Viktor Shklovsky ✔

Option A: History comprises the essential framework for the performance of literary analysis

Option B: Politics and the economy are the most important factors in literary analysis

Option C: Biography is essential to literary analysis

Option D: Psychoanalysis is critical to literary analysis

Correct Answer: History comprises the essential framework for the performance of literary analysis ✔

Option A: Formalism

Option B: Structuralism

Option C: Poststructuralism

Option D: Marxism

Correct Answer: Marxism ✔

Option A: It has little relationship to the colonization of Asian countries by the West.

Option B: It illustrates the fundamental political equality of all nations.

Option C: It was produced by Western scholarship.

Option D: Its literature is less proud that that of the West.

Correct Answer: It was produced by Western scholarship. ✔

Option A: The effect of literature in enlightening the human mind

Option B: The effect of modern society on human suffering

Option C: The effect of the economy on women’s concerns

Option D: The effect of the unconscious mind on the conscious self

Correct Answer: The effect of modern society on human suffering ✔

Option A: A figure of judgment

Option B: Religious belief

Option C: A witness

Option D: Psychological treatment

Correct Answer: A witness ✔

Option A: A concept associated with Russian formalism

Option B: An idea explored by Viktor Shklovsky

Option C: A term that describes the capacity of art to counter the effects of habit

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are entirely random.

Option B: Strange attractors are complex forces that are determined by the laws of physics.

Option C: Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are both random and determined.

Option D: Strange attractors are complex forces that are entirely random.

Correct Answer: Strange attractors are mysterious forces that are both random and determined. ✔

Option A: Reject all previous modes of literary theory

Option B: Focus on a return to traditional critical methods

Option C: Make use of different literary theories in order to develop new theories

Option D: Work only with ideas developed by post-Marxist theorists

Correct Answer: Make use of different literary theories in order to develop new theories ✔

A. 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 B. A term that describes the confusion between a poem and its result
C. An important term in the field of New Historicism
D. All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: It is impossible to view a piece of literature as its author intended.

Option B: It is impossible to divorce a text from capitalist ideology.

Option C: It is impossible to view a piece of literature correctly, because we can only work within the hetero-normative paradigm.

Option D: It is impossible to separate a text from the linguistics that compose it.

Correct Answer: It is impossible to separate a text from the linguistics that compose it. ✔

Option A: It offers a strong outline for how theory can be conducted in the 21st century.

Option B: It should not be read or considered by any student or scholar.

Option C: It offers some valid ideas and critiques, but its author is not entirely trustworthy.

Option D: It offers a strong counterpoint to Jacques Derrida’s notion of deconstruction.

Correct Answer: It offers some valid ideas and critiques, but its author is not entirely trustworthy. ✔

Option A: Elaine Showalter

Option B: Julia Kristeva

Option C: Lucy Irigaray

Option D: Hélène Cixous

Correct Answer: Elaine Showalter ✔

Option A: Entering the author’s mind through his or her literary works

Option B: Understanding the author’s consciousness

Option C: Reproducing the author’s thoughts in a critical context

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: It contains secret instincts and desires that are repressed.

Option B: It has little impact on human behavior.

Option C: It is the only significant aspect of the human psyche.

Option D: It can never be accessed.

Correct Answer: It contains secret instincts and desires that are repressed. ✔

B. Roland Barthes’s “The Death of the Author”
C. Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology
D. Jacques Lacan’s “The Mirror Stage …”

Correct Answer: D. Jacques Lacan’s “The Mirror Stage …” ✔

Option A: Texts are examined to see how colonizers and the colonized interact.

Option B: Texts are examined to see how the formal aspects of the text create meaning.

Option C: Texts are examined to determine how they reveal social realities.

Option D: Texts are examined to determine the author’s intent.

Correct Answer: Texts are examined to determine how they reveal social realities. ✔

Option A: Literary theory engages with theoretical rather than real-world issues.

Option B: Literary theory asks fundamental questions about literary interpretation, and at the same time builds specific systems of literary interpretation.

Option C: Literary theory relies totally on speculation rather than history.

Option D: Literary theory is detached from the reality of politics and the economy.

Correct Answer: Literary theory asks fundamental questions about literary interpretation, and at the same time builds specific systems of literary interpretation. ✔

Option A: TheWest spends too much time trying to consider an Asian perspective.

Option B: The West tends to look at Asian countries as individual units rather than lump them together.

Option C: The West views matters through its own limited historical position.

Option D: The West refuses to apply economic and political coercion to Asian writers.

Correct Answer: The West views matters through its own limited historical position. ✔

Option A: It is nearly impossible to represent women as anything other than mad in patriarchal discourses.

Option B: Feminist critics need to re-appropriate Ophelia for their own purposes.

Option C: Women’s tragedies tend to be subordinated to those of men.

Option D: All of the above

Correct Answer: All of the above ✔

Option A: Changes in emotional states

Option B: Obsessions

Option C: Slips of the tongue

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Wolfgang Iser

Option B: William Wimsatt

Option C: Cleanth Brooks

Option D: Harold Bloom

Correct Answer: William Wimsatt ✔

Option A: The reader fills in the gaps imposed by an author’s intention.

Option B: The reader is sublimated beneath the author.

Option C: The reader is less important than the author’s context.

Option D: The reader is totally subject to the author’s intention.

Correct Answer: The reader fills in the gaps imposed by an author’s intention. ✔

Option A: A theory of practical actions developed by William James

Option B: An idea used to guide conduct towards clear objectives

Option C: A concept derived from the ancient Greek word pragma, meaning action

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: An infant’s inability to speak prior to the mirror stage

Option B: The referential relationships among symbols, signifiers, and signs

Option C: The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work

Option D: The formulaic shift between economic and political themes

Correct Answer: The multi-layered nature of language in a literary work ✔

Option A: A humanity-centered view of the universe

Option B: A school of theory devoted to the revival of Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) literature

Option C: A theory that values restraint, form, and imitation

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: A term used to describe how texts include a variety of styles

Option B: A term used to explain the use of multiple points of view in literature

Option C: A term that explains resistance to a monolithic text

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Aristotle

Option B: Viktor Shklovsky

Option C: Cleanth Brooks

Option D: Stanley Fish

Correct Answer: Aristotle ✔

Option A: To formulate relationships among an author, a reader, and a literary work

Option B: To understand the role of sexuality, gender, race, and ethnicity in literary study

Option C: To evaluate the role of historical context in the interpretation of literature

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: No fixed, stable meaning is possible.

Option B: Language must be studied in conjunction with history in order to create meaning.

Option C: There is no potential for multiple and differing meanings in a work of literature.

Option D: Literature is timeless, and thus meaning does not change.

Correct Answer: No fixed, stable meaning is possible. ✔

Option A: As an aesthetic object that is independent of historical context

Option B: As an aesthetic object that is influenced by historical context

Option C: As a historical object that is also aesthetic

Option D: As a historical object that is not necessarily aesthetic

Correct Answer: As an aesthetic object that is independent of historical context ✔

Option A: The names of authors serve a classificatory function.

Option B: The author is not a source of infinite meaning.

Option C: The author may not always exist.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: How writers conceptualize natural environments and the representation of environmental issues in literature and culture

Option B: How writers have damaged the environment

Option C: How the environment can be repaired

Option D: Who is responsible for damaging the environment

Correct Answer: How writers conceptualize natural environments and the representation of environmental issues in literature and culture ✔

Option A: Trauma theory

Option B: Ecotheory

Option C: Game theory

Option D: Marxist theory

Correct Answer: Ecotheory ✔

Option A: mirrors our physical evolution as human beings.

Option B: prevents us from communicating through writing or speech.

Option C: involves a constant process of deferred meaning.

Option D: evolved exclusively as a function of our individual psyche.

Correct Answer: involves a constant process of deferred meaning. ✔

Option A: Harold Bloom’s “An Elegy for the Canon”

Option B: Jacques Lacan’s “The Mirror Stage … ”

Option C: Cleanth Brooks’s “Keats’s Sylvan Historian”

Option D: Edward Said’s Orientalism

Correct Answer: Edward Said’s Orientalism ✔

Option A: Julia Kristeva

Option B: Fredric Jameson

Option C: Terry Eagleton

Option D: Edward Said

Correct Answer: Edward Said ✔

Option A: To represent the relationship between colonizers and the colonized

Option B: To draw attention to the positive effects of colonization on literature

Option C: To explain why there are few examples of successful non-Western literature

Option D: To show the ways in which mostWestern literature is superior

Correct Answer: To represent the relationship between colonizers and the colonized ✔

Option A: Jacques Lacan

Option B: Edward Said

Option C: Stephen Greenblatt

Option D: Plato

Correct Answer: Plato ✔

Option A: Theodor W. Adorno

Option B: Claude Lévi-Strauss

Option C: Julia Kristeva

Option D: Jacques Derrida

Correct Answer: Claude Lévi-Strauss ✔

Option A: Sigmund Freud

Option B: Carl Jung

Option C: William James

Option D: Theodor W. Adorno

Correct Answer: Theodor W. Adorno ✔

Option A: Language is inseparable from its historical context.

Option B: There are five phases of linguistic development.

Option C: Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements.

Option D: Linguistics is too complicated to be distilled to a formula.

Correct Answer: Language can be analyzed as a formal system of elements. ✔

Option A: Performance is the ultimate objective of all human beings.

Option B: Language is used to indicate action as well as thought.

Option C: Individuals perform gender actively.

Option D: Individuals develop consciousness through speech

Correct Answer: Language is used to indicate action as well as thought. ✔

Option A: Women should write for and about themselves in order to counter phallocentric texts.

Option B: Women should write, but they should do so only within the existent male canon.

Option C: Women should primarily dedicate themselves to studying women’s literature from the past.

Option D: Women should be unconcerned with the struggle for identity.

Correct Answer: Women should write for and about themselves in order to counter phallocentric texts. ✔

Option A: Jacques Derrida

Option B: Terry Eagleton

Option C: Fredric Jameson

Option D: Stephen Greenblatt

Correct Answer: Stephen Greenblatt ✔

Option A: Claude Lévi-Strauss

Option B: Ferdinand de Saussure

Option C: Viktor Shklovsky

Option D: Roland Barthes

Correct Answer: Ferdinand de Saussure ✔

Option A: texts are always heterogeneous.

Option B: the instability of a text is actually evident in the text itself.

Option C: any system for the production of meaning is inevitably bound by context, yet also limitless.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: the instability of a text is actually evident in the text itself. ✔

Option A: Literary theory often depends on esoteric knowledge to be properly understood.

Option B: Literary theory is employed mostly by academics.

Option C: Literary theory should not be an academic focus in English departments.

Option D: Literary theory is the only proper way to conceptualize literary texts.

Correct Answer: Literary theory is the only proper way to conceptualize literary texts. ✔

Option A: To connect human beings with a higher ideal

Option B: To entertain those who enjoy it

Option C: To criticize society through satire

Option D: To bring to light social oppressions

Correct Answer: To connect human beings with a higher ideal ✔

Option A: To rectify the double experiences of certain racial groups

Option B: To reconcile cultural identity with individual identity

Option C: To expand the canon to include works authored by different racial groups

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Both sets of critics look for an objective way to view texts.

Option B: Both sets of critics study the underlying forms of texts.

Option C: Both sets of critics focus on evaluating literature in a scientific manner.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Suggesting that the study of literature is based on the breakdown of language into signs

Option B: Arguing that language, and therefore literary texts, relies on the difference between terms and therefore constantly defers meaning.

Option C: Calling into question the capacity of language to communicate

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: New Historicism does not make strict delineations between literary and nonliterary texts.

Option B: New Historicism takes a particular interest in marginalized peoples.

Option C: New Historicism is interested in how texts help us understand economic realities.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: An approach that emphasizes literary devices in a text

Option B: An approach that emphasizes the historical context of a text

Option C: An approach that emphasizes the biographical intent of a text

Option D: An approach that emphasizes racial issues in a text

Correct Answer: An approach that emphasizes literary devices in a text ✔

Option A: To create literary subjects with which female readers can identify

Option B: To critique phallocentric assumptions about literature

Option C: To counter stereotypes about women

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Hélène Cixous

Option B: Judith Butler

Option C: Lucy Irigaray

Option D: Mary Wollstonecraft

Correct Answer: Mary Wollstonecraft ✔

Option A: T.S. Eliot

Option B: Jacques Lacan

Option C: Jacques Derrida

Option D: Stanley Fish

Correct Answer: Jacques Derrida ✔

A. A feminist term for the state that occurs when texts written by women are not considered in the study of literature
B. Another term for the unconscious C. A term related to the period of psychosexual development that occurs before an infant reaches the mirror stage
D. An ideology that involves dominating the consciousness of exploited classes

Correct Answer: An ideology that involves dominating the consciousness of exploited classes ✔

Option 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.

Option B: Literary criticism draws upon research derived from sources outside literature, while literary theory draws upon sources within a text.

Option C: Literary criticism is concerned with how characters in a text act, while literary theory is concerned with why characters act.

Option D: Literary theory is concerned with the method used to interpret a work, while literary criticism is the application of literary theory.

Correct Answer: Literary theory is concerned with the method used to interpret a work, while literary criticism is the application of literary theory. ✔

Option A: Women’s gender is artificial, while men’s gender is not.

Option B: While gender is not real, the stereotypes that accompany it are true.

Option C: Gender is a problematic, but essentially true, category.

Option D: Gender is largely a cultural construct.

Correct Answer: Gender is largely a cultural construct. ✔

Option A: Humanism

Option B: Formalism

Option C: Structuralism

Option D: Poststructuralism

Correct Answer: Formalism ✔

Option A: A term that describes the absence of racial others in the canon

Option B: A term that describes the attempt to read homosexuality into literature

Option C: A term that describes the effect of autobiography on text

Option D: A term that describes the interpretation of meaning

Correct Answer: A term that describes the interpretation of meaning ✔

Option A: The reader is acted upon by the text.

Option B: The reader acts upon the text.

Option C: The reader brings individual knowledge to his or her reading of the text.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: The examination of structures informing our conscious experience

Option B: The examination of desires informing our consciousness

Option C: The examination of our unconscious experience

Option D: The examination of intricate structures within our unconscious

Correct Answer: The examination of structures informing our conscious experience ✔

Option A: The reasoning of theory is often too circular.

Option B: Many theories have been pushed too far into abstraction.

Option C: Many theories are no longer accepted by their parent disciplines.

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: Claude Lévi-Strauss

Option B: Jacques Derrida

Option C: Jacques Lacan

Option D: Michel Foucault

Correct Answer: Michel Foucault ✔

Option A: Understanding sexuality is crucial to understanding culture.

Option B: Understanding homosexuality has little effect on understanding culture.

Option C: Literary study is unaffected by a lack of interest in sexuality.

Option D: Understanding homosexual themes in novels has become too routine

Correct Answer: Understanding sexuality is crucial to understanding culture. ✔

Option A: An understanding of how double experiences create identity

Option B: A concept developed by W.E.B Du Bois

Option C: An attempt to explain dual identity

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔

Option A: A form of literary criticism that is based on historical context

Option B: A form of literary criticism that does not incorporate economic concerns

Option C: A form of literary criticism based on linguistic analysis

Option D: A term related to gender theory that argues that men are dominant in society by virtue of their economic privilege

Correct Answer: A form of literary criticism that is based on historical context ✔

Option A: Aristotle’s Poetics

Option B: Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata

Option C: John Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

Option D: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

Correct Answer: Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata ✔

Option A: They accept ideology as an essential, although sometimes problematic, part of society.

Option B: They subject all ideologies to critique in order to expose biased interests.

Option C: They reject the idea that ideology has real effects on social progress.

Option D: They promote ideology because it helps to create a dominant social order

Correct Answer: They subject all ideologies to critique in order to expose biased interests. ✔

Option A: Cleanth Brooks

Option B: Ferdinand de Saussure

Option C: Karl Marx

Option D: Sigmund Freud

Correct Answer: Ferdinand de Saussure ✔

Option A: Psychoanalysis

Option B: Marxism

Option C: Feminism

Option D: Deconstruction

Correct Answer: Psychoanalysis ✔

Option A: Critics should examine historical information surrounding a literary work.

Option B: Critics should develop universal readings of texts.

Option C: Critics should consider evolving notions of a text over time.

Option D: Critics should attempt to paraphrase texts in order to find out what they mean

Correct Answer: Critics should develop universal readings of texts. ✔

Option A: How women really feel about male writers

Option B: The inscription of womanhood and femininity in texts

Option C: Second-wave feminism

Option D: Psychological studies of women

Correct Answer: The inscription of womanhood and femininity in texts ✔

Option A: Trauma theory

Option B: Ecotheory

Option C: Chaos theory

Option D: Formalism

Correct Answer: Trauma theory ✔

Option A: Feminist theory

Option B: Ethnic criticism

Option C: Postcolonial theory

Option D: All of the above.

Correct Answer: All of the above. ✔