LIT 200 4-4 Midterm Literary Theory
Exam Questions & Answers (Grade
A+)
Formalism and New Criticism -
correct answer ✅both focus on the form of literature and the
literary text only without paying any attention to the author's
background or the context in which a work is written and consider
the literary text to be an autonomous object, complete in and of
itself. New Criticism takes this a step further, by examining the ways
that the form and content of a work mirror each other and are
welded together in an organic harmony of form and content
Reader Response Theory -
correct answer ✅focuses on the interpretation of the reader who
is considered a co-creator of the text along with the actual author
since texts have no meaning until they are engaged with by a
reader. This theory maintains that there are gaps in texts that
readers fill in using their own knowledge and imagination
Structuralism -
correct answer ✅primarily concerned with the ways in which
works fit within the conventions of a certain genre (the Gothic
novel, the Harlequin Romance, Young Adult Fiction, chick lit, etc.)
and the ways in which various semantic codes (especially binary
oppositions such as raw/cooked, night/day, past/present,
truth/fantasy) structure texts
,LIT 200 4-4 Midterm Literary Theory
Exam Questions & Answers (Grade
A+)
Poststructuralism -
correct answer ✅attempts to deconstruct the ideas present in (or
at least, alluded to in) texts to show the ways in which they are
intersected by prevailing discourses as the time a work is written (as
in Me Too, Black Lives Matter, the Student Debt Crisis, the
polarization in American politics, wearing a mask or not, which all
are significant discourses in our contemporary American society.
Because it distrusts language as a clear means of expression, this
theory also concerns itself with word play, puns, and the like to
demonstrate that it is impossible to fully capture any kind of truth
by means of language
New Historicism and Cultural Studies -
correct answer ✅both focus on the CONTEXT as much, if not more
than the actual text itself
Cultural Studies -
correct answer ✅is an umbrella theory, which means that it can,
and often does, rely on a variety of different theoretical approaches
in its methodology
, LIT 200 4-4 Midterm Literary Theory
Exam Questions & Answers (Grade
A+)
Bricolage -
correct answer ✅French word that means drawing on a variety of
diverse range of materials in order to construct something new
Defamiliarization -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) when a writer makes the familiar
seem unfamiliar
Story (alias Fabula) -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) the events that take place in a
narrative in chronological order
Plot (alias Siuzhet) -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) how the events of the fabula/story
are told in a narrative, the motive for the events happening in the
order they happened
Practical language -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) what is use when a person uses
language with the single goal of communicating something to
someone else
Exam Questions & Answers (Grade
A+)
Formalism and New Criticism -
correct answer ✅both focus on the form of literature and the
literary text only without paying any attention to the author's
background or the context in which a work is written and consider
the literary text to be an autonomous object, complete in and of
itself. New Criticism takes this a step further, by examining the ways
that the form and content of a work mirror each other and are
welded together in an organic harmony of form and content
Reader Response Theory -
correct answer ✅focuses on the interpretation of the reader who
is considered a co-creator of the text along with the actual author
since texts have no meaning until they are engaged with by a
reader. This theory maintains that there are gaps in texts that
readers fill in using their own knowledge and imagination
Structuralism -
correct answer ✅primarily concerned with the ways in which
works fit within the conventions of a certain genre (the Gothic
novel, the Harlequin Romance, Young Adult Fiction, chick lit, etc.)
and the ways in which various semantic codes (especially binary
oppositions such as raw/cooked, night/day, past/present,
truth/fantasy) structure texts
,LIT 200 4-4 Midterm Literary Theory
Exam Questions & Answers (Grade
A+)
Poststructuralism -
correct answer ✅attempts to deconstruct the ideas present in (or
at least, alluded to in) texts to show the ways in which they are
intersected by prevailing discourses as the time a work is written (as
in Me Too, Black Lives Matter, the Student Debt Crisis, the
polarization in American politics, wearing a mask or not, which all
are significant discourses in our contemporary American society.
Because it distrusts language as a clear means of expression, this
theory also concerns itself with word play, puns, and the like to
demonstrate that it is impossible to fully capture any kind of truth
by means of language
New Historicism and Cultural Studies -
correct answer ✅both focus on the CONTEXT as much, if not more
than the actual text itself
Cultural Studies -
correct answer ✅is an umbrella theory, which means that it can,
and often does, rely on a variety of different theoretical approaches
in its methodology
, LIT 200 4-4 Midterm Literary Theory
Exam Questions & Answers (Grade
A+)
Bricolage -
correct answer ✅French word that means drawing on a variety of
diverse range of materials in order to construct something new
Defamiliarization -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) when a writer makes the familiar
seem unfamiliar
Story (alias Fabula) -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) the events that take place in a
narrative in chronological order
Plot (alias Siuzhet) -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) how the events of the fabula/story
are told in a narrative, the motive for the events happening in the
order they happened
Practical language -
correct answer ✅(Formalism) what is use when a person uses
language with the single goal of communicating something to
someone else
