Literary Criticism Practice Test

1. In analyzing “Marriage is a Private Affair,” you examine the clash of modern and traditional practices. In particular, you focus on the practice of arranged marriages, a tradition still practiced in ;many countries, discussing how we in America currently view this practice.

A. Deconstruction                                 B. Feminist Criticism
C. New Historical Criticism                  D. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism

2. In analyzing “Winter Count 1973: Geese, They Flew Over in a Storm,” you relate the main character’s love of stories to your grandfather’s love of stories, recognizing how the sharing of stories does make life more enjoyable. As a reader, you also pinpoint some gaps in the story, speculating on some of the stories behind the inter counts.

A. Reader-Response Criticism  B. Deconstruction
C. Marxism                                          D. New Historicism

3. In analyzing “Prisoner on the Hell Planet,” you take a more traditional approach and discuss the setting, conflict, characters, tone, theme, and other elements of the story. You assert that “Prisoner on the Hell Planet” is not a legitimate form of literature because it fails to meet our expectations of what a short story should be.

A. Psychoanalytic Criticism                   B. Feminist Criticism
C. Reader-Response Criticism              D. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism

4. In analyzing “A House on Mango Street,” you examine the narrator’s passage from innocence to experience, noting that this is a pattern that many stories share, that is part of our collective unconscious.

A. Deconstruction                                 B. Psychoanalytic Criticism
C. Marxist Criticism                              D. Feminist Criticism

5. In analyzing “A Rose for Emily,” you examine Emily’s relationship with her father, noting that Emily seems to have an Oedipus complex. You argue that her id seems to have gotten the better of her superego, resulting in the murder of Homer.

A. New Historical Criticism                  B. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism
C. Psychoanalytic Criticism                  D. Deconstruction

6. In analyzing “Bartleby the Scrivener,” you focus on how the narrator treats his employees, noting that many of the conditions of their employment are inhumane. You assert that it is no surprise that Bartleby rebels, given these oppressive conditions, and that the author was being critical of these types of working conditions.

A. Marxist Criticism                              B. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism
C. Psychoanalytical Criticism                D. New Historical Criticism

7. In analyzing “How to Talk to a Hunter,” you discuss the stereotypical views of women, men, and relationships expressed by the characters, focusing on the advice of both the female and male friends in particular. You assert that the author is highly critical of these stereotypes.

A. Psychoanalytical Criticism                B. Reader-Response Criticism
C. Feminist Criticism                             D. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism

8. In analyzing several of Faulkner’s works, you focus on the author’s Southern background and how his own feelings about his family having owned slaves greatly influenced his portrayal of slavery and Southern attitudes toward slavery in many of his stories and novels, including “A Rose for Emily.”

A. Reader-Response Criticism              B. Deconstruction
C. New Historical Criticism                  D. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism

9. In discussing “A Loaf of Bread,” you focus on symbols, characters, and theme and how these various elements help to create a unity in the work. You don’t discuss the author, the reader, or any considerations outside the text itself.

A. Deconstruction                                 B. Reader-Response Criticism
C. Psychoanalytic Criticism                   D. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism

10. What approach to literary criticism requires the critic to know about the author’s life and times?

A. Historical                                         B. Reader-Response
C. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism

11. In Freudian approach to literature, concave images are usually seen as:

A. Male symbols                                  C. Female symbols
C. Phallic symbols                                C. Evidence of an Oedipus complex

12. He was an influential force in archetypal criticism.

A. Jung                                                B. Richards
C. Freud                                              D. Rosenblatt

13. This critical approach assumes that language does not refer to any external reality. It can assert several, contradictory interpretations of one text.

A. Formalist Criticism                           B. Historical Criticism
C. Deconstruction                                 D. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism

14. A critic examining John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” focuses on the physical description of the Garden of Eden, on the symbols of hands, seed, and flower, and on the characters of Adam, Even, Satan, and God. He pays special attention to the epic similes and metaphors and the point of view from which the tale is being told. He looks for meaning in the text itself, and does not refer to any biography of Milton. He is most likely a _____ critic.

A. Reader-Response Criticism              B. Formalist Criticism/New Criticism
C. Feminist Criticism                             D. Historical Criticism

15. A critic of Thomas Otway’s Venice Preserv’d” wishes to know why the play’s conspirators, despite the horrible, bloody details of their obviously brutish plan, are portrayed in a sympathetic light. She examines the author’s life and times and discovers that there are obvious similarities between the conspiracy in the play and the Popish Plot. She is most likely a _________________ critic.

A. Psychological                                               B. Feminist
            C. Historical                                                     D. Reader-Response

Match these names with the criticism:

Louise Rosenblatt
David Bleich
Jacques Derrida
I.A. Richard
John Crowe Ransom
Cleanth Brooks
Carl Jung
Sigmund Freud
Karl Marx
What is literary criticism?

Sources: Fun Trivia

http://www.edu.edu/exam/eng1210/litcrit.html