PAST PAPERS: PART A

1. The post-structuralist image of a “decentred universe” expresses the

a. validity of Renaissance humanism.
b. superiority of Western norms.
c. lack of absolutes or fixed points.
d. usefulness of scientific knowledge.
2. Post-structuralism is associated with textualism, that is, the belief that
a. text, context and author are equally important.
b. the text gives us valuable information about its author.
c. the text should always be set in its context.
d. the text should be the only focus of attention.
3. Greenblatt uses the term anecdote to refer to
a. the historical context, which should be ignored.
b. a historical document brought into relation with the literary text.
c. the comic scenes in Shakespeare’s tragedies.
d. an interesting episode of the author’s biography.
4. Foucault’s notion of discourse refers to
a. a way of thinking or writing.
b. both prose and dialogue.
c. the language reflecting the various facets and levels of a dominant ideology.
d. the relevance of philosophy in essay writing.
5. How does feminism deal with the canon?
a. The canon is old-fashioned and should be ignored.
b. The canon should be revised to include more literature by women.
c. The canon should only be taught in schools.
d. Misogynistic texts in the canon should be ignored.
6. Rich’s lesbian continuum encompasses all of the following except
a. help networks among women.
b. supportive female friendships.
c. lesbian sex.
d. female rivalry.
7. “In the Waiting Room” is of interest to the queer theory because it tells us about
a. lesbian women and gay men.
b. a girl’s discovery of lesbian desire.
c. a lesbian relationship.
d. a lesbian woman trapped in a heterosexual relationship.
8. In the earliest stage, post-colonial criticism concerned itself with
a. establishing connections with feminist criticism.
b. exploring the representation of colonial countries.
c. the study of post-colonial literature.
d. colonial history and policies, ignoring literature.
9. One of the fiercest attacks on Heart of Darkness has come from
a. Bill Ashcroft.
b. Homi Bhabha.
c. Gayatri Spivak.
d. Chinua Achebe.
10. The first two stanzas of Thomas’s “A Refusal to Mourn…”
a. are part of an only sentence.
b. contain disturbing images of the Blitz.
c. are made up of iambic pentameters.
d. do not have a consistent rhyming pattern.
11. “Reading against the grain” implies
a. laying emphasis on innovation.
b. exposing the “textual subconscious”.
c. describing an author’s style.
d. identifying cohesive devices.
12. Post-structuralism derives from
a. art history.
b. cultural studies.
c. philosophy.
d. translation studies.
13. Michel Foucault referred to the Panopticon as an image of
a. an all-powerfull and all-seeing state.
b. Victorian repression.
c. political conservatism.
d. the new-historicist approach to texts.
14. Which of the following statements about “écriture feminine” is not true?
a. It is transgressive by nature.
b. It does not conform to conventional grammar.
c. It may be thought of as a reflection of female physiology.
d. The term was coined by Julia Kristeva. (Helen Cisoux)
15. Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s “anxiety of authorship”
a. is synonymous with “anxiety of influence”.
b. pays homage to the work of Harold Bloom.
c. is the product of women’s fear that they cannot create.
d. was inspired by the life of Charlotte Brontë.
16. Adrienne Rich defined “lesbian continuum” as
a. genital sexual experience between women.
b. a range of woman-identified experience.
c. a variety of compulsory heterosexuality.
d. synonymous with “lesbian existence”.
17. The defining feature of lesbian/gay criticism is
a. addressing exclusively a gay readership.
b. making sexual orientation central to literary analysis.
c. having no political intention.
d. having no connection with gender studies.
18. According to Edward Said, which is the main assumption behind Orientalism?
a. It derives from Romanticism.
b. It manifests itself in both literature and the pictorial arts.
c. The East is the West’s “inferior” Other.
d. The colonies must fight against the Empire.
19. A basic concern of post-colonial critics is
a. the correspondence between texts and co-texts.
b. the representation of the non-European.
c. the study of legal and political language.
d. the use of dialects in literature.
20. In Dylan Thomas’ phrase “the round Zion / of the water bead” we find
a. only one metaphor.
b. religious hypocrisy.
c. female solidarity.
d. harmony in nature.
21. The city compared to a “whited sepulchre” in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is
a. London.
 b. Brussels.
c. Rome.
d. Kinshasa.
22. Post-structuralist writing has a preference for
a. scientific objectivity.
b. pun and word-play.
c. tradition symbols.
d. abstraction and generalisation.
23. Derrida’s notion of “doubling commentary” consists in
a. paraphrasing the text’s contents.
b. applying creative writing to literary criticism.
c. focusing on the author’s style.
d. adopting a comparative approach.
24. A basic assumption of new historicism is that
a. history and literature are incompatible areas of study.
b. literary texts should be given priority over non-literary texts.
c. the history of English literature begins with Shakespeare.
d. literary and non-literary texts should be read in parallel.
25. The best definition of co-text is
a. “a translation of an original”.
b. “a historical commentary of a literary work”.
c. “a text that belongs to the same genre as another one”.
d. “a non-literary text examined together with a literary text”.
26. The main object of study of gynocriticism is
a. the portrayal of women in androtexts.
b. gender violence and its causes.
c. women’s literature.
d. women’s liberation movements since the late 19th century.
27. The main attack on feminism in the 1980s was based on
a. its political involvement.
b. its failure to study the canonical classics.
c. the commercial success of The Madwoman in the Attic.
d. its almost exclusive focus on white heterosexual women.
28. According to Butler, lesbianism
a. is not a stable identity.
b. is essential to female sensitivity.
c. defines the identity of some women.
d. has to do with genetic inheritance.
29. In Said’s view, the idea of the Orient
a. constitutes a vindication of Eastern cultures.
b. has nothing to do with Orientalism.
c. is a Western construct or projection.
d. is an ideal that Western writers should aspire to.
30. Which of the following concepts is rejected by post-colonial theory?
a. Otherness.
b. Universalism.
c. Hybridity.
d. Cultural polyvalency.
31. Thomas’s phrase “the synagogue of the ear of corn”
a. connects two verse lines through enjambment.
b. alludes to the Nazi Holocaust.
c. is an example of synaesthesia (visual-aural).
 d. is a metaphor drawing on religious and natural images.
32. At the end of Heart of Darkness, Marlow has an important encounter with
a. a doctor concerned about his mental health.
b. his aunt in Brussels.
c. Kurtz’s “Intended”.
d. Kurtz’s African mistress.
33. Which of the following titles does not belong to the post-structuralist movement?
a. Jacques Derrida’s Of Grammatology.
b. Roland Barthes’ Image, Music, Text.
c. Ferdinand de Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics.
d. Roland Barthes’ The Pleasure of the Text.
34. The term aporia refers to
a. the self-contradictory nature of a text.
b. the opposition of two mutually exclusive concepts.
c. the discussion of a controversial idea.
d. conceptual interconnections between texts.
35. The concept of “equal weighting” suggests that
a. literary and historical texts have similar status.
b. all texts should approached without prejudice.
c. texts by women writers should not be marginalised.
d. civil rights should not be ignored by criticism.
36. In New Historicism, historical texts should be considered
a. works of literature.
b. examples of literary criticism.
c. “co-texts”.
d. contexts.
37. Elaine Showalter’s “feminine phase” is characterised by women’s
a. imitation of male artistic norms.
b. reaction against male artistic norms.
c. study of “gynotexts”.
d. study of “androtexts”.
38. As opposed to their French counterparts, Anglo-American feminist critics
a. are disciples of Jacques Lacan.
b. are heavily influenced by post´-structuralism.
c. show interest in traditional critical concepts.
d. write exclusively about language, representation and psychology.
39. Adrienne Rich’s concept of “lesbian continuum” overlaps with that of
a. “lesbian existence”.
b. “homo hierarchy”.
c. “woman identified woman”.
d. “transcendental signifier”.
40. Bonnie Zimmerman argued that
a. gay men had discriminated against lesbians.
b. the experiences of gay men and women are essentially the same.
c. “classic” feminism had ignored black women.
d. “classic” feminism had ignored lesbianism.
41. Which of the following critics is not associated with post-colonialism?
a. Hohmi Bhabha.
b. Gayatri Spivak.
c. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick.
d. Edward Said.
42. Which of the following do post-colonialist critics do?
 a. Question universalism in literature.
b. Acknowledge indebtedness to the metropolis.
c. Proclaim the universal quality of Western values.
d. Vindicate the spirit of Orientalism.
43. Which of the following features are absent from the post-structuralist writing?
a. Scientific coolness.
b. An emotive tone.
c. A flamboyant style.
d. A taste for pun and word-play.
44. Before New Historicism, Shakespeare studies focused on
a. historical contexts and cohesive textual devices (such as figures of speech or
images).
b. the political message of plays.
c. gathering biographical data about the poet/playwright.
d. questioning the authorship of certain plays.
45. Foucault’s main areas of study include
a. French Romanticism and Realism.
b. State policy and sexuality.
c. classical mythology and literature.
d. independence movements in French and British colonies.
46. In gender studies, the concept “patriarchy” is best defined as
a. a set of ideas/cultural models based on the acceptance of sexual inequality.
b. women’s fight against sexist discrimination.
c. the body of literature written by male authors.
d. the privileged status of the father within the family.
47. Kristeva’s “semiotic” could be considered equivalent to
a. Gilbert and Gubar’s “social castration”.
b. Showalter’s definition of “androtext”.
c. Cixous’s “écriture feminine”.
d. Rich’s “lesbian continuum”.
48. Zimmermann argued that pioneering feminist writing was
a. Suitable for the study of sexuality in literature.
b. Anti-essentialist in its spirit.
c. Inclusive of all forms of diversity.
d. Ignoring the experience of lesbian women.
49. According to Sedgwick, subject identity is
a. Fluid and complex.
b. Essentially bisexual.
c. An immutable essence.
d. Fixed in childhood.
50. Said’s “Orientalism” consists in
a. vindicating Eastern cultures as exotic and picturesque.
b. championing comparative studies involving Western and Eastern literatures.
c. exposing the European tendency to identify the East with “the Other”.
d. attacking the foreign policy of the United States.
51. Thomas’s verse line “After the first death, there is no other” is an instance of
a. contradiction.
b. binary opposition.
c. parallelism.
d. imagery pattern.
52. Some critics consider post-structuralism is a continuation of structuralism, because it
postulates that
 a. language reflects the world the way it is.
b. linguistic processing presents a distorted picture of the world.
c. our perception of the world is structured through language.
d. our philosophy of the world is not centred on meaning.
53. Post-structuralist writing
a. originates in linguistics.
b. uses straightforward language in search for structure.
c. relies on philosophy and emotive language.
d. relies on linguistics and orderly exposition.
54. Fill in the blank in this sentence according to Derrida’s ideas: “Critical reading must
……… the text”:
a. reproduce
b. interpret
c. produce
d. translate
55. According to Showalter, the first phase of women’s literature is:
a. feminist phase.
b. female phase.
c. feminine phase.
d. femininity phase.
56. In general terms, Anglo-American feminist literary criticism believes that
a. psychoanalysis is the best theoretical tool for interpretation.
b. literature should represent women’s lives and experiences.
c. traditional critical concepts are not useful.
d. literature is not a mirror to reality.
57. Lesbian and gay literary theory emerged as a distinct field in the
a. 1980s.
b. 1990s.
c. 1970s.
d. 2000s.
58. The American critic Stephen Greenblatt coined the term:
a. Cultural materialism.
b. Marxist criticism.
c. Deconstruction.
d. New Historicism.
59. The concept of the “archival continuum” is based on the view of
a. History-as-literature.
b. Literature-as-text.
c. History-as-text.
d. Text-as-literature.
60. Postcolonial criticism wants to challenge the concept of
a. a timeless and universal significance of literature.
b. national, ethnic and sexual differences in literary texts.
c. post-structuralist language.
d. regional culture in literary representations.
61. Which of these quotes belong to Marlow at the beginning of Heart of Darkness?
a. “I was struck by the fire of his eyes and the composed languor of his
expression.”
b. “The horror! The horror!”
c. “What can you expect of a man who out of sheer nervousness had just flung
overboard a pair of new shoes!”
 d. “The conquest of the earth, which means the taking it away from those who
have a different complexion […] is not a pretty thing.”
62. Post-structuralism relies largely on
a. the scientific method.
b. objective knowledge.
c. philosophical scepticism.
d. observation followed by logical deduction.
63. According to Barthes, “the death of the author” results in the
a. reassessment of women’s literature.
b. prevalence of orality.
c. birth of the reader.
d. interdependence of text and context.
64. In order to study a literary text, Greenblatt typically uses a historical document, to
which he refers as the
a. “anecdote”.
b. “equal weighting”.
c. “paratext”.
d. “intertext”.
65. Foucault’s theoretical ideas could considered
a. exceptional within New Historicism.
b. conservatively humanist.
c. anti-establishment.
d. Europeanist and anti-American.
66. According to Toril Moi, the term “feminist” is
a. political.
b. cultural.
c. biological.
d. synonymous with “feminine”.
67. As defined by Cixous, the notion “écriture feminine” is
a. equivalent to Kristeva’s “symbolic”.
b. anarchic and transgressive.
c. definitely anti-essentialist.
d. natural to men as well as women.
68. Lesbian feminism emerged because mainstream feminism
a. was too radical.
b. was prioritising the experience of Afro-American women.
c. condemned heterosexism.
d. was ignoring lesbian experience.
69. Queer Studies reject the identification of homosexuality with
a. intense sensitivity.
b. psychological trauma.
c. eastern societies.
d. the sexually marginalised “Other”.
70. Which of the following aim(s) is characteristic of post-colonial criticism?
a. Questioning the validity of universalism.
b. Reclaiming the precolonial past.
c. Eroding colonialist ideology.
d. All of the above.
71. What aspect of identity is often emphasised in post-colonial writing?
a. Hybridity.
b. Essentialism.
c. Purity.
 d. Loyalty.
72. Thomas’s expression “the shadow of a sound” is an example of
a. assonance.
b. binary opposition.
c. aporia.
d. synaesthesia.
73. At the beginning of Heart of Darkness, when Marlow calls the setting “one of the dark
places of the world”, he is referring to the
a. Roman Empire.
b. Thames area (and, by extension, London/Britain).
c. Belgian colonies.
d. Central Station in Congo.
74. Roland Barthes’ concept of the “modern scriptor” is opposed to that of
a. Author.
b. text.
c. reader.
d. critic.
75. According to Derrida, reading must not
a. concern itself with paradox.
b. concern itself with internal contradictions.
c. transgress the text.
d. ignore authorial intention.
76. New-historicist critics “defamiliarize” canonical texts, that is, they
a. identify historical inaccuracies in them.
b. set them in their historical contexts.
c. study their historical repercussion.
d. isolate them from all previous criticism.
77. Michel Foucault’s notion of “discourse” refers to
a. a way of speaking.
b. a way of writing.
c. the dominant ideology/-ies of a given society.
d. controversial texts that question the establishment.
78. According to Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, women writers
a. have never lacked the empowerment to write.
b. have traditionally been represented as angels or monsters by male writers.
c. experience the “anxiety of influence” as male writers do.
d. have been misrepresented only in fairy tales.
79. Julia Kristeva’s “symbolic” aspect of language is associated with
a. a fixed unified self.
b. Plato’s chora.
c. displacement, slippage, condensation.
d. écriture feminine.
80. A consequence of anti-essentialism in literature and criticism is
a. an increasing use of relativism as critical and intellectual too.
b. confirming the established canon.
c. focusing on female narrators.
d. idealising 19th century fiction.
81. Cultural “polyvalency” can be considered the opposite of cultural
a. hybridity.
b. colonialism.
c. essentialism.
d. fluidity.
82. The “Adopt” phase of postcolonial literature consists in colonised writers
a. unquestioningly accepting the authority of European models.
b. combining European forms with non-European subject-matter.
c. combining non-European forms with European subject-matter.
d. affirming cultural independence and remaking European forms.
83. Dylan Thomas’s phase “the synagogue of the ear of corn” is an example of
a. simile.
b. synaesthesia.
c. synechdoque.
d. methaphor.
84. The main narrator of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is
a. Kurtz, the ivory dealer.
b. also a character.
c. not involved with the events told.
d. a sailor who made the journey to Congo with Marlow.
85. Indicate the critical school the following quote is referring to: “……writing, by contrast,
tends to be much more emotive. Often the tone is urgent and euphoric, and the style
flamboyant and self-consciously showy”.
a. New historicist
b. Poststructuralist
c. Feminist
d. Cultural materialist
86. What discipline does structuralism derive from?
a. Philosophy.
b. Cultural criticism.
c. Anthropology.
d. Linguistics.
87. The “decentering” of our intellectual universe, as regarded by poststructuralism and as
suggested by Derrida, was primarily influenced by:
a. Nietzsche, Heidegger and Freud.
b. Barthes and Hegel.
c. Althusser and Gramsci.
d. Foucault.
88. According to the stages of the deconstructive process, the “textual stage” would be:
a. The first.
b. The second.
c. The third.
d. The fourth.
89. Which of these philosophers and critics decisively influenced New Historicism?
a. Barthes.
b. Derrida.
c. Foucault.
d. Raymond Williams.
90. According to New historicists, “contexts” and “co-texts”
a. are different
b. are the same.
c. can be applied to fiction and poetry respectively.
d. are two categories of analysis used by New Historicism and Cultural
Materialism respectively.
91. Elizabeth Bishop was a
a. British Modernist poet.
b. American Modernist poet.
 c. British Inter-War poet.
d. American post-World War II poet.
92. …… wrote that the intention and objective of his critical school was “an intensified
willingness to read all of the textual traces of the past with the attention traditionally
conferred only on literary texts”
a. Derrida
b. Greenblatt
c. Barthes
d. Foucault
93. Roland Barthes relates the ideology of capitalism to the figure of …..
a. the critic.
b. the philosopher.
c. the editor.
d. the author.
94. According to Derrida, a “transcendent reading”
a. searches for the signified outside the text.
b. searches for the spirituality within the text.
c. looks for abstraction in the signifier.
d. tries to move deep into the text.
95. From a New historicist approach Bishop’s poem “12 O’Clock News” can be studied in
relation to
a. World-War II texts.
b. First World War texts.
c. Vietnam War texts.
d. Korean War texts.
96. Who wrote that historical texts can be read as narratives that correspond to the
diverse literary genres of comedy, tragedy, romance, satire or epic?
a. Greenblatt.
b. Hayden White.
c. Barthes.
d. Foucault.