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Contexts for Criticism, 4/e
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Poststructural Criticism: Language as Context

Multiple Choice Quiz



1

Deconstructionist critics argue that texts are never free from
A)the equivocal and ironically unstable voice of the author
B)the material conditions that determine their production and reception
C)distortions inherent in in the rhetoricity of language
D)the interpretations arbitrarily bestowed by the totalizing critic
2

According to Jacques Lacan, language
A)orders our symbolic life
B)creates and structures our psychic life
C)allows the child to release energy through the carnivalesque play of signs
D)is our only means of penetrating through to the "real" world beyond our egotistical desires
3

Which of the following theses represents an example of poststructuralist criticism?
A)Shakespeare's The Tempest is the culmination of Shakespeare's exploration of power versus mercy (and demonstrates Shakespeare's own belief in mercy over all forms of physical and ideological coercion)
B)in The Tempest, the opposition between power and mercy finds resolution in Prospero's final abnegation
C)Caliban's language of protest subverts Prospero's linguistic hegemony, but only by adopting the very language Prospero has taught him; there is, then, a false dichotomy between "oppressor" and "oppressed"
D)Shakespeare's blank verse becomes much more fluid and less rigidly "poetic" in The Tempest, and it is perfectly suited to the themes of liberation and reconciliation
4

Derrida's critique of structuralism is based on which of the following observations?
A)the structuralist critic claims to know the ultimate structure of reality through analysis of patterns within texts
B)the structuralist's methods are overly relativistic
C)structuralism is not adequately empirical
D)the structuralist's paradoxical attempt to operate outside structure while claiming that such operation is impossible




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