Midterm Flashcards

Quizzes 1-4

1
Q

New critics believe “the best possible interpretation” of a work will derive from this reading practice:

A

close reading

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2
Q

Define: intentional fallacy

A

attempting to determine what the author may or may not have meant in their text

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3
Q

Two formal elements in fiction:

A

plot and characters

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4
Q

Freud’s tripartite psyche:

A

id, ego, and superego

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5
Q

Two way Freud believed the unconscious can be accessed:

A

therapy and hypnosis (or dreams)

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6
Q

Define: Oedipal complex

A

male desire to marry/have sex with his mother and kill his father

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7
Q

Lacan’s two “Orders”:

A

imaginary

symbolic

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8
Q

Define: mirror stage

A

the moment when an infant recognizes themselves as separate entities from their mother
they recognize themselves as one entity

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9
Q

Lacan believed the unconscious is structured like this, or on this idea:

A
  • on the idea of loss

- the unconscious is structured like a language, as it is necessary to use to describe things that aren’t there

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10
Q

Lacan associates this figure with language:

A

the father

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11
Q

In structuralism, a sign is composed of these two elements:

A

signifier and signified

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12
Q

The difference between langue and parole:

A

langue: the structure/underlying governing rules (i.e. grammar)
parole: the surface phenomenon, the specific individual words used in sentences

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13
Q

The words of this sentence are what structuralists call his “phenomenon”:

A

surface phenomenon

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14
Q

What is the grammar or “deep structure” of the word “are”?

A

verb

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15
Q

An archetypal theme:

A

heros journey

coming of age

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16
Q

The critic does not deconstruct the text, but rather this does:

A

the text deconstructs itself, as language is unstable and changing

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17
Q

In deconstruction, there is no ultimate signified, but only endless chains of these:

A

signifiers

18
Q

Define: logocentric

A

word/concept centered

19
Q

A binary opposition:

A

light and dark

boy and girl

20
Q

The founder of deconstruction:

A

Jaques Derrida

21
Q

What Marxist theory sees as the central conflict in society:

A

class

22
Q

In Marxist theory, the base gives rise to the:

A

superstructure

23
Q

Explain what Marxists mean by sign value:

A

the social status an object reflects about the person who bought it

24
Q

Why Marxists believe capitalism inevitably leads to imperialism:

A

capitalism needs new markets to exploit

25
Q

In terms of feminist theory, define biological essentialism:

A

the belief that men and woman have inherent essences that differ from each other owing to biology

26
Q

Name the concept opposed to biological essentialism:

A

social construction

27
Q

Name two schools of French feminism:

A

Materialist and psychoanalytic

28
Q

The key difference between gay & lesbian studies and queer theory:

A

gay & lesbian studies focus on identity as stable categories while queer theory focuses on fluidity and unchanging categories

29
Q

Provide an example of a homosocial institution:

A

single-sex schools

30
Q

Explain the difference queer theorists make between minoritizing and universalizing points of view:

A
  • minoritizing looks at the LGBTQ experience as different from the norm and separate their experience as other or a minority to the hegemony
  • universalizing looks at the LGBTQ experience as common among all people, that even heterosexual individuals struggle similar experiences
31
Q

Explain what is known as the Great Migration and the period in which it took place:

A

The migration of African Americans from the South to the North following World War I in 1918

32
Q

Provide an example of intersectionality:

A
  • sees identity as composed of various forms of social stratification, such as race, class, gender/sex, sexual and sociopolitical orientation, and personal history
  • attempts to identify how interlocking systems of power impact those who are most marginalized in society, for example the experiences of a black-impoverished-gay woman in a white-straight-male dominated society
33
Q

Name a character type common in African-American literature:

A

the healer

signifying trickster

34
Q

Explain what is meant by folk motif:

A

common themes and elements that occur in folk art that isn’t considered “high art” by the dominate culture
example of folk art include folklore, song, and dance

35
Q

Define: subaltern

A

people seen as inferior to the colonizers

36
Q

Provide an example of the exotic other:

A

Pocahontas or the China Doll

37
Q

New Historicism sees history as subjective or objective?

A

subjective

38
Q

New Historicism makes no distinction between so-called high art and this form of art:

A

pop-culture

39
Q

Explain what New Historicists mean by cultural work:

A

how historical events are interpreted and represented in the discourses and art of a particular time period

40
Q

According to Michel Foucault, items of exchange in society are:

A

ideas (discourses), people (adoption, slavery), and material goods