Deck 3: Postmodern Philosophy and Literary Theory

Question 1

In "The Death of the Author," Roland Barthes argues what about

A)biographical information about the author must be considered when evaluating literature.
B)a text and its author text are unrelated.
C)it is possible to distil meaning from a work based on the author\s politics.
D)authorial intent must be considered when evaluating literature.

Answer 1

a text and its author text are unrelated.

Question 2

who popularised the conception of an 'epistemological break' in Marxian thought

A)l. althusser
B)j. habermas
C)j.c. alexander
D)r. fahrendorf

Answer 2

l. althusser

Question 3

Which among the following is not the work of Louis Althusser

A)lenin and philosophy and other essays
B)on the reproduction of capitalism trans
C)madness and civilization
D)for marx

Answer 3

madness and civilization

Question 4

In Of Grammatology, Jacques Derrida argues what about literature? Choose one answer.

A)no fixed, stable meaning is possible.
B)language must be studied in conjunction with history in order to create meaning.
C)there is no potential for multiple and differing meanings in a work of literature.
D)literature is timeless, and thus meaning does not change.

Question 5

To whom, the sign, firmly speaking, must always stand 'under erasure', as necessary but inadequate

A)louis althusser
B)michel foucault
C)husserl
D)jacques derrida

Question 6

Which one of the following concepts is not given by Derrida

A)cultural capital
B)logocentrism
C)deconstruction
D)difference

Question 7

Derrida's Deconstruction yields a critique of

A)cultural capital
B)logocentrism
C)deconstruction
D)difference

Question 8

The central idea of Ferdinand de Saussure's Course in General Linguistics;

A)language is inseparable from its historical context.
B)there are five phases of linguistic development.
C)language can be analysed as a formal system of elements.
D)linguistics is too complicated to be distilled to a formula.

Question 9

Jacques Derrida's concept of différance challenges us to think about language as a system that:

A)mirrors our physical evolution as human beings.
B)prevents us from communicating through writing or speech.
C)involves a constant process of deferred meaning.
D)evolved exclusively as a function of our individual psyche.

Question 10

Lyotard's dictum 'I define postmodern as incredulity toward meta-narratives' means:

A)individual stories are suspect.
B)the law is static.
C)universal values are meaningless.
D)literature reproduces repression

Question 11

Author of The Postmodern Condition A Report on Knowledge

A)kant
B)michel foucault
C)jean-françois lyotard
D)jacques derrida

Question 12

For Lyotard postmodernity as an age of

A)accumulation
B)fragmentation
C)legalizing
D)demolishing

Question 13

The Postmodern Condition A Report on Knowledge Lyotard dealing with

A)metaphysics
B)values
C)cognition
D)knowledge and power

Question 14

Lyotard famously defines the postmodern as

A)incredulity towards metanarratives
B)system of logic
C)system of metaphysics
D)system of idealism

Question 15

Lyotard sees the subject/human as

A)one element among others
B)pure matter
C)centre of all think
D)master of knowledge

Question 16

Deconstruction is in terms of a critique of the

A)binary
B)actual
C)nomena
D)phenomena

Question 17

Deconstruction is

A)strategy for reading texts
B)understanding metaphysics
C)logical investigation
D)reductionism

Question 18

The opposition between speech and writing is a manifestation of the

A)cultural capital
B)logocentrism
C)deconstruction
D)difference

Question 19

Derrida notes the tendency in western philosophy and semiotics to value the signifier as opposed to the thing it signifies in

A)cultural capital
B)logocentrism
C)deconstruction
D)metaphysics of presence.

Question 20

Postmodernism put forward the notion of

A)death of the subject
B)reclaiming the subject
C)domination of subject
D)power of the subject

Question 21

Author of Elements of Semiology

A)ferdinand de saussure
B)jean-françois lyotard
C)jean jacques rousseau
D)roland barthes

Question 22

As Baudrillard, there is only

A)real
B)nothingness
C)cultural
D)hyperreal

Question 23

Hyperreal depicts

A)production
B)reproduction
C)distribution
D)meticulous reduplication

Question 24

Baudrillard is trying to end the philosophy of

A)theological
B)subjectivity
C)narrative
D)normative

Question 25

According to Baudrillard the elimination of reality itself,

A)crime
B)perfect crime
C)method
D)practice