How to Read Literature Like a Professor Quizzes

How to Read Literature Like a Professor Quiz

1 In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" Foster describes the characters' actions of consuming a joint as a form of communion because:
They partake in a ritual that creates social and community bonds

Symbolically, a joint or drug has long carried spiritual or trancedental meaning

It is a stand-in for a meal

At least one of the character is devout
2 Of the following characteristics, what is not typically associated with vampires/Dracula?
Selfishness

Allure and sexuality

Garlic

Spirituality and condemnation
3 In James Joyce's "The Dead," the imagery associated with the dinner table most strongly suggests which of the following themes?
Life and Death

Battle and arms

Communion and sharing

Decadence and Luxury
4 "Two gazed into a pool, he gazed and she, Not hand in hand but heart in heart I think, Pale and reluctant on the water's brink" What kind of meter/rhythm does Christina Rosetti's sonnet incorporate?
Decasyllable, stressed, unstressed, unstressed, stressed

Octave, stressed and unstressed syllable

Decasyllable, stressed and unstressed

Octave, unstressed, stressed, stressed, unstressed syllable
5 The title "The Sound and the Fury" pays homage to which of the following literary writers?
Hamlet

William Shakespeare

Angela Carter

William Faulkner
6 References to the Bible or Shakespeare in a literary work can achieve all of the following except,
Indicate an author's religious and political leaning

Confer an authority to the story and writing

Indicate contemporary relevance of ancient values and themes

Undermine expectations
7 Of the following, which is NOT a quality that Foster thinks makes for a good story:
'Political' writing

Familiarity and strangeness

Allusions to older works

A mimicry/slavish emulation of a character from another work such as Brothers Grimm Fairytales
8 In his discussion on the lasting influence of myth, Foster is referring specifically to which of the following?
Stories of communities

Graeco-Roman traditional sources

Greek philosophers (such as Plato and Socrates') writings

Arabian Nights
9 Rain in a work of literature can most strongly suggest which of the following
Satire

Tears

Intertextuality

Growth and cleansing
10 "The Wasteland's" (T.S Eliot) opening lines are ironic because
April showers can be grim and overwhelming

Expectations people have from Spring are never quite met

April is actually symbolically the happiest month

April is the month of spring and hope
11 The "Intentionalist" writers differ from their contemporaries in that they:
They hail from the modernist period

Do not pay close attention to the external sources they draw upon in their stories/writing

Intend, to the extent possible, all effects in their writing

Write in the mythic rather than narrative methos
12 Violence in literature can possibly indicate all of the following except:
A society's failure or oppressiveness

Fragility of our lives

Cruelty of the universe and nature

Fertility and agriculture
13 In mystery novels, according to Foster, death operates differently in that:
It is not very significant in and of itself

It leads to emotional satisfaction and weightiness

It is the reason for the story to exist in the first place

It leads to questions and riddles and/or mystery
14 An example of a literary symbol is:
A story containing fantasy or magic such as Harry Potter

Character of Christian in John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress"

The "tree" carved on Sethe's back through whipping in Toni Morrison's "Beloved."

A newspaper's use of pictorial suns/clouds in its weather report
15 Foster recommends that the reader should read symbollically in the following ways EXCEPT
Act on initial suspicions and inclinations

Search for possible meanings of a particular image/object and use the 5 most common/popular results in interpreting the symbol

Read various works so as to familiarize oneself with ways in which literary symbolism is used

Consider various meanings of the object/image and their relevance to the context at hand
16 The difference between political and 'political' writing can be illustrated by which of the following analogies:
Ezra Pound's Anti-Semitist poetry and T.S Eliot's post world war poems

NYTimes article on US-Iran talks and an Op-Ed on the social implications of US-Iran relations

Socialist Realist novels and Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway"

Socialist Realist novels and a NYTimes article on US-Iran talks
17 In which of the following contexts and traditions is the Christ Figure most likely to feature?
Greek or Roman mythology

Anne Bradstreet and other Puritan New World poets

"Moth Smoke" and other novels by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid

Tales from the Arabian Nights
18 Flight in literature can be a symbolic extention of:
The difference between air-borne creatures and humans

Escape and freedom

All humans' subconscious desires from the very beginning of time

Evolution from land-ridden creatures to birds
19 Foster devotes a chapter to Baptism in order to explain
How baptism is still considered a sacred and necessary ritual even by liberal Christians

How writers use it to convey man's complex relationship with the divine

How prevalent the Christian tradition is in literature

How drowning/submersion in water is symbolic of rebirth for characters
20 Setting can convey all of the following in a work of literature except,
Man's influence on nature and vice versa

A character's motives/decisions/development

The author's most preferred location/region

Social and political commentary
21 "That time of year thou mayst in me behold/ When yellow leaves or none or few do hang" What can be gleamed from these verses of Shakespearean sonnet regarding the literary implications of season?
That the ways in which a character is described can be used to understand what time of the year/ season it is

Seasonal imagery makes heavy use of the image of trees to indicate a person

"Yellow Leaves" were always used by traditional writers to indicate the coming of Autumn

Writers can associate seasons with human life such as autumn ("yellow leaves") which often indicaes the onset of age and decline
22 According to Foster pure originality is:
Possible if the writer grows up without reading any of the great literary works

Possible but does not make for respectable literature

Impossible because writers know they have to include elements of familiarity for their works to become enjoyed

Impossible largely because in the end, there is really only one story.
23 Harry Potter's scar can indicate all of the following except:
Some wounds - such as dark magic and death of his parents - never heal

A physical manifestation of the connection between him and Voldemort

That the work is part of a fantastical genre

Harry is distinct from other wizards and witches
24 Blindness is a literary novel can have the following symbolic implications except:
That there is more than what meets the eye

That one can be blind in understanding to situations/facts in front of them

Irony

An indication of the number of visually-impaired in the society which the author draws inspiration from for the setting of his novel
25 According to Foster literature should be:
Only analyzed when its conventions learnt

Written by authors well versed and trained in caonical works

Approached only from a deconstructionist methodology so as to lead to a rich analysis and reading experience

Enjoyable for the reader

Foster identifies caves as a prime example of symbols in E.M. Foster's A Passage to India. Here caves can take on multiple meanings according to various characters' interactions with them. Possible meanings include: a means of accessing innermost...

Asked by Balls G #1327078

Answered by jill d #170087 on 11/10/2023 11:36 PM

View All Answers

in chapter 5, what does Foster mean by the term intertextually?

Interextuality simply means the connection between all texts (especially works of literature) across history. Throughout the book, Foster wants the reader not to think of literary texts as existing in an isolated vacuum, rather having connections...

Asked by isabella K #1283382

Answered by Aslan on 1/13/2023 3:09 AM

View All Answers

How does Foster sum up irony?

Foster sums up irony as “deflection from expectation” (p. 256) and concludes that irony trumps everything.

Asked by chinkymonster

Answered by jill d #170087 on 8/10/2022 12:15 PM

View All Answers