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:
At least one of the character is devout

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

They partake in a ritual that creates social and community bonds

It is a stand-in for a meal
2 Of the following characteristics, what is not typically associated with vampires/Dracula?
Garlic

Allure and sexuality

Selfishness

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

Decadence and Luxury

Communion and sharing
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

Decasyllable, stressed and unstressed

Octave, unstressed, stressed, stressed, unstressed syllable

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

Angela Carter

Hamlet

William Shakespeare
6 References to the Bible or Shakespeare in a literary work can achieve all of the following except,
Undermine expectations

Indicate contemporary relevance of ancient values and themes

Indicate an author's religious and political leaning

Confer an authority to the story and writing
7 Of the following, which is NOT a quality that Foster thinks makes for a good story:
Familiarity and strangeness

A mimicry/slavish emulation of a character from another work such as Brothers Grimm Fairytales

Allusions to older works

'Political' writing
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

Arabian Nights

Greek philosophers (such as Plato and Socrates') writings
9 Rain in a work of literature can most strongly suggest which of the following
Satire

Growth and cleansing

Intertextuality

Tears
10 "The Wasteland's" (T.S Eliot) opening lines are ironic because
Expectations people have from Spring are never quite met

April showers can be grim and overwhelming

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

They hail from the modernist period

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

Write in the mythic rather than narrative methos
12 Violence in literature can possibly indicate all of the following except:
Fragility of our lives

Cruelty of the universe and nature

A society's failure or oppressiveness

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 questions and riddles and/or mystery

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

It leads to emotional satisfaction and weightiness
14 An example of a literary symbol is:
A newspaper's use of pictorial suns/clouds in its weather report

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

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

A story containing fantasy or magic such as Harry Potter
15 Foster recommends that the reader should read symbollically in the following ways EXCEPT
Read various works so as to familiarize oneself with ways in which literary symbolism is used

Act on initial suspicions and inclinations

Consider various meanings of the object/image and their relevance to the context at hand

Search for possible meanings of a particular image/object and use the 5 most common/popular results in interpreting the symbol
16 The difference between political and 'political' writing can be illustrated by which of the following analogies:
Socialist Realist novels and a NYTimes article on US-Iran talks

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"
17 In which of the following contexts and traditions is the Christ Figure most likely to feature?
"Moth Smoke" and other novels by Pakistani author Mohsin Hamid

Tales from the Arabian Nights

Greek or Roman mythology

Anne Bradstreet and other Puritan New World poets
18 Flight in literature can be a symbolic extention of:
Evolution from land-ridden creatures to birds

All humans' subconscious desires from the very beginning of time

The difference between air-borne creatures and humans

Escape and freedom
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 drowning/submersion in water is symbolic of rebirth for characters

How prevalent the Christian tradition is in literature
20 Setting can convey all of the following in a work of literature except,
A character's motives/decisions/development

The author's most preferred location/region

Man's influence on nature and vice versa

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

"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

Seasonal imagery makes heavy use of the image of trees to indicate a person
22 According to Foster pure originality is:
Possible but does not make for respectable literature

Possible if the writer grows up without reading any of the great literary works

Impossible largely because in the end, there is really only one story.

Impossible because writers know they have to include elements of familiarity for their works to become enjoyed
23 Harry Potter's scar can indicate all of the following except:
A physical manifestation of the connection between him and Voldemort

That the work is part of a fantastical genre

Some wounds - such as dark magic and death of his parents - never heal

Harry is distinct from other wizards and witches
24 Blindness is a literary novel can have the following symbolic implications except:
An indication of the number of visually-impaired in the society which the author draws inspiration from for the setting of his novel

Irony

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

That there is more than what meets the eye
25 According to Foster literature should be:
Enjoyable for the reader

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

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

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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

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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

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