UGC NET English Literature MCQs on Structuralism
Q. In literary studies structuralism promotes
(1) new interpretations of literary works.
(2) the view that literature is one signifying practice among others.
(3) a systematic account of literary archetypes.
(4) unstable structures of systems of signification.
Answer: 2
Q. Which one of the following is correct about Saussure’s analysis of language?
1. La longue is the system of a language.
2. Parole focuses on language as a system at a particular time.
3. La longue is the particular instance of speech and writing.
4. Parole is the study of language over a period of time.
Answer:1
Q.What is the meaning of ‘langue’ in Saussurean linguistics?
1. Individual speech acts
2 An organized system of differences
3. The dialectic between thought and speech
4. Language in the abstract sense
Answer:4
Q.From among the following, identify the incorrect observation regarding Ferdinand de Saussure’s seminal distinction between language and parole.
1. Parole is the particular language system,the elements, the elements of which we learn as children, and which is codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas langue is the language-occasion
2. A language consists in the interrelationship between Langue and Parole.
3. Saussure made this crucial distinction in a study called A Course in General Linguistics (1916).
4. Langue is the particular language-system, the elements of which we learn as children, and which is codified in our grammars and dictionaries, whereas Parole is the languageoccasion
Answer:1
Q. Semiotics originated mainly in the works of two theorists. They are:
a. Charles Sanders Peirce
b. Mikhail Bakhtin
c. Ferdinand de Saussure
d. Valentin Voloshinov
Answer:c
Q. Ferdinand de Saussure argued that meaning is generated through
(1) a system of structured differences in language
(2) a system of random differences in language
(3) a system of structured references in language
(4) a system of random references in language
Answer:1
Q. Match List I and List II List I
Terms A. Superreader B. Biopower C. Bricolage D. Chronotope
Theorists I. Michel Foucault II. Mikhail Bakhtin III. Michael Riffaterre IV. Claude Levi-Strauss
Ans: A – III, B – I, C – IV, D – II
Q. According to Roland Barthes, the “writerly text” is
(1) a unique expression of the writer’s individual genius
(2) consumed by way of a seemingly unitary meaning
(3) linked to active participation of the reader in the establishment of the text’s meaning
(4) immediately accessible to the reader
Answer:3
Q. In his essay “From Work to Text” Roland Barthes says the following about the text :
I. The text is singular.
II. The text can be held in the hand.
III. The text is held in language.
IV. The text is a methodological field.
Answer:III&IV
Q. The structural analysis of signs was practised by
(A) Michel Foucault
(B) Jacques Lacan
(C) Julia Kristeva
(D) Roland Barthes
Answer:D
Q.Mythologies was written by :
(A) Roland Barthes
(B) Jacques Derrida
(C) Homi K. Bhabha
(D) Ernest Dowson
Answer:A
Q. Which of these statements describe correctly the basic assumption of Structuralism?
A. Structuralism is concerned with signs and signification.
B. A structuralist theory considers only verbal conventions and codes.
C. Structuralism began in the works of Jacques Derrida that influenced the 20th-century literary criticism.
D. Structuralism challenges the long-standing belief that literature reflects a given reality.
E. All signs are arbitrary but without them we cannot comprehend reality.
Answer:A,D,E
Q. Who wrote a guide called How to Write a Doctoral Thesis : The Humanistic Subjects, considered equal in standard to the American MLS Handbook or The Chicago Manual of Style?
1. Alain Robbe-Grillet
2. Cesare Pavese
3. Umberto Eco
4. Leo Spitzer
Answer:3
Q. Which of the following is an accurate description of ‘heteroglossia’?
(1) Heteroglossia makes the job of the novelist easier by incorporating diversity into the novelistic structure.
(2) Heteroglossia functions in a novel in alliance with its stylistic system incorporating multiple voices inscribed in social language and differentiated components of a writer’s ideological position.
(3) Heteroglossia creates concrete conceptualisations through language in association with the singular view of the artistic effort resulting in the unified world of the novel.
(4) Heteroglossia enters the linguistic universe of the novel to homogenize its multiple differences and voices in a singular vision of accomplished structure.
Answer:2
Q. “Heteroglossia” refers to
(A) the multiple readings of a text.
(B) the juxtaposition of multiple voices in a text.
(C) the comments on the margins of a text.
(D) the gloss or commentary relating to a text.
Answer:B
Q. In which of the following works did Bakhtin propose his widely cited concept of the ‘Carnivalesque’?
(1) “Discourse in the novel”
(2) Dialogic Imagination
(3) Rabelais and his world
(4) “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel”
Answer:3
According to Bakhtin the idea of the Carnivalesque represents the following characteristics except:
(A) A liberation from the prevailing truth and established order
(B) A harking back to the past
(C) Emphasis on play, parody, pleasure and the body
(D) The suspension of all hierarchical rank, principles, norms and prohibitions
Answer:B