MH Literature and Literary Theory

Question 1

Which critical approach argues that a text's meaning is determined solely by the reader, not by authorial intent?

Accepted Answer

Reader-response criticism

Answer

Reader-response criticism holds that meaning is created in the interaction between the reader and the text, not fixed by the author.

Question 2

Roland Barthes' essay 'The Death of the Author' (1967) primarily argues that:

Accepted Answer

The author's biography is irrelevant to textual meaning

Answer

Barthes argued that once a text is published, the author's intentions cease to govern its meaning, freeing interpretation to the reader.

Question 3

In New Criticism, what term refers to the fallacy of judging a work by the author's stated intentions?

Accepted Answer

Intentional fallacy

Answer

Wimsatt and Beardsley coined 'intentional fallacy' to describe the mistake of equating authorial intent with textual meaning.

Question 4

Which narrative device involves a story within a story, common in texts like 'The Canterbury Tales'?

Accepted Answer

Frame narrative

Answer

A frame narrative embeds one or more stories inside an outer narrative structure, as Chaucer uses with the pilgrimage framing the tales.

Question 5

Which literary period in American literature is most associated with the post-Civil War realism movement?

Accepted Answer

The Gilded Age

Answer

The Gilded Age (1870s–1900) saw writers like Mark Twain and William Dean Howells depict everyday American life with realist techniques.

MH - Master of Humanities Practice Test