Feminist, Queer, Postcolonial theories

Question 1

Feminist criticism

Answer 1

analyses the opposition of man
vs. woman

Question 2

Feminist criticism, Queer theory, and Postcolonial
criticism have all partaken of the
poststructuralist reasoning to….

Answer 2

examine the binary
opposition of centre vs. margin that underlies
the dynamics of dominant power relations

Question 3

Queer theory

Answer 3

considers the opposition of
heterosexuality vs. homosexuality

Question 4

Postcolonial criticism

Answer 4

probes the opposition of
West vs. East

Question 5

All these theories seek to deconstruct

Answer 5

the
dichotomies in which the second element is
perceived as non-normative, deficient, or
perverse.

Question 6

For Spivak, literary tradition is

Answer 6

a male construct
which has used woman as a means of aesthetic
and ideological self-empowerment .

Question 7

Literary tradition writes…

Answer 7

of women, not to them.

Question 8

Écriture féminine

Answer 8

is conceptualised as “women’s
writing”, writing that derives from female
physiology, writing that transgresses the norm
associated with male writing.

Question 9

Essentialism is

Answer 9

a radical point
of critique in queer theory, too.

Question 10

Sex refers

Answer 10

to the biological attributes of a person,
in most cases falling into the category of either
man or woman, and in most cases reflected in
chromosomal differences

Question 11

Gender “refers

Answer 11

to how a person expresses their
identity as either male or female, based on
clothing, behaviours and the use of particular
linguistic structures (such as he/she)

Question 12

Sexual objectification of women stems from

Answer 12

the
dichotomy man vs. woman that is extended
into further dichotomies, such as culture vs.
nature, reason vs. body, etc

Question 13

The sublime was

Answer 13

associated with ‘male’
virtues of heroism and grandeur.

Question 14

the beautiful was

Answer 14

associated with
‘female’ virtues of subtlety and gracefulness.

Question 15

Woman is

Answer 15

the archetypal Other.

Question 16

The East is associated with

Answer 16

irrationality, sensuality,
chaos, mystery, exoticism as essential to its identity.

Question 17

The West is linked to

Answer 17

reason, Logos, order as central
to its identity.

Question 18

Western identity is built on

Answer 18

a sense of superiority
emanating from the interpretation of the dichotomy
of “East vs. West.”

Question 19

Postcolonial criticism emerged

Answer 19

in the 1990s.

Question 20

Postolonial criticism aim is

Answer 20

to undermine the universalist claims
once made on behalf of literature by liberal
humanists.

Question 21

Claiming that great literature has a timeless and
universal significance demotes and disregards ….

Answer 21

cultural, social, regional, and national differences.

Question 22

Postcolonial criticism

Answer 22

1) raises an awareness of representations of the
non-European as exotic or immoral Other;
2) problematises the use of language as a tool in
the construction of cultural identities;
3) offers a critique of essentialist readings of
identity as stable and pure rather than hybrid and
contingent.

Question 23

The erasure of European anthropological discourse
is metaphorical of…

Answer 23

the double gesture through
which Abel both recalls a history of abuse and
calls it off.

Question 24

Feminist, postcolonial criticism and queer
theory reject claims to universalism made on
behalf of canonical Western literature and….

Answer 24

seek
to show its conceptual limitations, especially in
its attempts to communicate across boundaries
of cultural, racial, and sexual difference.

Question 25

Ideological criticism examines power relations
which…

Answer 25

obtain in texts and in life, with a view of
breaking them down, seeing reading as a political
act.

Question 26

Ideological criticism recognises the role of….

Answer 26

language in making what is social and
constructed seem transparent and ‘natural’.
65

Question 27

Feminist criticism revalues

Answer 27

women’s
experience and challenges the representations
of women as Other, ‘lack’, or part of ‘nature’.

Question 28

Queer theory addresses

Answer 28

the homophobia of
mainstream literature and criticism, as seen in
ignoring or denigrating the queer aspects of the
work of major canonical figures.

Question 29

Postcolonial criticism draws attention

Answer 29

to issues
of cultural difference in literary texts.

Question 30

Postcolonial criticism shows how literature

Answer 30

is often evasively and crucially silent on matters
concerned with colonisation and imperialism.

Question 31

Ideological criticism foregrounds…

Answer 31

the
significance of discourse in the construction of
(gender, sexual, and cultural) identity.

Question 32

Ideological criticism challenges

Answer 32

the
construction of the literary canon, pointing out
the ideological basis of the values endorsed
and disseminated through socially legitimised
institutions.

Question 33

Foreground

Answer 33

make (something) the most prominent or important feature.