Midterm Q&A

Question 1

What is not a Formalist assumption?

Answer 1

The writer’s mind is more than a catalyst

Question 2

Freud’s concept of repression

Answer 2

Freud defines repression as “the state in which the ideas existed before being made conscious” (The Ego and the Id 5). He also writes, “…all that is repressed is unconscious, but not all that is unconscious is repressed” (9). Repressions can also come from the ego. Desires and memories that are too painful, anxiety ­producing, or deemed unacceptable, can be forced from the conscious into the unconscious by the process of repression. It is considered a defense mechanism.

Question 3

Levinas’ concept of obligation

Answer 3

Levinas argues that obligation is what ties us to the Other. We have a fundamental, unavoidable obligation to other. Our face­to­face relation with the other allows us to turn to our obligation, and this is what Levinas calls ethics. Obligation is our primary mode of existence.

Question 4

Which theorist corresponds to the term valorization

Answer 4

Marx

Question 5

Which theorist corresponds to the term Sign/Signifier

Answer 5

Saussure

Question 6

Which theorist corresponds to the term Saying/Said

Answer 6

Levinas

Question 7

Which theorist corresponds to the term Space-time

Answer 7

Irigaray

Question 8

Which theorist corresponds to the term cathexis

Answer 8

Freud

Question 9

Which theorist corresponds to the term extraverted artist

Answer 9

Jung

Question 10

What is the difference between langue and parole in Saussurean theory?

Answer 10

Langue is the entire system of language and parole is a specific instance of language

Question 11

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “archetype”

Answer 11

Jungian

Question 12

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “tripartite psyche”

Answer 12

Freudian

Question 13

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Instinctive Structure”

Answer 13

Jungian

Question 14

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Transcendental Signifier”

Answer 14

Lacanian

Question 15

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Mirror Stage”

Answer 15

Lacanian

Question 16

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Oedipus Complex”

Answer 16

Freudian

Question 17

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Autonomous Complex”

Answer 17

Jungian

Question 18

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Collective Unconscious”

Answer 18

Jungian

Question 19

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Repression”

Answer 19

Freudian

Question 20

From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Dehiscence”

Answer 20

Lacanian

Question 21

Who wrote: It is easy to see that this representation of the structure of every society as an edifice containing a base (infrastructure) on which are erected the two ‘floors’ of the superstructure, is a metaphor, to be quite precise, a spatial metaphor: the metaphor of a topography (topique)

Answer 21

Louis Althusser in Ideology and the Ideological State Apparatus

Question 22

What is not a technique employed in the application of the Phenomenological method?

Answer 22

Discovering what is repressed within a text

Question 23

The differences between Repressive State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatus in Althusser’s writing?

Answer 23

RSA is a type of State Apparatus that functions by repressive and violent forms of power such as the Army, the Police, the Courts and the Prison. ISA, on the other hand, is a type of State Apparatus that functions by ideology such as the School, the Church, the Family and etc. To mention other differences, while there is one RSA, there is a plurality of ISA; also, RSA belongs to the public domain and ISA to the private domain.

Question 24

What is Levinas’s idea of face is in relation to the Other

Answer 24

It is rather a metaphysical concept than a physical feature in which Levinas’s notion of “the other” is embodied and manifested. Being situated beyond, the face challenges our conscious effort to comprehend and categorize the (absolutely) other. The face also ‘speaks’ or calls, thus tying us to obligation towards the other even without consciously acknowledging it.

Question 25

For Althusser, what is a distinctive way in which a self becomes a subject

Answer 25

Interpellation

Question 26

Whose view on art/literature is the following statement? “Art removes objects from the automatism of perception.”

Answer 26

Victor Shklovsky

Question 27

The difference between synchrony and diachrony

Answer 27

Synchrony – a state in which things happen, move, or exist at the same time; a single point on a timeline.
Diachrony – change extended through time; the entire timeline.

Question 28

The intentional fallacy

Answer 28

States that meaning resides in the individual work, as opposed to
assumed or stated authorial intent.

Question 29

What theorist was not significantly affected by the work of Ferdinand de Saussure?

Answer 29

Marx

Question 30

the difference between langue and parole

Answer 30

Langue refers to the abstract system of language, while parole refers to
specific language as it is actually used.

Question 31

Freud’s three stages of childhood development

Answer 31

Freud talks about childhood development as occurring in three distinct stages: the oral, the anal, and the phallic. During the oral stage, children are concerned with incorporation and do not recognize boundaries between self and other. In the anal stages, children become preoccupied with expulsion, and they begin to learn to differentiate between inside and outside. The last stage, the phallic, is when children begin to seek genital pleasure and is also when they experience the Oedipus Complex, according to Freud.

Question 32

In Levinas’ view, what ties me to The Other?

Answer 32

Obligation

Question 33

Marxism draws on what disciplines

Answer 33

Sociology, Economics, Politics

Question 34

Jonathan Culler’s distinction between New Criticism and Theory.

Answer 34

New Criticism: “treats each work as an autonomous artefact an organic whole whose parts all contribute to a complex thematic statement” (119)
Theory: “makes explicit the underlying system [Barthes’ “empty meanings” or form] which makes literary effects possible” (118)

Question 35

According to Williams, ________ ideologies exist within a dominant ideology.

Answer 35

residual

Question 36

Commodity

Answer 36

complex of use value and exchange value

Question 37

Surplus value

Answer 37

labor + commodities

Question 38

Use value

Answer 38

utility of a thing

Question 39

Time (Marx)

Answer 39

what creates profit or surplus value

Question 40

Alienation

Answer 40

the result of basic process of labor

Question 41

Explain Freud’s Oedipal Complex using the three phases of conflict, denial and desire.

Answer 41

A child unconsciously is sexually attracted (desire) to his or her parent of the opposite sex and wants to eliminate the threat of the same­ sex parent (conflict). When the child realizes the same­sex parent cannot be eliminated, the child experiences anxiety, which develops into the castration complex (for boys) and penis envy (for girls). To resolve the Oedipal anxiety, the child unconsciously turns to repression (denial), resisting the impulses or desires of the Oedipus Complex.

Question 42

What is the answer to articulating ethical theory?

Answer 42

Poetry is the answer to articulating ethical theory because Levinas’s ideas cannot be captured in Western languages’ sentence structure (subject + verb phrase). Hyperbole and paradox, in particular, are prevalent literary devices used to convey concepts and ideas.

Question 43

hermeneutics (ethical criticism)

Answer 43

Science and methods of interpretation

Question 44

production (ethical criticism)

Answer 44

role of artist as producer is diminished from this vantage point

Question 45

philosophies of totality (ethical criticism)

Answer 45

Marx, Freud, Saussure

Question 46

Reduction (ethical criticism)

Answer 46

method also used in structuralism and psychoanlysis

Question 47

totality (ethical criticism)

Answer 47

philosophies about finding the whole structure

Question 48

tropes (ethical criticism)

Answer 48

hyperbole and paradox

Question 49

What are the limits of New Criticism?

Answer 49

• hermetic- limited to text itself
• illusion of mastery over text
• cannon is limited and exclusionary
• excludes multiple (often racial or gender) perspectives

Question 50

What is langue?

Answer 50

abstract system of signs shared by a community

Question 51

How we know that we know is the issue at stake in which major set of theories?

Answer 51

Phenomenology

Question 52

dialectic

Answer 52

Logic, reasoning; critical investigation of truth through reasoned argument, often specifically by means of dialogue or discussion

Question 53

the assumptions that Marx makes in Das Kapital. What beliefs underlie Marx’s criticism?

Answer 53

– capitalism is worth studying
– capitalism is rational and has rules
– existence is material
– economics reflects materiality
– human is material and part of nature
– history is about the change of man’s relation to material existence
– studying something can change it

Question 54

What are the “original” and the “translation” which Freud is comparing?

Answer 54

Original

• Latent content
• Oedipal complex
• Dreams

Translation

• Dream meaning
• Literature/narrative
• Manifest symptoms