Midterm Q&A Flashcards
What is not a Formalist assumption?
The writer’s mind is more than a catalyst
Freud’s concept of repression
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.
Levinas’ concept of obligation
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.
Which theorist corresponds to the term valorization
Marx
Which theorist corresponds to the term Sign/Signifier
Saussure
Which theorist corresponds to the term Saying/Said
Levinas
Which theorist corresponds to the term Space-time
Irigaray
Which theorist corresponds to the term cathexis
Freud
Which theorist corresponds to the term extraverted artist
Jung
What is the difference between langue and parole in Saussurean theory?
Langue is the entire system of language and parole is a specific instance of language
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “archetype”
Jungian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “tripartite psyche”
Freudian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Instinctive Structure”
Jungian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Transcendental Signifier”
Lacanian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Mirror Stage”
Lacanian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Oedipus Complex”
Freudian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Autonomous Complex”
Jungian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Collective Unconscious”
Jungian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Repression”
Freudian
From which psychoanalytic school is the term “Dehiscence”
Lacanian
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)
Louis Althusser in Ideology and the Ideological State Apparatus
What is not a technique employed in the application of the Phenomenological method?
Discovering what is repressed within a text
The differences between Repressive State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatus in Althusser’s writing?
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.
What is Levinas’s idea of face is in relation to the Other
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.
For Althusser, what is a distinctive way in which a self becomes a subject
Interpellation
Whose view on art/literature is the following statement? “Art removes objects from the automatism of perception.”
Victor Shklovsky
The difference between synchrony and diachrony
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.
The intentional fallacy
States that meaning resides in the individual work, as opposed to
assumed or stated authorial intent.
What theorist was not significantly affected by the work of Ferdinand de Saussure?
Marx
the difference between langue and parole
Langue refers to the abstract system of language, while parole refers to
specific language as it is actually used.
Freud’s three stages of childhood development
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.
In Levinas’ view, what ties me to The Other?
Obligation
Marxism draws on what disciplines
Sociology, Economics, Politics
Jonathan Culler’s distinction between New Criticism and Theory.
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)
According to Williams, ________ ideologies exist within a dominant ideology.
residual
Commodity
complex of use value and exchange value
Surplus value
labor + commodities
Use value
utility of a thing
Time (Marx)
what creates profit or surplus value
Alienation
the result of basic process of labor
Explain Freud’s Oedipal Complex using the three phases of conflict, denial and desire.
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.
What is the answer to articulating ethical theory?
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.
hermeneutics (ethical criticism)
Science and methods of interpretation
production (ethical criticism)
role of artist as producer is diminished from this vantage point
philosophies of totality (ethical criticism)
Marx, Freud, Saussure
Reduction (ethical criticism)
method also used in structuralism and psychoanlysis
totality (ethical criticism)
philosophies about finding the whole structure
tropes (ethical criticism)
hyperbole and paradox
What are the limits of New Criticism?
- hermetic- limited to text itself
- illusion of mastery over text
- cannon is limited and exclusionary
- excludes multiple (often racial or gender) perspectives
What is langue?
abstract system of signs shared by a community
How we know that we know is the issue at stake in which major set of theories?
Phenomenology
dialectic
Logic, reasoning; critical investigation of truth through reasoned argument, often specifically by means of dialogue or discussion
the assumptions that Marx makes in Das Kapital. What beliefs underlie Marx’s criticism?
– 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
What are the “original” and the “translation” which Freud is comparing?
Original
- Latent content
- Oedipal complex
- Dreams
Translation
- Dream meaning
- Literature/narrative
- Manifest symptoms
