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Literary Criticism and Theory

Structuralism Practice Questions

20 free Structuralism practice questions for the English Literature, each with the correct answer and a detailed explanation. Open any question below, or take the full set as an interactive quiz.

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All Structuralism questions

20 questions
  1. Q1. Which Swiss linguist is considered the founder of modern structuralism through his posthumously published 'Course in General Linguistics'?
  2. Q2. In Saussurean linguistics, what are the two components that constitute a 'sign'?
  3. Q3. Which term describes Saussure’s concept of the abstract, systematic rules of a language shared by all speakers?
  4. Q4. Structuralism posits that meaning is not inherent in individual things, but is produced through:
  5. Q5. Which anthropologist applied structuralist principles to the study of myths and kinship, treating culture like a language?
  6. Q6. The concept of 'Binary Oppositions' (e.g., nature/culture, male/female) is central to structuralist analysis because it:
  7. Q7. In his work 'S/Z', Roland Barthes transitions toward post-structuralism but identifies five 'codes' that govern narrative. What is the 'Proairetic' code concer…
  8. Q8. What is 'Parole' in the context of Saussurean theory?
  9. Q9. Which structuralist critic wrote 'The Morphology of the Folktale', identifying 31 functions that constitute the structure of Russian fairy tales?
  10. Q10. What is meant by the 'Arbitrariness of the Sign'?
  11. Q11. Which axis of language refers to the horizontal arrangement of signs in a sequence (like a sentence)?
  12. Q12. The 'Paradigmatic' axis of language is concerned with:
  13. Q13. Structuralist narratology distinguishes between 'Story' (the events) and '______' (how those events are told).
  14. Q14. Which approach studies a language system at a specific point in time, ignoring its historical development?
  15. Q15. In Roland Barthes' 'Mythologies', he analyzes 'Myth' as a:
  16. Q16. Which term describes a linguistic unit that has no meaning in itself but can change the meaning of a word (e.g., the 'b' in 'bat' vs 'c' in 'cat')?
  17. Q17. Gérard Genette’s concept of 'Focalization' refers to:
  18. Q18. Structuralism shifted the focus of literary criticism away from the 'Spirit of the Author' and toward the:
  19. Q19. What is a 'Mytheme' according to Claude Lévi-Strauss?
  20. Q20. Which critic is famous for the 'Death of the Author' essay, arguing that the text is a 'tissue of quotations'?