Literary Criticism Invitational A • 2010, Lecture notes of Literary Theory

Download Literary Criticism Invitational A • 2010 and more Lecture notes Literary Theory in PDF only on Docsity! University interscholastic leagUe do not turn this page until you are instructed to do so! Literary Criticism Invitational A • 2010 UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 1 University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A • 2010 Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each) 1. The term used to designate the types or categories into which literary works are grouped according to form, technique, or, sometimes, subject matter is 6. Originally, the term for the first actor in early Greek drama and now the term for the chief character in a work is A) abridgment. A) antagonist. B) genre. B) anti-hero. C) philology. C) deuteragonist. D) synopsis. D) hero. E) typology. E) protagonist. 2. The poetic foot consisting of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented syllable is the 7. Not a British writer honored by being awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature is A) bacchic. A) Albert Camus. B) iamb. B) Sir Winston Churchill. C) pyrrhic. C) William Golding. D) spondee. D) Rudyard Kipling. E) trochee. E) Bertrand A. W. Russell. 3. The term indicating the degree to which a work creates the semblance, or appearance, of the truth is 8. The rule-governed arrangement of words in sentences is A) persuasion. A) inversion. B) positivism. B) semantics. C) rationation. C) semiotics. D) sigmatism. D) structuralism. E) verisimilitude. E) syntax. 4. Something that is itself and which also stands for something else and that, in a literary sense, com- bines a literal and sensuous quality with an abstract or suggestive aspect is a(n) 9. A cheaply produced paperbound novel or novelette of mystery, adventure, or violence popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in England is the A) emblem. A) dime novel. B) icon. B) gothic novel. C) kitsch. C) penny dreadful. D) symbol. D) potboiler. E) type. E) pulp magazine. 5. A work or manner that blends censorious attitude with humor and wit for improving human institu- tions or humanity is 10. The author of Light in August, The Sound and the Fury, The Unvanquished, As I Lay Dying, and Absalom, Absalom! is A) didacticism. A) John Cheever. B) jeremiad. B) William Faulkner. C) repartee. C) Larry McMurtry. D) satire. D) John Steinbeck. E) travesty. E) John Updike. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 4 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2010 • page 4 Part 2: The UIL Reading List 20 items (2 points each) Items 31-36 are associated with Sophocles' Antigonê. Items 37-43 are associated with Samuel Butler's Erewhon. Items 44-50 are associated with Thomas Hardy's poetry (selected). 31. A strong refusal to act is evident in the line "Impos- sible things should not be tried at all," which is de- livered by 36. Antigonê's observation that there is but one kind of death that can be considered "the worst of deaths" speaks directly to a A) Antigonê. A) death in a cave. B) Creon. B) death of a brother. C) Eurydicê. C) death without being buried. D) Ismenê. D) death without a funeral oration. E) Teiresias. E) death without honor. 32. The strength of his warning, "[W]e must remember that friends made at the risk of wrecking our Ship are not real friends at all," is found in the use Creon makes of an extended 37. In Samuel Butler's Erewhon, the item that Hicks carries with him, which upon being discovered by the Erewhonians, brings an expression not of fear but of hatred on the magistrate's face is/are his A) allusion. A) grog. B) imagery. B) gun. C) metaphor. C) matches. D) paradox. D) swag. E) simile. E) watch. 33. Teiresias' admonition, "The time is not far off when you shall pay back / Corpse for corpse, flesh of your own flesh," is a direct reference to the death of 38. Among the several reasons that Mr. Hicks is troubled by Chowbok's early disappearance is that Hicks had hoped to make Chowbok A) Antigonê. A) a new blanket from his own sheeps' wool. B) Eteoclês. B) a real convert to the Christian religion. C) Eurydicê. C) a top-notch sheepherder. D) Haimon. D) carry most of the supplies. E) Polyneicês. E) translate the language of the Erewhonians. 34. Antigonê reminds us herself of the "blasphemy of [her] birth"; she is the daughter of 39. In traversing the several unexplored ranges, Mr. Hicks hopes to find A) Creon and Eurydicê. A) an immense tract of available sheep country. B) Creon and Iocastê. B) a lost tribe of Israel. C) Oedipus and Eurydicê. C) the northwest passage. D) Oedipus and Iocastê. D) a place to start a family. E) Polybos and Iocastê. E) the source of the Nile. 35. The Choragos' rejoinder, "Then do not pray any more: the sky is deaf," is a fine example of 40. The class of men among the Erewhonians who are "trained in soul-craft" is a group known as A) apostrophe. A) Musical Bankers. B) enallage. B) Nosnibors. C) metonymy. C) Professors of Unreason. D) simile. D) Straighteners. E) solecism. E) Ydgrunites. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 5 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2010 • page 5 41. The single physical characteristic offsetting any other, perhaps, disqualifying attribute, thus making Hicks an eligible match in marriage to one of the Nosibors' daughters, is Hicks's 44. That Thomas Hardy has chosen the rather pre- cise, ordered pattern, the sonnet, to convey his persona's sense of an unordered universe sug- gests that Hardy had a well-honed sense of A) light-colored hair. A) determinism. B) manicured fingernails. B) fatalism. C) perfect health. C) irony. D) significant height. D) melancholy. E) strength. E) poetic justice. 42. The document that varies in wording, depending on the specific parents' particular worries, releasing the parents of all responsibility for a child's birth is the 45. The sonnet form that Hardy fairly closely fol- lows in "Hap" is the A) baptismal certificate. A) English sonnet. B) birth certificate. B) Italian sonnet. C) birth formula. C) Miltonic sonnet. D) escape clause. D) Shakespearean sonnet. E) straightener's vaccination record. E) Spenserian sonnet. 43. An understanding of Butler's satirical intent in writ- ing Erewhon might be discovered in what the Ere- whonians hold as "the symbol of duty, [. . .] the sacrament of having done for mankind that which mankind wanted"; this symbol of duty is 46. The trope that dominates the last four lines of the sonnet, finding expression in "Time," "Crass Casuality," and "These purblind Doomsters" is A) anthropomorphism. A) health. B) catastrophe. B) money. C) metaphor. C) national acclaim. D) reification. D) virtue. E) simile. E) watches. 47. The sonnet's rhyme scheme is Items 44-48 refer to Thomas Hardy's Hap If but some vengeful god would call to me From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing, Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy, That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!" 4 Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die, Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited; Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than I Had willed and meted me the tears I shed. 8 But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain, And why unblooms the best hope ever sown? —Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain, And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan . . . . 12 These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain. A) aabbccdd efefgg. B) abababab cdcdcd. C) ababcdcd efeffe. D) abcbabcb ababba. E) abcbabcb abdbbd. 48. The sonnet's turn, found in line 9, reinforces our understanding of the persona's doubt that A) there is a Being greater than he. B) there is a "best hope" in gardening. C) there is a chance that love will conquer hate. D) there is joy in slaying "dicing Time." E) there will be time for suffering. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 6 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2010 • page 6 Items 49-50 refer to Thomas Hardy's In Time of "Breaking of Nations" Only a man harrowing clods In a slow silent walk With an old horse that stumbles and nods Half asleep as they stalk. Only thin smoke without flame From the heaps of couch-grass; Yet this will go onward the same Though Dynasties pass. Yonder a maid and her wight Come whispering by: War's annals will cloud into night Ere their story die. For with names the world was called Out of the empty air, 8 With names was built and walled, Line and circle and square, Dust and emerald; Snatched from deceiving death 12 By the articulate breath. But these have never trod Twice the familiar track, Never never turned back 16 Into the memoried day. All is new and near In the unchanging Here Of the fifth great day of God, 20 That shall remain the same, Never shall pass away. 49. Hardy's poem speaks to the permanence of one as- pect of human endeavoring in contrast to another, one productive and one destructive, especially in light of its publication date, 1915. Ultimately, the poem's tone is 51. The lines "In the unchanging Here / Of the fifth great day of God" constitute a specific detail in an explanation of creation that accounts for natural phenomena, which suggests that the poem is a retelling of a A) elegiac. A) fable. B) fatalistic. B) fairy tale. C) nihilistic. C) legend. D) optimistic. D) myth. E) pessimistic. E) parable. 50. The poetic form that Hardy's poem "In Time of 'Breaking of Nations'" approximates is the 52. In the third stanza of Muir's poem, the persona is clearly addressing the animals' not having A) ballad. A) historical memory. B) haiku. B) intelligence. C) sestina. C) a means of finding their way home. D) sonnet. D) names. E) terza rima. E) souls. Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism 15 items (2 points each) Items 51-53 refer to Edwin Muir's The Animals 53. The poem's central thematic concern addresses A) the creation of the world. B) an essential difference between man and animals. C) the fact that all animals die. They do not live in the world, Are not in time and space. From birth to death hurled No word do they have, not one 4 To plant a foot upon, Were never in any place. D) God's having created animals on the fifth day. E) the importance of naming places and things. UNIVERSITY INTERSCHOLASTIC LEAGUE PAGE 9 Literary Criticism Contest • Invitational A 2010 • page 9 Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay (required) Note well: Contestants who do not write an essay will be disqualified even if they are not involved in any tie. Note well: Any essay that does not demonstrate a sincere effort to discuss the assigned topic will be disqualified. The judge(s) should note carefully this criterion when breaking ties: ranking of essays for tie-breaking purposes should be based primarily on how well the topic has been addressed. Three pages of blank paper have been provided for this essay; however, it is not expected that the essay will be longer than 150 words; however, the essay should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moder- ately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than a few sentences. Read William Wordsworth's "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" and Phoebe Cary's imitation (perhaps parody) "Jacob," and offer a discussion of the poems' shared theme. She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love; A violet by a mossy tone Half hidden from the eye! —Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me! William Wordsworth 1800 Jacob He dwelt among "apartments let*," rented About five stories high; A man I thought that none would get, And very few would try. A boulder, by a larger stone Half hidden in the mud, —Fair as a man when only one Is in the neighborhood. He lived unknown, and few could tell When Jacob was not free; But he has got a wife,—and O! The difference to me! Phoebe Cary 1854 University Interscholastic League Literary Criticism Contest Invitational A • 2010 KEY Part 1: Knowledge of Literary Terms and of Literary History 30 items (1 point each) 1. B 11. B 21. D 2. E 12. A 22. D 3. E 13. A 23. C 4. D 14. C 24. A 5. D 15. C 25. D 6. E 16. C 26. A 7. A 17. C 27. B 8. E 18. E 28. B 9. C 19. A 29. E 10. B 20. B 30. C Part 2: UIL Reading List 20 items ( 2 points each) 31. D 38. B 45. B 32. C 39. A 46. D 33. E 40. D 47. C 34. D 41. A 48. A 35. C 42. C 49. D 36. E 43. B 50. A 37. E 44. C Part 3: Ability in Literary Criticism 15 items ( 2 points each) 51. D 56. D 61. D 52. A 57. D 62. B 53. B 58. E 63. B 54. E 59. C 64. C 55. E 60. A 65. E Part 4: Tie-Breaking Essay These notes are not intended to be understood as a key for the Tie-Breaking essay prompt; rather, they should serve the judge(s) as a presentation of critical ideas that might appear in an essay responding to the prompt. Criteria for judging the Tie-Breaking Essay SHOULD include the degree to which the instructions have been followed, the quality of the critical insight offered in response to the selection, the overall effectiveness of the written discussion, and the grammatical correctness of the essay. Note well that the quality of the contestant's critical insight is more important than the contestant's prose style. In short, the Literary Criticism contest is one that promotes the critical analysis of litera- ture. The quality of the writing, which should never go unappreciated, does not trump evidence of critical analysis. It is not expected that the essay will be longer than 150 words; however, the essay should reflect the Handbook's notion that an essay is a "moderately brief discussion of a restricted topic": something more than a few sentences. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Critical Notes on Wordsworth's "She Dwelt . . ." and Phoebe Cary's "Jacob" Literary concepts that MIGHT be used by the contestant in a discussion of these poems include allusion, contrast, diction (word choice), imagery, irony, humor, parody, simile, and tone (word choice). The prompt asks the contestant to address the poems' common theme, which involves a recognition that loss, through death or, perhaps, lack of access, is part of life. The contestant's approach might be a simplistic comparison of the poems as similar vehicles carrying a shared theme. The approach might recognize the contrast between a disappointment born of the loss of a loved one and the disappointment engendered by the unavailability of someone the persona wishes to love (certainly a species of loss). Additionally, a more sophisticated contrast might point to the gender difference of the two poems' personas, which, of course, might lead into a brief discussion of irony centered on cultural expecta- tions (Cary's poem is, after all, a Victorian poem). A contrast between Lucy's being dead and the wife's being alive, each an emotionally charged impediment to happiness, might reinforce the essay writer's discussion of the poems' shared theme. A recognition of the parody that informs the Cary poem might serve as the basis for a fine discus- sion. A contestant might have something to say about "Jacob" as an allusion: a man whose wife was terribly busy, in contrast to Wordsworth's Maid, a shy violet whose life seemed untroubled by some- thing that could never be "hidden from the eye": the raising of twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of Israel.