Important Questions on Literary Theory

Crashcourse Day 1- Part 2

Questions related to
Structuralism:
In which of the following works does
Levi-Strauss discusses the concept of
‘bricolage’?

A. The Elementary Structures of Kinship

B. Narrative Discourse
C. The Savage Mind
D. Mythologiques
Ans. C
Sol.
In The Savage Mind (1962), the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss used the word bricolage to
describe the characteristic patterns of mythological thought. Bricolage is the skill of using whatever
is at hand and recombining them to create something new. Levi-Strauss compares the working of
the bricoleur and the engineer. The bricoleur, who is the “savage mind”, works with his hands in
devious ways, puts pre-existing things together in new ways, and makes do with whatever is at
hand. What Levi-Strauss points out here is that signs already in existence are used for purposes that
they were originally not meant for.
Published in 1916, Course in General
Linguistics is regarded as the starting point
of structural linguistics, an approach to
linguistics that flourished in Europe and the
United States in the first half of the 20th
century. Who is the author of the book?
A. C.S. Pierce
B. Charles W. Morris
C. Ferdinand de Saussure
D. Roman Jakobson
• Ans. C
• Sol.
• The Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure,
gave the theory of signification in his 1915
work, A Course in General Linguistics,
where he defined sign as the combination
of signifier and signified. Signifier is the
object - the material component where as
the signified is the idea or concept behind
that object- the abstract component. The
word (signifier) is connected to the
meaning or concept (the signified) in a
purely arbitrary relationship. Meaning,
thus, emerges from in the difference or
opposition between the words.
Questions related
to Foucault and
Bakhtin
Which of the following narrative cycles is referred
to in Michel Foucault’ s “What is an Author?”?

A. The Canterbury Tales

B. The Thousand and One Nights

C. The Decameron

D. Tuti Namah
Ans. B

● The narrative cycle referred to as The Thousand and

One Nights is used by Foucault in his essay to describe
the concept of author function.

● According to Foucault’s essay, the legal system had a

key role in the creation of the author, as an author
was required (in order to be penalised) for expressing
controversial views. Thus, the correct option is B.
The concept of polyglossia was explained by

A. Mikhail Bakhtin

B. Ferdinand de Saussure

C. Roman Jakobson

D. Jacques Derrida
Ans. A

● In his work The Dialogic Imagination, Mikhail

Bakhtin introduced many important terms
related to nature and development of novels.

● Bakhtin described Polyglossia as the

“simultaneous presence of two or more
national languages interacting within a single
cultural system". Thus, the correct option is A.
Thank You

Read Structuralism

Cover Bakhtin and Foucault (from Oxford Companion to Critical

Theory)