Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each writer to the argument they made about the category of literature.
- Raymond Williams
- Terry Eagleton
- Milman Parry
- Roman Jakobson
- Literature is functional, not ontological
- Oral composition explains formulaic epithets
- The object of study is literariness, not literature
- Traces how the word narrowed after 1800
Hints
- One traced a word, one dissolved a definition, one went to Yugoslavia to listen.
- The fourth relocated the object of study from works to a property of language.
Show the answer
- Raymond Williams → Traces how the word narrowed after 1800
- Terry Eagleton → Literature is functional, not ontological
- Milman Parry → Oral composition explains formulaic epithets
- Roman Jakobson → The object of study is literariness, not literature
Why
The four positions fit together: Williams shows the category is historical, Eagleton that it is functional, Parry that its oldest works predate writing, and Jakobson, the subject of the third lesson, that the discipline should study the property rather than the list.
Practise Literary Study Among the Disciplines
The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Literature I is free to start.
More questions on Literary Study Among the Disciplines
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