Deck 16: Critical Studies: Evaluating and Reforming Ideologies

Question 1

If you treat social category memberships as fluid constructions that are performed in discourse, rather than as fixed categories dictated by cultural ideology, your views are likely aligned with:

A) Structural critics
B) Poststructural critics
C) Rhetorical critics
D) All of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following would not be considered a critical studies methodology?

A) Cultural criticism
B) Dramatistic criticism
C) Gender criticism
D) Marxist criticism

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Foucault argued that knowledge could not be separated from the language used to describe it; he called this phenomenon:

A) The postmodern turn
B) Postcolonial discourse
C) Discursive formations
D) Semiotics

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Criticism that attributes power imbalance to the ways language is used, rather to some objectively verifiable social structure, is called:

A) Poststructural criticism
B) Cultural criticism
C) Semiotic criticism
D) None of the above

Question 5

Lyotard and Foucault are the theorists most often associated with:

A) Marxist criticism
B) Gender and feminist criticism
C) Postmodern criticism.
D) Rhetorical criticism

Question 6

If you view communication as performative and ideological, then your critical study of a topic should examine:

A) The actual words and phrases used to talk about the topic
B) The way people embody or enact topic-relevant discourse(s)
C) The values that would support both discourse and embodied behaviors
D) All of the above

Question 7

Inversion is a term that refers to:

A) Reversal of roles, status, or social positions in varying contexts
B) Reverting back to your own experience as researcher in conducting a critical analysis
C) Reversing the organizational style of the critical analysis
D) None of the above

Question 8

Derrida is the theorist most often associated with this analytic move in critical studies:

A) Deconstruction
B) Narrative analysis
C) Framing analysis
D) Semiotic analysis

Question 9

Coherent interpretations are:

A) Consistent
B) Intelligible
C) Logical
D) All of the above

Question 10

What does it mean to establish impact as a warrant in critical studies?

A) Show that your study makes people aware of an oppressive ideology or structure.
B) Show that your study makes people think or act differently in relation to an oppressive ideology or structure.
C) Both a and b are correct
D) None of the above are correct

Question 11

Critical scholars differ from rhetorical critics by:

A) Their attempt to create new theory out of what they are analyzing
B) Their use of existing theories to identify macro-level sources of uneven power relations
C) Their use of deductive instead of inductive reasoning
D) Their use of plausibility and impact as warrants

Question 12

This critical studies approach frequently critiques capitalism by describing and evaluating the economic arrangements that most contribute to unequal power distribution in society:

A) Narrative criticism
B) Framing criticism
C) Gender criticism
D) Marxist criticism

Question 13

"Intersectionality" is another term for:

A) Deconstruction
B) Gender binary
C) Hybridity
D) Multimodality

Question 14

A scholar is examining how university web sites seem to emphasize pictures and videos of men in positions of authority and in scientific disciplines and deemphasizes visuals of women in similar roles. The scholar likely is studying:

A) Deconstruction
B) Gender binary
C) Hybridity
D) Multimodality

Question 15

These critics explore how power is instantiated in multimodal communication:

A) Semiotic
B) Narrative
C) Marxist
D) Framing

Question 16

A critical studies scholar might use which of the following as evidence in a study:

A) Actions and events
B) Texts
C) The researcher's own beliefs and experiences
D) All of the above could be evidence

Question 17

When a researcher considers questions related to whose voices should be heard, whose interpretations are correct, and who says what reforms are needed in society, the researcher is thinking about:

A) The politics of representation
B) Intersectionality
C) Cultural appropriation
D) Multimodality

Question 18

Critical narrative analysis differs from rhetorical narrative analysis by its emphasis on:

A) The meanings people make through stories
B) The examination of power struggles contained in the stories
C) Warrants that are coherent and plausible
D) All of the above

Question 19

To consider and acknowledge your positionality as a researcher, you should:

A) Be as objective as possible and avoid including subjective responses in your analysis
B) Avoid discussing the choices that you have made so as not to influence the choices readers make
C) Be reflexive by being aware of the specific ways you are inseparable from the things you study
D) Both a and b

Question 20

Lyotard's (1984) postmodern turn refers to:

A) A general movement away from social structure as the explanatory means of domination
B) A general movement toward ideology, representation, and discourse as the sites of power struggles
C) The impossibility of separating ourselves and turning away from our language forms
D) Both a and b
Essays:

Question 21

Explain the two phases of the deconstruction process, and provide examples to illustrate each move.

Question 22

What is meant by cultural appropriation of texts? Give an example to illustrate your answer.

Question 23

Why do post-structural critics resist the gender binary?

Question 24

Discuss the three ways that critical studies scholars warrant their studies. How are their ways of warranting similar to or different from those of quantitative social science and interpretive scholars?