1000+ Literary Theory MCQs – Part 5: Mikhail Bakhtin & Dialogism

1. Choose the incorrect option with regard to Bakhtin’s polyphony.

1. Bakhtin states that the use of polyphony is restricted to Dostoevsky’s novels.
2. Bakhtin borrowed this term from the world of music.
3. Bakhtin used it to signify what he considered a literary feature that characterised Dostoevsky’s novels.
4. Polyphony represents a plurality of consciousnesses.

2. Choose the correct statement with regard to Bakhtin’s definition of monologism.

1. It does not feature in a novel that contains a plurality of characters.
2. It is the underlying unity of voice in a novel and, by extension, in any other literary form.
3. It is represented by the singularity of structure for every specific literary genre.
4. Monologism and polyphony can coexist in a novel.

3. Which of the following options is not associated with Mikhail Bakhtin?

1. carnivalesque
2. chronotope
3. defamiliarisation
4. dialogism

4. Who is Mikhail Bakhtin?

1. An American writer
2. A Russian theorist
3. A French theorist
4. A Roman philosopher

5. What should a novel be according to Mikhail Bakhtin?

1. Short
2. Singular
3. Poetic
4. Polyphonic

6. “Heteroglossia” refers to

1. the juxtaposition of multiple voices in a text.
2. the multiple readings of a text.
3. the comments on the margins of a text.
4. the gloss or commentary relating to a text.

7. In which of the following works did Bakhtin propose his widely cited concept of the ‘carnivalesque’?

1. “Discourse in the Novel”
2. The Dialogic Imagination
3. Rabelais and His World
4. “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel”

8. Who among the following presented the concept of the ‘multi-accentuality’ of the sign, saying that signs possess an inner dialectical quality and an ‘evaluative accent’?

1. Roland Barthes
2. Stuart Hall
3. Jacques Derrida
4. Valentin Voloshinov

9. Identify the theoretical formulation that does not belong to the group.

1. Carnivalesque
2. Panopticon
3. Polyphony
4. Heteroglossia

10. Which of the following terms was not coined by Mikhail Bakhtin?

1. Interpellation
2. Carnivalesque
3. Dialogism
4. Heteroglossia

11. The concept of ‘Dialogic Imagination’ is associated with:

1. Roman Jakobson
2. Viktor Shklovsky
3. Mikhail Bakhtin
4. Walter Benjamin

12. Which of the following is not associated with Mikhail Bakhtin?

1. Heteroglossia
2. Carnival
3. Chronotope
4. Paratexts

13. According to Bakhtin, the idea of the carnivalesque represents all of the following characteristics except:

1. a liberation from the prevailing truth and established order
2. a harking back to the past
3. emphasis on play, parody, pleasure and the body
4. the suspension of all hierarchical rank, privileges, norms and prohibitions

14. “Heteroglossia” refers to:

1. The comments in the margins of a text
2. Juxtaposition of multiple voices in a text
3. Multiple variations of languages and ideas in a text
4. The commentary relating to a text

15. Which two of the following essays form part of Mikhail Bakhtin’s The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays?

1. Only (A) and (B)
2. Only (A) and (D)
3. Only (B) and (C)
4. Only (B) and (D)

16. “This literary mode parallels the flouting of authority and inversion of social hierarchies that, in many cultures, are permitted in a season of ____. It does so by introducing a mingling of voices from diverse social levels that are free to mock and subvert authority, to flout social norms by ribaldry, and to exhibit various ways of profaning what is ordinarily regarded as sacrosanct.” The above description explains the concept of ________.

1. Carnivalesque
2. Intertextuality
3. Magic Realism
4. Heteroglossia

17. The following is a passage about O.V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak: “The novel is set in a remote village, in the middle of the 20th century. The narrative is replete with images of the vast ecosystem of the living and the non-living, a land potent with dreams and legends.” The analysis presented in this description is congruent with which one of the following concepts proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin?

1. Polyphony
2. Dialogism
3. Carnivalesque
4. Chronotope

18. The Formal Method in Literary Scholarship has disputed authorship between:

1. Pavel Medvedev and Valentin Voloshinov
2. Valentin Voloshinov and Pavel Medvedev
3. Mikhail Bakhtin and Pavel Medvedev
4. Fyodor Dostoevsky and Mikhail Bakhtin

19. Mikhail Bakhtin illustrated his theory of the carnivalesque primarily with reference to which of the following authors?

1. Dostoevsky
2. Rabelais
3. Homer
4. Plato

20. Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World is authored by:

1. Michael Holquist
2. Chris McCabe
3. Richard C. Hay
4. Sovetsky Pisatel