PT146.S3.Q24

PrepTest 146 - Section 3 - Question 24

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For a work to be rightly thought of as world literature, it must be received and interpreted within the writer's own national tradition and within external national traditions. A work counts as being interpreted within a national tradition if authors from that tradition use the work in at least one of three ways: as a positive model for the development of their own tradition, as a negative case of a decadent tendency that must be consciously avoided, or as an image of radical otherness that prompts refinement of the home tradition.

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24.

The statements above, if true, most strongly support which one of the following?

a

A work of literature cannot be well received within an external national tradition if it is not well received within the writer's own national tradition.

Unsupported. The stimulus doesn’t connect the the writer’s own national tradition with external national traditions. Perhaps a work can still be received well in an external tradition without being received well in the writer’s own tradition.

b

A work of world literature offers more to readers within external national traditions than it offers to readers within the writer's national tradition.

Unsupported. The stimulus does not give any information about what a work of world literature offers to different audiences.

c

A work should not be thought of as world literature if it is more meaningful to readers from the writer's national tradition than it is to readers from external national traditions.

Unsupported. Whether a work is more meaningful to one group or another has no effect on whether it should be thought of as world literature.

d

A work of world literature is always influenced by works outside of the writer's national tradition.

Unsupported. For a work to be world literature, it must be received and interpreted by the writer’s own national tradition and by other national traditions. We aren’t told that it’s always influenced by other works outside of the writer’s national tradition.

e

A work is not part of world literature if it affects the development of only one national tradition.

Strongly supported. A work of world literature must be interpreted by the writer’s national tradition and other national traditions. Thus, it must affect the development of both traditions either as a positive model, a negative model, or a model of refinement.

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