PrepTest 134 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 27

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During Dostoyevsky's time there were two significant and opposing directions in Russian literary criticism. ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███ █ █████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███

Background Positions · 1. High art; 2. radical

One view of art was that it was above the everyday. Another view of art was that it had to be politically useful.

Dostoyevsky's View · Fantasy and reality are not in principle distinct (contra radical view)

Not sure what this means, but I suspect this may be the main point and the rest of the passage will flesh this out.

Radical View · Art must depict reality as is

Critique · "Reality" is subjective

Reality is shaped by subjective experience. The writer's job is to blend reality and fantasy.

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Radical View · Art must serve politics

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Critique · Art must stand or fall on its own merits

Literature has to be well written.

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Radical View · Art must be useful

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Critique · How can we know what will be useful?

It's not possible to predict in what ways art may be useful.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Spotlight

27.

The passage suggests that Dostoyevsky's ████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████ ██

Question Type

Implied

Other’s perspective

Dostoyevsky would likely soften his attitude toward the radical critics if they agreed with him more — if they acknowledged that reality could include elements of the fantasic, that art doesn’t need to serve a political view, and that art doesn’t need to be useful.

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Dostoyevsky doesn’t want to draw a distinction between reality and fantasy; he believes the critics fail to realize that reality can include elements of the fantastic.

put clarity of ███████ █████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████████ █ ████████ ████

Dostoyevsky doesn’t put the purpose of a work ahead of formal literary aspects.

acknowledge the importance ██ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ████ ████████ █████

Dostoyevsky doesn’t want to eliminate elements of concrete reality from literature. He was a “realist” who believed “reality was literature’s crucial source.”

16%

recognize the full ████████████ ██ ████████ █████ ████ ██████████ ████████ █████

This is supported, because Dostoyevsky complains that the radical critics place the purpose of a work above artistic merit when evaluating a work. Dostoyevsky believes artistic merit should be placed above purpose.

69%

explain more fully █████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██ ██ ██

Dostoyevsky doesn’t complain that the radical critics fail to explain their demand that reality be depicted as it is. He complains that their conception of “reality” isn’t correct.

PrepTest 134 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 27

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