Read the following Passage and Answer questions
Walter Lippman refers to stereotypes as a projection on to the 'world;. Although he is not concerned primarily to distinguish stereotypes from modes of representation whose principal concern is not the world, it is important for us to do so, especially as our focus is representation in media fictions, which are aesthetic as well as social constructs. In this, perspective, stereotypes are a particular sub-category of a broader category of fictional characters, the type. Whereas stereotypes are essentially defined by their aesthetic function, namely a mode of characterisation in fiction. The type is any character constructed through the use of a few immediately recognisable and defining traits, which do not change or 'develop' through the course of the narrative and which point to general, recurrent features of the human world. The opposite of the type is the novelistic character, defined by a multiplicity of traits that are only gradually revealed to us through the course of the narrative, a narrative which is hinged on the growth or development of the character and is thus centered upon the latter in her or his unique individuality, rather than pointing outwards to world. In any society, it is the novelistic character that is privileged over the type, for the obvious reason that the society's privileges at any rate, at the level of social rhetoric the individual over the collective or the mass. For this reason, the majority of fictions that address themselves to general social issues tend nevertheless to end up telling the story of a particular individual, hence returning social issues to purely personal and psychological ones. Once we address ourselves to the representation and definition of social categories, for example, alcoholics, we have to consider what is at stake in one mode of characterization than another.
1. Most novelists, while addressing social issues, prefer fictionalisation of
(a) The masses
(b) Social sub-categories
(c) Social privileges
(d) Personal issues
2. Representations that appear in the media fictions are
(a) Aesthetic constructs
(b) Reflection of real world
(c) Defining characters
(d) Materialistic characterisation
3. Stereotypes are characterized by
(a) Immediate recognition of people
(b) Fictional narration
(c) Absence of social constructs
(d) Broadness of function
4. Why the novelistic character is privileged over the type?
(a) Due to the demand of the narrative
(b) Because of single definable trait
(c) As it is part of a sub-category called stereotype
(d) Because of preference of social rhetoric to the individual.
5. Any character in the type will reflect
(a) The illusory world
(b) The changeable traits of individuals
(c) The unchangeable traits of individuals
(d) The sub-categories of representation
ANSWERS
1 - d
2 - a
3 - b
4 - d
5 - c
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