- Mon May 23, 2016 3:56 pm
#25372
Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=10524)
The correct answer choice is (C)
This Purpose question asks us to identify the meaning of the term “useful” as applied to works of literature in the context of the passage. Structure is once again key, as the radical critics’ insistence that art be “useful” is discussed mainly in the first and the fourth paragraphs of the passage.
Answer choice (A): The utility of literature has little to do with its proficiency at depicting the realm of the fantastic. This claim cannot be proven with the information provided in the passage.
Answer choice (B): This is a Shell Game answer. If a literary work were effective at communicating the author’s ideas, such a work would be considered “artistic,” not “useful.”
Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. From the first paragraph, we know that the radical critics insist on art being “useful,” by which they mean exposing social injustice and contributing to the creation of a new society (lines 7-9). We can conclude that the term “useful,” as applied to works of literature, simply means the “ability to help bring about social change.”
Answer choice (D): The author never implies that literary works are only as useful as their ability to explode the boundaries of the tangible world. Such a description is not even tangentially related to the information contained in the passage.
Answer choice (E): While the description of a literary work as “useful” would certainly apply to its capacity to advance certain social theories, it would not apply to its capacity to advance a particular theory of literature.
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=10524)
The correct answer choice is (C)
This Purpose question asks us to identify the meaning of the term “useful” as applied to works of literature in the context of the passage. Structure is once again key, as the radical critics’ insistence that art be “useful” is discussed mainly in the first and the fourth paragraphs of the passage.
Answer choice (A): The utility of literature has little to do with its proficiency at depicting the realm of the fantastic. This claim cannot be proven with the information provided in the passage.
Answer choice (B): This is a Shell Game answer. If a literary work were effective at communicating the author’s ideas, such a work would be considered “artistic,” not “useful.”
Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. From the first paragraph, we know that the radical critics insist on art being “useful,” by which they mean exposing social injustice and contributing to the creation of a new society (lines 7-9). We can conclude that the term “useful,” as applied to works of literature, simply means the “ability to help bring about social change.”
Answer choice (D): The author never implies that literary works are only as useful as their ability to explode the boundaries of the tangible world. Such a description is not even tangentially related to the information contained in the passage.
Answer choice (E): While the description of a literary work as “useful” would certainly apply to its capacity to advance certain social theories, it would not apply to its capacity to advance a particular theory of literature.