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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following words refers to denotative and connotative blackness that the African people have come to signify?

2. How many lectures is Playing in the Dark based on?

3. How does Morrison feel about the scholar who deemed the term "darky" acceptable?

4. Where did Cardinal grow up?

5. What does Morrison start a file to document?

Short Essay Questions

1. What are the prevalent themes in Sapphira and the Slave Girl?

2. What is the Byatt quote from Possession about?

3. To Morrison, why are reading and writing not extremely distinct for a writer?

4. Describe the file that Morrison begins to keep.

5. What does the term Africanism mean?

6. What does Morrison hope that studies of racism will begin to examine?

7. What risk does Morrison accept in discussing studies of racism?

8. What are Morrison's intentions in studying Africanism?

9. What matters seem to challenge most as a writer and what effect does this have on her?

10. According to Morrison, what does a black woman represent to literature but not to herself?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Analyze Morrison's comments about Willa Cather's novel Sapphira and the Slave Girl. What does Morrison have to say about the novel? Why does she say it would be meaningless without Africanist characters and the pedestal of racial degradation? Is this true?

Essay Topic 2

The duties of a persona include exorcism, reification, and mirroring. Identify and describe one example of each term in terms of Africanism presence in literature.

Essay Topic 3

According to Morrison, what are literary whiteness and literary blackness? What are the consequences of literary whiteness and blackness? How were literary whiteness and blackness created? How does Morrison avoid these two concepts?

(see the answer keys)

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