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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. Chapter 10 "In the Beginning and Without End . . ." begins with a quote from Celine which says that "in the beginning was" what?

2. Where does Kristeva say the "miracle" of Celine lies?

3. In what year was Celine's pamphlet "Mea Culpa" published?

4. Kristeva says Celine anchors the destiny of literature through a re-assumption of what?

5. Chapter 8 "Those Females Who Wreck the Infinite" begins with a quote by whom?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Kristeva say Celine's depictions of females relate to the abject?

2. What does Kristeva say Celine felt was the foundation of human existence?

3. What does Kristeva say about how Celine's novels are realistic?

4. What does Kristeva mean when she says Celine is neither actor nor martyr?

5. Describe Celine's mother type of character.

6. How does Kristeva say the hatred of Jews act as a metaphor for the abject?

7. Why would Celine's work not be considered abject when he was actively writing them?

8. How did Celine use strong women in his works?

9. What does Kristeva say makes literature "abject"?

10. Why does Kristeva say that in Germany, even when Jews were seriously persecuted, they were punished with an increased vigor?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Kristeva mean when she says abject literature is an unstable category? What qualities does literature have to have to be abject? What is the narrative in abject literature supposed to be like? How does this cause a problem for the writer? How does language cause a problem?

Essay Topic 2

Explore Kristeva's use of the the traditional Freudian model of the Oedipal triangle. Why is it the perfect tool to explain the abject? How does she expand upon it? Why does she say it is flawed?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the concept of the Other as part of the Oedipal triangle. What does Kristeva say the Other is? Why does man try to seek fulfillment through it? What happens when man stops trying to seek fulfillment through the Other? How does this relate to the abject?

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