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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. How does Gilroy say blacks are different from Jews?

2. What is the effect of turning toward tradition in Gilroy's account?

3. What does Gilroy say slavery was sanctified by?

4. What feeling does Gilroy say forms the foundation of the black Atlantic?

5. How does Gilroy characterize the mood of the black Atlantic?

Short Essay Questions

1. What, in Gilroy's account, was Richard Wright's thinking about racial identity?

2. Why do Jews and blacks both resist the comparison of slavery and the Holocaust, as Gilroy describes it?

3. What is the relationship between black and Jewish cultures, as Gilroy defines it?

4. What was Richard Wright's feeling about white culture?

5. Why was Wright criticized for his characterizations, according to Gilroy?

6. How does Gilroy say DuBois described black music?

7. What are the three modes of thinking, seeing and being which DuBois says are the basis of double consciousness?

8. What was James Weldon Johnson's contribution to Gilroy's book?

9. What were Richard Wright's politics?

10. What tension did politics create in black culture?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Evaluate your own reading of The Black Atlantic--did you resist it or were you compelled by the story? What does your reading tell you about yourself and your interests? Use specific examples from the book to describe yourself as a reader.

Essay Topic 2

Black intellectuals have often encountered the difficulty that on one hand they need to show their learning, to prove their legitimacy to white intellectuals, but on the other, too much intellectualism is supposed to alienate them from their blackness. How does Gilroy navigate this treacherous water?

Essay Topic 3

Gilroy celebrates black music for its ability to avoid the monotone discourse that takes place in other parts of black culture. How does Gilroy himself preserve the sound of other voices and perspectives throughout his book?

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