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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. When did DuBois experience himself as a Negro for the first time?

2. What does Gilroy say slavery tried to do to tradition?

3. What does Gilroy say the Holocaust should help us see?

4. What kinds of stories does Gilroy say dominate black popular culture?

5. What are the two parts of the double consciousness Gilroy describes?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is the importance of the theme of love and loss in black popular arts, according to Gilroy?

3. How does Gilroy characterize the ontological state of slavery?

4. What origin legitimized Richard Wright in readers' eyes?

5. What does Gilroy say DuBois reminded blacks?

6. What did DuBois argue was the only way to deal with the brutality of modern civilized life in the South?

7. What does Gilroy have to say about violence in American culture?

8. What does Gilroy say politics did for black culture?

9. What relation does Gilroy draw between the black Atlantic and the Holocaust?

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

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

Gilroy describes Richard Wright's life as part of a global movement of black culture. Is the personal always political for blacks in the black Atlantic? What space does Gilroy set aside for a self separate from politics and race? How would such a space be defined, or protected?

Essay Topic 3

Who are Gilroy's opponents, and what are their views? How is Gilroy's book a form of resistance to their ideas? What are the stakes these intellectuals are contesting, and how do they hope to win them?

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This section contains 736 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample