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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. What does the "scenography of waiting" refer to?

2. The lover compares his gaze on the other's body to which of the following things?

3. "Connivance" describes a situation of connivance that occurs between which two people?

4. In "The Tip of the Nose/Alteration," what does "the tip of the nose" refer to?

5. Which phrase best describes the title "I have an Other-ache?"

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Catastrophe discuss the "amorous catastrophe" experienced by the lover?

2. Briefly describe the lover's sense of engulfment in the section "I am engulfed, I succumb..."/To Be Engulfed.

3. In Atopos, how does the lover see himself in relation to the other?

4. Discuss the function of the dark glasses in Dark Glasses/To Hide.

5. How does the mother-child relationship relate to the lover's feelings about the other's absence?

6. In "All the delights of the earth"/Fulfillment, what does the author mean when he says that fulfillments are not spoken?

7. In Agony/Anxiety, why does the author compare the lover to a psychotic who fears a breakdown?

8. What is the lover's attitude towards choice in "What is to be done?"/Behavior?

9. In Waiting, how is "the scenography of waiting" structured?

10. In The Absent One/Absence, how does the lover interpret the other's absence?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Elaborate on the notion that the word "adorable" (Adorable, p. 18) represents a failure in language.

- Why, and on whose part, does this this failure occur?

- How does the lover view his desire and how does this affect his relationship to language?

- How does the term "adorable" function?

Essay Topic 2

"I love you" is a peculiar phrase because, as the author states in I-Love-You (pg. 147), it is the metaphor of nothing else: it only has meaning at the moment it is uttered. Analyze the author's argument in this section.

- How does he describe the utterance in linguistic terms, i.e. how does it fit into language?

- What are the various responses to this utterance, both acceptable and unacceptable to the lover's ears?

- How is I-love-you an "active force," and against what?

Essay Topic 3

In this essay, you will discuss the nature of ravishment as outlined in the text, showing how the modern form draws from and transforms early myths of the ravisher.

1) Contrast the ancient myth of the ravisher with the modern concept of ravishment. How does the object of rape become the subject of love?

2) Discuss the nature of the lover's ravishment. How is it described in the text? What state precedes this ravishment and why?

3) What does the element of surprise have to do with ravishment, in both early and modern versions?

4) What is the eventual conclusion to this state?

(see the answer keys)

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