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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 effect does the other's atopia have on language?

2. According to the author, how does the world frequently characterize love incorrectly?

3. In "Events, Setbacks and Annoyances," which of the following describes the effect of "contingencies" on the amorous subject?

4. In the section entitled, "I am engulfed, I succumb," the author discusses which of the following desires?

5. How does the lover come to perceive the contingencies that affect him?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Connivance, what position does the other (the object of desire) occupy in the lover's conversation with his rival?

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

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

4. In The Heart, how does the author compare the heart to other attributes such as wit?

5. Describe the lover's predicament with regard to understanding love in "I want to understand."

6. In "Adorable!," the author notes how the lover sees the other as a Whole; what does he mean?

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

8. In Atopos, how does the lover associate the other with innocence?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Ravishment, the myth of love at first sight is discussed at length. Love at first sight or ravishment is in fact drawn explicitly from the image-repertoire.

- How does the text describe love at first sight?

- What are the conditions needed for it to occur?

- How does the visual function, e.g. what is the significance of the "scene?"

- How does the aural function?

- Does love at first sight really happen, or is it something that takes shape in the lover's mind upon reflection?

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

Continuing with the theme of language, discuss the myth that love can be "sublimated in aesthetic creation" in "To Write" (pg. 97.)

- Outline the two myths (Socratic and romantic), that the author mentions.

- Discuss the examples of the failure of amorous creation such as Werther's drawing and the haiku. Why do these attempts fail?

- What obstructs amorous writing? What does the author mean when he says that language is both "too much" and "too little?"

(see the answer keys)

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