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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. In "Show me whom to desire"/Induction, the narrator notes that there is no desire without _________________.

2. What does the young Freud say to his fiancée in The Love Letter?

3. In the section called Fade-out, where does the other's fade-out reside?

4. At the end of this section, which to spaces or realities does the author oppose?

5. What do a person's tears prove to him?

Short Essay Questions

1. Exuberance/Expenditure: Discuss the contrast the author makes between the characters Werther and Albert.

2. "I am crazy"/Mad: How is the lover's madness metaphorical?

3. Describe the relation between the informer, the lover, and the loved being in The Informer.

4. Describe the scenario in At Fault/Faults between the lover and the loved one at the train station.

5. Describe the lover's process of identification, as seen in the character Werther, in the section entitled Identifications.

6. In the section I Love You, what happens to the amorous subject when he finally here's the words "I love you" returned to him? Cite a couple examples.

7. In Love's Languor/Languor, how is the Satyr contrasted with languor?

8. Briefly state what Werther writes in his letter to Charlotte and what it signifies in The Love Letter/Letter.

9. In The Ghost Ship/Errantry, why is the lover doomed to wander?

10. The Unknowable has to do with the lover's ability, or lack thereof, to know the other: what conclusion does the lover come to in this section?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The other's absence is an important theme in the text. It surfaces in figures such as Absence, Anxiety, and Waiting. Discuss how the lover defines himself through absence:

- What does it mean that amorous absence functions in a single direction? (Absence, pg. 13)

- Who carries out the discourse of absence historically and what does this mean for the lover?

- What position does the other occupy in this dynamic?

- How does the other's absence affect the lover? (Anxiety, pg. 29)

- In what way is the absent other associated with truth? (Waiting, pg. 37)

Essay Topic 2

The lover goes through a process of identification in Habiliment (pg. 126) and Identification (pg. 129.) This identification structures the lover's view of himself in the love relationship, both through his view of the beloved and of other lovers.

- Describe how the lover identifies with the other. How does his identification present itself?

- How is clothing involved in this process?

- In Identifications (pg. 129), what shape does the lover's identification take? With whom does he identify and why?

- How was this process of identification shown historically?

Essay Topic 3

In Annulment (p. 31) and Dedication (p. 75), the author shows the process by which the lover's attentions can turn the other into an object.

- Describe how the lover's idealization of the other is actually a form of annulment. Is this illusion created around the other typical of love relationships?

- What is the result of the lover's objectification of the other?

- In Dedication, the process of making the other into an object functions a little differently-how?

(see the answer keys)

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