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

2. To what does the "ghost ship," in the section entitled The Ghost Ship/Errantry refer?

3. The Unknowable describes which of the following situations?

4. What do the clouds symbolize in the section by the same name?

5. In Love's Obscenity/Obscene, what is the author's first example of obscenity?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What kind of scenes does the lover image in Ideas of Solution/Outcomes?

3. What object does the lover compare himself to in This can't go on/Unbearable?

4. How does the section Fade-Out connect the loved beings withdrawal with the Mother?

5. Novel/Drama: Why does the form in which a love story is told matter?

6. 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?

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

8. Describe the lover's struggle with demons in "We are our own demons"/Demons.

9. In Domnei/Dependency, what does the lover mean when he says: "I am twice subject?"

10. List some of the scenarios described by the narrator to illustrate the sense of disreality in The World Thunderstruck/Disreality.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

"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 2

In Obscene, the author argues that modern views make love's sentimentality obscene, therefore, the lover's refusal to abandon sentiment becomes a transgression.

- What are the negative views of sentiment? Of the lover?

- Why is the lover's sentimentality obscene? Provide examples.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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