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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. Why is the lover attached to the object?

2. To which ribbon does the title of the section The Ribbon/Objects refer?

3. Which relationship dynamic does the section of the text entitled "Domnei" or "dependency" describe?

4. In "The World Thunderstruck," what does the subheading "disreality" or déréalité refer to?

5. What is the definition of languor offered in the section Love's Languor?

Short Essay Questions

1. In Inexpressible Love/To Write, what does the narrator suggest when he says "I cannot write myself"?

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

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

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

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

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

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

8. 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?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the idea of the figure that Roland Barthes outlines in the beginning of the book.

- What is a figure, according to his definition?

- Why did he choose this structure for the text?

- How do figures function, generally, and in the context of the lover's discourse?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

In the short paragraph that precedes the author's discussion of figures, he writes that "the lover is not to be reduced to a single symptomal subject."

- Explain what the author means when he says that the lover is not just a single individual.

- Why does the author choose to write with the first person pronoun ("I") and what does it show or signify?

- How does the lover speak and for whom is the discourse intended?

(see the answer keys)

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