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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 the figure Identifications, with whom or what does the lover identify?

2. In "I am odious"/Monstrous, what does the lover's discourse do to the other?

3. To whom does the following quote belong,"I therefore have decked myself out in finery so that I might be in the company of a fine young man?"

4. What causes the particular feeling, experienced by the character Werther, in the episode involving oranges?

5. In Clouds, why is Herr Schmidt upset?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The lover would like to surround the other and their love in a cocoon of intimacy that is uniquely theirs. Yet, repeatedly the lover is reminded through images, interactions, or through language, that the other also belongs to the world. Discuss this dynamic in several of the figures, for example, Alteration (pg. 25), The Orange/Irksome (pg. 110), and Tenderness (pg. 224.) Does the lover's image of the other shift as a result?

Essay Topic 2

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?

Essay Topic 3

In Askesis and Dark Glasses/To Hide, the lover's suffering becomes performative. He performs acts that point to his amorous state for the benefit of the other.

- How does the lover perform his suffering? What are the activities, rituals, or behaviors he adopts?

- What are the goals of these actions?

- Can the lover control the outcome, or effect, of these behaviors?

(see the answer keys)

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