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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. How is the sentimental subject perceived by society?

2. In The Orange/Irksome, an episode involving oranges from the novel Werther is used to describe which of the following feelings?

3. What does that composer claim regarding tears?

4. In Blue Coat and Yellow Vest/habiliment, what specifically does the "blue coat and yellow vest" refer to?

5. Which one of the following authors does Barthes cite in this section on the demonic life of a lover?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. In The Dedication, how does the act of giving follow "the family model"?

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

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

5. Describe the type of jealousy displayed by Werther in the figure Jealousy.

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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?"

Essay Topic 3

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.

(see the answer keys)

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