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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. Who is Tamina?
2. What happens to Tamina's case in the police files?
3. Where do Kristyna and a student she meets agree to reunite?
4. What language is the word litost?
5. What is graphomania?
Short Essay Questions
1. Who is Kristyna?
2. What does Tamina do shortly after her husband dies and what might this foreshadow?
3. What is the relationship of litost to romantic love in general and specifically in relation to Kristyna and the student?
4. What is the meaning of the word litost?
5. What conditions have to exist for graphomania to blossom?
6. How are the Czechs and litost related in Kundera's opinion?
7. How is Tamina's situation where Raphael takes her similar to her husband's situation just before he dies?
8. How is Kundera's father's attempt to understand Beethoven undertaken by Kundera?
9. Why do you think Kundera blurs historical moments?
10. Where does Tamina go with Raphael?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
In Part 4, Kundera describes graphomania, which is the obsessive drive to write a book. In order for this condition to exist, the people in the society must have an elevated sense of well-being, an absence of dramatic events in their life and a general isolation between individuals. Discuss the following:
1. Research the term graphomania and explain it fully.
2. Do you think all writers suffer from graphomania?
3. From what compulsion do writers that do not come from countries with the conditions listed above write?
4. Do you think Kundera suffers from graphomania?
Essay Topic 2
In part 5, "Litost," a student at the Writer's Club states that only a poet can understand the value of what he writes and others may never get it at all. Discuss the following:
1. What is the purpose of poetry if not to communicate to others?
2. Do you think the above statement only applies to poetry? Why or why not?
3. If no one can understand the value of something one writes, is it worth writing it? Why or why not?
Essay Topic 3
Much of this book, which could also be considered a collection of short stories related thematically, hinges upon knowledge of the political milieu of Czechoslovakia from 1948 through the early 1970's. Discuss one of the following (These topics will require research):
1. Briefly summarize the political, social and cultural climate of Czechoslovakia in 1948 when the book opens. How is what you have learned about Czechoslovakia of that era relevant to Kundera's book?
2. Briefly summarize the political, social and cultural climate of Czechoslovakia of 1968 when the invasion by Russia of Czechoslovakia takes place. How is what you have learned about Czechoslovakia of that era relevant to Kundera's book?
3. Discuss the ways the setting informs two major themes in the book. Use detailed examples.
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This section contains 1,143 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) |
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