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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. What is the only picture Tamina has of her husband?

2. Who are two people Kundera blurs the historic moments of?

3. How does Hubl say you can "liquidate its people"?

4. What is one condition that must occur for graphomania to take place?

5. Why is Tamina thought to be a good listener?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the meaning of the word litost?

2. Who does Kristyna meet and what attracts her to this person?

3. How is Tamina's eventual suicide symbolic?

4. Why is Tamina losing herself and why does she think the notebooks will help her situation?

5. How is Tamina's situation where Raphael takes her similar to her husband's situation just before he dies?

6. Discuss what graphomania is and how it is used in the context of this chapter.

7. What does Tamina ask Bibi to get for her in Prague and why does Tamina make the request?

8. To what do Kristyna and the student agree and what is the outcome? What does the student's evaluation of Kristyna tell the reader?

9. How are the Czechs and litost related in Kundera's opinion?

10. Who is Kristyna?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Part 4, the main character (as deemed by Kundera later in the novel) is introduced. She is one of the two or three fictionalized characters that Kundera assumes are born every second on earth. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think Kundera means by the statement above?

2. Do you think Kundera is advocating for or against writers and the characters they create? Explain fully.

3. If Tamina is a fictionalized character, do you think she is a symbol of some concept in Kundera's experiences? What do you think she represents? Explain fully.

4. Kundera thinks of Tamina as the main character. Why do you think he sees her as the main character? Of what--the book? A couple parts of the book?

Essay Topic 2

In Part 3, "The Angels," it says that in 1948, Kundera was involved in the political parties of his time and "danced in a ring." Then he is asked to leave the ring for saying the wrong thing. Kundera watches the dancing with envy and in his recollection, Eluard stands in a ring with other students eventually dancing their way into the sky as they float away, happily, above Kundera's head. Discuss the following:

1. What do you think is the connection between being involved in political parties and dancing in a ring?

2. Is the ring a metaphor for belonging? Explain.

3. What do you think Kundera means when he says the students eventually dance their way into the sky as they float away, happily, above Kundera's head?

Essay Topic 3

In Part 3, "The Angels," laughter is discussed and analyzed at great length. Discuss the following:

1. Compare and contrast the different types of laughter discussed in Part III.

2. Which types of laughter could be labeled "good" or "uplifting"? Explain.

3. Which types of laughter could be labeled "bad" or "harmful"? Explain fully.

(see the answer keys)

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