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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. Which of Rushdie’s novels does he note Philip Roth read?

2. As which of the following does Rushdie gloss "rutputty"?

3. Which of the following does Rushdie note having written for his son?

4. Which of the following does Rushdie posit may have connected Shakespeare to Cervantes?

5. From which of the following does Rushdie note borrowing?

Short Essay Questions

1. To what does the “Lakshman rekha” refer?

2. Why does Rushdie note it took him so long to write his second published novel as it did?

3. What does Rushdie assert that falling in love with stories awakens in children?

4. Why does Rushdie note he initially resisted reading One Hundred Years of Solitude?

5. What reason for enjoying Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” does Rushdie note?

6. What does Heraclitus’s fragment 121 say?

7. How does Rushdie report Slaughterhouse-Five presents war?

8. What, from context, does Rushdie mean by saying “English, I understood, could be chutnified” (91)?

9. What was Rushdie’s last assignment as a student journalist?

10. Why does Rushdie note that the Philip Roth Lecture he gives takes Roth as its topic?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What does Rushdie gain from disparaging the works of other writers? That is, what effect is created by his doing so, and how does it work to the advantage of the anthology?

Essay Topic 2

In the anthology, some individuals are given but one name, while others are given first- and surnames, and still others are accorded names and titles. What significance, if any, accrues to patterns of naming in the book? If no significance accrues, what purpose might be served by the patterns of naming in the book? How does Languages of Truth bear as much out?

Essay Topic 3

Rushdie is noted mostly as an author of fiction. Does his collection of essays suggest his fiction will be worthwhile for you to read? Why or why not? How or how not?

(see the answer keys)

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