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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 the following does Rushdie call “The first great writer I knew” (158)?

2. Which of the following of Rushdie’s characters does he admit borrows from a childhood friend?

3. Who was president of PEN America in 1986?

4. To which of the following does Rushdie compare Vyasa?

5. How does Rushdie gloss the term “Trümmerliteratur”?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Rushdie note caused the characters drawn from his biography to come alive?

2. How does Rushdie explain the American preoccupation with religion?

3. Why does Rushdie argue that the Hinduism of the BJP is not true Hinduism?

4. What does Rushdie note as a reason the interviews in the Paris Review are worth attention?

5. What does Rushdie note is the right answer to give when asked about autobiographical fiction?

6. How does Rushdie describe Slothrop?

7. What does Rushdie call “the final victory of the censor” (228)?

8. For what reason was Sunflower Seeds cordoned off from the public?

9. What justification does Rushdie see used to condemn artists in India and the United States?

10. What does Rushdie call the most ancient question (180)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Readerly attention focuses on the following passage: “I believe that the books and stories we fall in love with make us who we are, or, not to claim too much, that the act of falling in love with a book or story changes us in some way, and the beloved tale becomes a part of our picture of the world, a part of the way in which we understand things and make judgements and choices in our daily lives” (3). Does the passage bear out? What in the anthology and in your experience suggests as much? How does it do so?

Essay Topic 2

To what other writer’s work in your experience does Rushdie’s seem most similar? What makes the writers similar? What differentiates them? Overall, which do you regard as doing better at the craft of writing, and why?

Essay Topic 3

In “Heraclitus,” Rushdie asserts “These are the four roots of the self: language, place, community, custom” (58). Does your experience bear out the assertion? How or how not?

(see the answer keys)

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