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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. In the book about Faulkner, what "show their flaws best in written form"?

2. What is the race of the character in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym?

3. Which flight is described by Morrison as an escape?

4. According to Dunbar, from what do his slaves want freedom from?

5. What is the name of the book Morrison opens with in Chapter 3?

Short Essay Questions

1. According to Morrison, what does Poe's work show?

2. Why do Africanist characters serve as surrogates and enablers?

3. Describe one major theme Morrison lists being consistent with American literature.

4. What does William Carlos Williams's Adam describe?

5. What is Morrison's deliberation entirely about?

6. From Morrison's point of view, how do writers see whiteness?

7. Why does Morrison deem Poe the most important early American writer?

8. Why is the act of ignoring race in literature a racist act?

9. What characteristics does Morrison describe as being the distinguishing features of non-Americans?

10. How is Hemingway's work distant from African Americans?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How does early America distinguish itself by pressing toward a future of freedom? What does this mean? How does this movement help Americans escape oppression? How does romance help to evade history?

Essay Topic 2

How does learning about how Africanism functions in the literary imagination make it possible to discover the nature and cause of literary whiteness?

Essay Topic 3

Morrison started a file to document instances of black people igniting moments of discovery in literature not written by them. Why is this significant? Why did Morrison begin doing this? Is this a positive or negative thing for Morrison to do? Why? What effect did doing this have on Morrison?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 612 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample