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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 does Morrison describe as being the second feature of a non-American?

2. What is the third duty of a persona?

3. According to Morrison, whose work is free of agenda and sensitivity?

4. According to Morrison, what do writers seem to think whiteness is?

5. What does the American group that offers itself up as a surrogate represent a meditation on?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Morrison hope to avert the critical gaze from and to?

2. According to Morrison, what does American literature represent a commentary of?

3. Describe the unmanageable slips throughout Poe's work.

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

5. Describe the quote Morrison uses from James Snead's book on Faulkner?

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

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

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

9. Describe To Have and Have Not.

10. How does Huckleberry Finn critique class and race?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

According to Morrison, reading and writing are not very distinct for a writer, and they both require alertness and awareness of the writer's notions of risk and safety. Writers also fight for meaning and responsibility. Describe what Morrison means by this. Do you think she is right? Give an example of what Morrison means.

Essay Topic 2

Analyze Morrison's comments about Willa Cather's novel Sapphira and the Slave Girl. What does Morrison have to say about the novel? Why does she say it would be meaningless without Africanist characters and the pedestal of racial degradation? Is this true?

Essay Topic 3

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

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