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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. The drives of an individual can be divided into sexual drives and drives from the ego, according to what theory?

2. What does Kristeva say God did not want Adam to become?

3. Kristeva says Freud echos what German writer when he says "In the beginning was the deed"?

4. Freud saw his Oedipus complex as what?

5. Kristeva posits that the fear of what is a phobia that develops as a response to the abject of mother-lust?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Kristeva say are the two prevailing interpretations of the laws regarding ritual impurity in the Old Testament?

2. Why does Kristeva say man gained permission to eat some animals?

3. How does Kristeva says the abject can be expressed?

4. What does Kristeva say is the most plausible interpretation of the laws regarding ritual impurity in the Old Testament?

5. According to traditional beliefs in Christianity, how does Adam's original sin taint human freedoms?

6. What does Kristeva say happens when one stops trying to seek out the "Other"?

7. How does Kristeva say Christianity and Judaism differ in the thoughts of impurity?

8. What two ways of relating to the abject does Kristeva says Dostoevsky presents in "The Possessed"?

9. How does Kristeva say the impurity phobia serves as a metaphor for society?

10. How do some societies try to purify a "defiled" person?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the motif of incest in the book. Why do you think Kristeva spends so much time on this topic? Why does she say there is such a taboo around incest? How does it relate to the abject? What does she seem to think about this taboo?

Essay Topic 2

Explore Kristeva's use of the the traditional Freudian model of the Oedipal triangle. Why is it the perfect tool to explain the abject? How does she expand upon it? Why does she say it is flawed?

Essay Topic 3

How does Celine use female characters to disrupt the traditional model of the Oedipal triangle? What are some of the female characters he uses? What are their characteristics? How do these characters differ from the ones in the triangle? What roles are reversed or distorted? What seems to be Celine's goal with these characters? What does it seem like he wants the reader to feel?

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