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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. Kristeva says Freud is successful in his treatment of the subject-object relation when he approaches it from the perspective of what?

2. What does Kristeva name as the chief features of the abject?

3. Who was the first person to have specified that the plane of abjection is that of the subject/object relationship?

4. Kristeva says Judaism always conceived of impurity as what kind of reality?

5. What belief states that Christ is simultaneously man and God?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How does Kristeva say the Freudian model of the Oedipal triangle flawed?

3. How does Kristeva say incest relates to the abject?

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

5. What does Kristeva say about how the New Testament contradicts the traditional Christian thoughts about the origin of sin?

6. What reason does Kristeva give for why women in the Jewish faith are seen as impure after having children?

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

8. What rules come with the permission to eat meat in the Old Testament?

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

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

Explore the concept of the abject. How does Kristeva go about explaining what the abject is? Where does the abject come from? What does Kristeva mean when she says it is neither subject nor object? How does she relate her feelings about the abject to the reader? How does she use her personal experiences with these feelings to explain the abject?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the feeling Kristeva says the reader gets from reading Celine. How does she describe the feeling? How do his writings seem to capture the abject? How does she, specifically, say reading Celine makes her feel? What do you think she means when she says his writings are liberating?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the way phobias relate to the abject in the book. Where does Kristeva say phobias come from? What are people really afraid of? What do phobias seem to represent, with regard to the abject?

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This section contains 845 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample