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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 a significant part of maturation for a boy is a distancing from what?

2. Kristeva accepts the psychoanalytic theories of what psychoanalyst?

3. Kristeva cites Neusner as having studied what law?

4. Kristeva says a person relates to his or her world through what?

5. To whom does Kristeva attribute the theory of structural anthropology?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How does Kristeva explain phobias?

4. What is the correlation Kristeva presents between the importance of social status in sexual relationships and the equality between the sexes?

5. What example does Kristeva give phobias which involves beautiful women?

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

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

8. How does Kristeva say Christianity uses separation and division?

9. How does social status play a role in purity customs in India?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Celine's views on human suffering and Kristeva's interpretation of this. Why did he believe that to be human is to suffer? How does Kristeva relate this sentiment to the abject? How does she then relate suffering to horror? What does she say man is afraid of? How do these feelings unify people?

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Kristeva set out on this journey to explain and even further understand the abject herself? If the abject is not expressible through language, what would be the purpose of trying to explain it in words, the way Kristeva has? What does she say the purpose of understanding and even confronting the abject is? How effective do you think Kristeva was at explaining the abject? Explain your answer with examples from the text.

Essay Topic 3

According to Kristeva's essay, what seems to be the purpose of Celine's use of grotesque and crude imagery? What is he trying to show his readers about their nature and about their identity? How does he use these grotesque images to relate man back to the abject?

(see the answer keys)

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