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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. Which of Celine's family members had the first name Celine?

2. Kristeva begins Chapter 6 "Celine: Neither Actor Nor Martyr" with a quote from what book?

3. Kristeva says literature undermines itself when it attempts to analyze what?

4. During the 1930s, what group does Kristeva say was arguing for the status quo?

5. For Celine, what is the foundation of human existence?

Short Essay Questions

1. How, according to Kristeva, do Celine's works draw the reader to their primal repressions?

2. Describe Celine's mother type of character.

3. Why does Kristeva say it makes sense that Celine would say his style was the most important part of his writing?

4. Explain how Kristeva says Celine used grotesque acts in his works.

5. Why might Kristeva say many of Celine's stylistic choices be called anti-linguistic or anti-grammatical?

6. Why would Celine's work not be considered abject when he was actively writing them?

7. How does Kristeva say Celine's work represents the division caused by economic inequality?

8. What does Kristeva mean when she says Celine is neither actor nor martyr?

9. How does Kristeva say Celine's depictions of females relate to the abject?

10. In what ways that Kristeva points out do Celine's writings differ from Jewish ideas?

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

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 concept of the "zero-state" in young children. What does Kristeva mean when she talks about the zero state? What happens when a child starts to come out of the zero state? What are some of the fears and desires that a young, pre-cognitive child might have? How do the fears and desires sync up with Freud's model of the Oedipal triangle? How do they go against it?

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