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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 did black music help to form in Britain as Gilroy describes it?

2. What reason does Gilroy use for justifying this characterization of the notion of racial purity?

3. What kind of conception of blackness does Gilroy say he prefers?

4. What image did English fans have of what a black performer should be like?

5. What criticism does Gilroy make of modern racial and ethnic concepts?

Short Essay Questions

1. What view does Gilroy say we should take of black experiences?

2. What role did music play in slaves' lives according to Gilroy?

3. How does Gilroy define the consciousness of the slave?

4. Where does Gilroy say we should look in order to see the reality of black experience?

5. What is the problem with a black identity rooted in skin color for Gilroy?

6. How does the uniqueness of the black Atlantic experience affect views of race according to Gilroy?

7. What does Gilroy use as opposition to the essential blackness some critics advocate?

8. What does Gilroy say most theorists of modernity focus on?

9. What does the search for black roots indicate to Gilroy?

10. What criticism does Gilroy make of Enlightenment universalist claims?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Where is the climax of this book? Are there different climaxes? What questions does each climax resolve? What questions does each climax leave unanswered?

Essay Topic 2

At the end of The Black Atlantic Paul Gilroy describes the challenges facing Western culture in the future. How is race related to these challenges, and do you think that this broadening of scope is a fitting gesture to close on? Does it cement Gilroy's narrative, or does it step aside from it?

Essay Topic 3

Black intellectuals have often encountered the difficulty that on one hand they need to show their learning, to prove their legitimacy to white intellectuals, but on the other, too much intellectualism is supposed to alienate them from their blackness. How does Gilroy navigate this treacherous water?

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This section contains 850 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample