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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 does Gilroy say DuBois often reminded blacks?

2. What does Gilroy say tradition helps to do with regard to slavery?

3. What feeling did DuBois see in the culture of diaspora blacks?

4. What did the struggle for black autonomy involve, for DuBois?

5. How does Gilroy characterize the third mode of double consciousness?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Gilroy say DuBois reminded blacks?

2. Why, in Gilroy's opinion, is tradition useful in modern black culture?

3. What was James Weldon Johnson's contribution to Gilroy's book?

4. What does Gilroy say politics did for black culture?

5. What origin legitimized Richard Wright in readers' eyes?

6. What tension did politics create in black culture?

7. Describe the pan-Africanism movement which Richard Wright was part of.

8. How does blackness function in DuBois' writing, as Gilroy describes it?

9. What was DuBois' relation with blackness?

10. What view of the black Atlantic does Paul Gilroy leave us with at the end of the book?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What are we, the readers, supposed to do as a result of reading Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic? Does Gilroy propose plans of action, or is he merely informing us? How political is the act of reading The Black Atlantic?

Essay Topic 2

Who are Gilroy's opponents, and what are their views? How is Gilroy's book a form of resistance to their ideas? What are the stakes these intellectuals are contesting, and how do they hope to win them?

Essay Topic 3

Where does black cultural legitimacy come from? The academy or the ghetto? Africa or America? Where does Gilroy claim his legitimacy comes from? How does he counter claims that would challenge his legitimacy?

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