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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 feeling does Gilroy say forms the foundation of the black Atlantic?

2. What do Jews and blacks fear from a discussion of the Holocaust and slavery?

3. What did Richard Wright say was the core of modernization?

4. Why has the analysis of Wright's work been impoverished according to Gilroy?

5. What is the last period of black history, according to DuBois, in The Souls of Black Folk?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was Wright criticized for his characterizations, according to Gilroy?

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

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

4. In what way was capitalist culture a kind of crisis in itself, Wright?

5. How does Gilroy characterize the ontological state of slavery?

6. What idea was undermined, in Richard Wright's mind, by the violence of modern American culture?

7. What does Gilroy have to say about violence in American culture?

8. What distinction does Gilroy say Richard Wright holds?

9. What are the three modes of thinking, seeing and being which DuBois says are the basis of double consciousness?

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

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

What cultural forms embody black culture? Popular culture or literature? Is it embodied by black political action, or by the daily lives of ordinary black workers? Is it embodied in a history? How does Gilroy address this question? What conclusion does he come to?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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This section contains 700 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample