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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Part 12, Sections 68-70 and Epilogue.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Where does Boorstin say Kafka's charm is to be found?
(a) In his restraint from suicide.
(b) In his ambiguity.
(c) In his affection for his own demise.
(d) In his absurdism.

2. Why is Dante described as the founder of modern literature in Boorstin's opinion?
(a) Because the Divine Comedy externalized a dialogue that would normally have remained internal.
(b) Because the Divine Comedy is autobiographical.
(c) Because the Divine Comedy represents a new cosmogony.
(d) Because the Divine Comedy was the first printed book after the Bible.

3. What does Boorstin say man discovered in Section 24: The Birth of the Spectator?
(a) That there is safety in crowds.
(b) That crowds have personalities of their own.
(c) That he need not be a participant all the time.
(d) That the universe does not have anything to do with him.

4. What does Boorstin say T.S. Eliot believed poetry was about?
(a) The fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.
(b) The poet's self-fulfillment.
(c) The evolution of society.
(d) The extinction of the poetic self.

5. Where does Goethe say the shadows are deepest in the epigraph to Part 10?
(a) Where there is the least hope.
(b) Where music is most organized.
(c) Where the light is brightest.
(d) Where the genius sleeps.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Boorstin say Melville presents in Moby Dick?

2. What does Boorstin say Eliot tried to express in "The Waste Land"?

3. Where did Dostoevsky gain the experience from which he wrote Crime and Punishment?

4. How did Benjamin Franklin innovate in the autobiographical form?

5. What does Boorstin say is the difference between tragedy and comedy?

(see the answer key)

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