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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. Why is Dante described as the founder of modern literature in Boorstin's opinion?

2. What does Byron say a sculptor should do in the epigraph to Part 4?

3. What metaphor does Boorstin say permeates Christian literature?

4. What becomes harder to understand in a culture that believes in one god in Boorstin's account?

5. What was the special element of Gothic architecture in Boorstin's opinion?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Boorstin characterize Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?

2. What innovation did Dante introduce to Western culture?

3. How does Boorstin characterize the Confucian teachings?

4. What improvement did the Greeks make in architecture?

5. How does Boorstin say the Japanese differ from Westerners in their architectural approach?

6. How does Boorstin describe the difference between tragedy and comedy?

7. What explanation does Boorstin offer for the cave paintings of Altamira, Lascaux and Les Trois Freres?

8. What was Boccaccio's contribution to Western culture?

9. How do Muslims differ from Greeks and Christians in their approach to making images?

10. What did Moses add to the culture of imagination?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do women play so small a part in The Creators? Analyze the text to describe Boorstin's ideas about women and women's contribution to Western culture and the development of the imagination. Are they principally muses instead of creators? Are they principally biological creators instead of artistic creators? How does Boorstin describe women's roles in culture?

Essay Topic 2

What is missing from this book? What should have been covered or presented that was not? What is the effect of this absence? Describe an element that ought to have been covered, and explain why it would have made the book stronger.

Essay Topic 3

Assess the proposition that Boorstin's inclusion of non-Western art and culture amounts to tokenism that reflects a Western bias.

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