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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. In what tradition was Cristabel written according to Boorstin?

2. What did the Slavonic Dostoevskian character represent for the Western imagination according to Boorstin?

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

4. What does Boorstin say Dostoevsky's novels do to Western values?

5. In Boorstin's account, Michelangelo changed man from an imitation of nature to what?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Boorstin say is Dostoevsky's contribution to imaginative literature?

2. How did dance change during the transition into modernity?

3. How does Boorstin characterize Milton's contribution to imaginative culture?

4. What does Boorstin say is Rousseau's contribution to the art of autobiography?

5. How does Boorstin characterize Johann Sebastian Bach's contribution to human imaginative work?

6. How did visual arts change as artists came to appreciate the power of light?

7. When does Boorstin say authors became the subject of their own writing?

8. How did photography change the nature of art and representation in Boorstin's account?

9. How does Boorstin characterize Monet's accomplishment?

10. How did Beethoven change the nature of music according to Boorstin?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why do you think Boorstin excluded technological inventions and imaginative work? What is it about combustion engines, or industrial processes, or scientific discoveries, that excludes them from this work?

Essay Topic 2

Would you recommend The Creators? For what purposes would you recommend The Creators, and what kinds of readers would you not recommend it? What book would you recommend that would cover the same material or provide the same emotional experience in a different way?

Essay Topic 3

In autobiography, artists change themselves in the process of revealing themselves--putting their experiences down on paper seems to give them a new perspective, or free them. Using examples from the text, describe the difference between art that is a final product and art that is psychologically useful to the personal development of the author. Do they make different legacies? Can a psychological process be handed down?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 773 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample