View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Koestler characterize creativity in the epigraph to Book 3?

2. In what way does Boorstin say Milton was a strong individual?

3. What was novel about the essay according to Boorstin?

4. What does Boorstin say Michelangelo inspired people to idealize?

5. With what does Boorstin say Alfred Stieglitz experimented?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Boorstin put Kafka in his portrait of imaginative thinkers?

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

3. How did painting begin to reflect the changes that were taking place in literature?

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

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

6. How does Boorstin characterize Dickens' contribution to imaginative culture?

7. What does Boorstin say Pickering and Prescott have in common, and what is their role in the development of the Western imaginative consciousness?

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

9. What is Coleridge's importance in imaginative literature according to Boorstin?

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

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?

Essay Topic 2

Write a character sketch of the author based on his style and content. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.

Essay Topic 3

Other critics have told this story--of the progress of art and literature--as an evolution of a state of crisis, as individuals reacted to changes in culture with innovations in art, which changed the nature of the question. To what extent does Boorstin account for the cultural causes of the evolution of art, and to what extent does he account for the sense of ongoing crisis many artists have described?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 799 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample