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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Kafka express the absurd?
(a) Through farce that is close to sentimentality.
(b) Through tragedy.
(c) Through representations of everyday life.
(d) Through the logical.

2. What does Homer have to say about Sisyphus?
(a) That he was an inept fool.
(b) That he had no fear of Pluto.
(c) That he was the wisest and most prudent of mortals.
(d) That his heroic deeds ought not to have been punished.

3. Which novel deals with a soul in quest of grace?
(a) Metamorphosis.
(b) The Life and Times of Michael K.
(c) The Castle.
(d) The Trial.

4. What would make man feel alienated in the universe?
(a) Realization that all work is futile.
(b) Falling out with relatives and friends.
(c) The realization that the world that can no longer be explained comfortably.
(d) The recognition that the universe is infinite.

5. What is the hero's great fear following his transformation?
(a) His mother's tears.
(b) His father's anger.
(c) His boss' anger.
(d) That his girlfriend will find out.

6. How are myths given life?
(a) Through human imagination.
(b) Through cinema and stage representation.
(c) Through their coming true.
(d) Through representations on Grecian urns.

7. What embodies 'a drama of the intelligence', according to Camus?
(a) The great scientific discoveries.
(b) A marvel of engineering.
(c) The plays of Shakespeare.
(d) A work of art.

8. From what does the writer wish to liberate his universe?
(a) Its absurdity.
(b) Its incoherence.
(c) Its supernovae.
(d) Its phantoms.

9. What is important about an actor's fame?
(a) Ultimately it brings displeasure.
(b) The problem of paparazzi.
(c) Its illusory nature.
(d) Its fleeting nature.

10. What are the condemned man's last words?
(a) 'Such is life.'
(b) 'It is a far, far better rest that I go to.'
(c) 'I am innocent!'
(d) 'Like a dog.'

11. Of what figurative device is: 'These are our nights of Gethsemane'?
(a) It is an example of idiomatic phrasing.
(b) It is a metaphor.
(c) It is an example of decorative prose.
(d) It is an illusion.

12. What does Camus see as the one truly serious philosophical problem?
(a) Judging the value of religion.
(b) The problem of human pain and suffering.
(c) Judging whether or not life is worth living.
(d) Judging the value of actions.

13. Which famous Frenchwoman was self-reliant?
(a) Madame Roland.
(b) Madame La Guillotine.
(c) Violetta Valery
(d) Madame Bovary.

14. What attitude can overcome all fate?
(a) Diigence.
(b) Indolence.
(c) Indifference.
(d) Scorn.

15. What common quality can be found in Kafka, Proust and Plotinus?
(a) Nostalgia for a lost paradise.
(b) Pity for suffering.
(c) Nostalgia for childhood.
(d) Rejection of paradise.

Short Answer Questions

1. What comment has Camus to make about Malraux?

2. What technique is employed by philosophical novelists?

3. To which school of thought does Husserl belong?

4. What assertions are always false?

5. In what way is a modern worker similar to Sisyphus?

(see the answer keys)

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