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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What comment does Camus make about Greek tragedy?
(a) It is over-estimated.
(b) It is obscure, hard to comprehend.
(c) It is rich in lessons.
(d) It is too culturally specific to be useful.

2. What is the legendary Faust remembered for?
(a) Killing his mistress.
(b) Living for a very long time.
(c) Selling his soul to the Devil.
(d) As an alchemist.

3. According to Camus, what is an important relationship between The Trial and The Castle?
(a) The Trial shows us the end of life and The Castle shows us Heaven.
(b) The novels have the same central character and each is based on a play by Shakespeare.
(c) Both novels have a hedonistic main character who denies theism.
(d) The Trial presents a problem which The Castle partly solves.

4. What quality does Camus call 'the fatal evasion'?
(a) Hope.
(b) Faith.
(c) Mendacity.
(d) Despair.

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

6. What is the chief question pursued in THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV?
(a) Conflict over the emancipation of the Russian serfs.
(b) The existence of God.
(c) Sibling rivalry in the Russian middle class.
(d) The validity of the Russian church.

7. In The Castle, what is significant about the character Amalia?
(a) She is a dwarf.
(b) She is meant to be a representation of Helen of Troy.
(c) She is pregnant.
(d) She is the only character without hope.

8. Why are European cemeteries hideous?
(a) Only poor art-work and sculpture is used.
(b) They are not maintained properly.
(c) They are badly planned.
(d) People beautify what they love, not what they hate--and they hate death.

9. 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 recognition that the universe is infinite.
(d) The realization that the world that can no longer be explained comfortably.

10. Identify the literary device Camus uses in: 'Even men without a gospel have their Mount of Olives'.
(a) The device is an example of transubstantiation.
(b) The device is an example of onomatopoeia.
(c) The device is a metaphor.
(d) The device is personification.

11. What technique is employed by philosophical novelists?
(a) They often construct their novels as conversations.
(b) They use characters as mouthpieces for their philosophy.
(c) They use imagery rather than argument to convey their ideas.
(d) They write with heavy didacticism.

12. According to Camus, what makes the myth of Sisyphus tragic?
(a) The hero is conscious of his situation.
(b) The hero has received unjust punishment.
(c) He has been a plaything of the gods.
(d) The presence of The Furies.

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

14. When did Sisyphus test his wife's love?
(a) As he was leaving on his travels.
(b) When he returned from his travels.
(c) On their wedding night.
(d) When he was close to death.

15. What is the prime interest of everyday man?
(a) The world and what he can get out of it.
(b) The Darwinian drive to procreate the species.
(c) Himself and his potentialities.
(d) Study and personal growth.

Short Answer Questions

1. To which school of thought does Husserl belong?

2. How does Kafka express the absurd?

3. What does Camus claim is different about his discussion of suicide?

4. What 'two worlds' does Kafka present in his novels?

5. What comment does Camus make concerning suffering?

(see the answer keys)

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