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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. According to Valery, how does a mollusk build?

2. What is the eighteenth-century theory that states the purpose of life is to make shells?

3. For Bachelard, what is the dichotomy of doors?

4. According to Bachelard, what term can describe the emergence of being through poetry and contemplation of poetic immensity?

5. As explained by Bachelard, why do the terms inside and outside not represent symmetrical realities?

Short Essay Questions

1. With regard to metaphoric levels of existence, Bachelard theorizes that poets differ from philosophers in what way?

2. Bachelard compares what images of nature put forward by Robinet and Michelet?

3. How does the age of a forest compare with the ages of fields and meadows according to Bachelard's theory put forth in "Intimate Immensity"?

4. For Milosz's cynical character, what is contained in the corners of the palace?

5. How does the Hughes character, Emily, reveal the concept of "invented childhood"?

6. How does Paris manage to make the tiny stature of Tom Thumb seem believable?

7. Through poetry, in the mind of Bachelard, what does calm become?

8. In the opinion of Bachelard, how do dreams of the shell affect the mind? What Baltrusaitis notion illustrates this effect?

9. In the mind of Bachelard, what is the dichotomy of the corner?

10. According to Bachelard, why do old forests offer inner peace?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As expressed in "The Dialectics of Outside and Inside," how are outside space and inside space like a mixture of being and nothingness? How, according to Michaux, can claustrophobia and agoraphobia occur simultaneously even though they are opposites?

Essay Topic 2

Why is the ability to imagine a major power of human nature? How is an imagined poetic image different from the things surrounding us that can be seen?

Essay Topic 3

Describe the nest-making method proposed by MIchelet in "Nests," and also describe the shell-building technique proposed by Robinet in "Shells." Why is Bachelard interested in these fanciful theories of building in nature?

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This section contains 668 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample