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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Black Matter(s)," what does Morrison say she means by "American Africanism"?
(a) A Black literary movement that centers Africanness.
(b) The historic systemic oppression of Black Americans.
(c) A claim for expansion of the literary canon to incorporate Black writers.
(d) A white-American construct that defines "American" against a fabrication of Blackness.

2. "The War Against Error" is a fifteenth and sixteenth century effort to eliminate what kind of error?
(a) Philosophical thinking that questioned the power of the state.
(b) The acceptance of Africans into European society.
(c) Religious beliefs that differed from community norms.
(d) Movements against genocide and ethnic cleansing.

3. Mass migration, according to Morrison, causes what to happen?
(a) Expansion of identity to include the "other."
(b) Failure of the state.
(c) The surveillance state.
(d) Fear of foreignness.

4. In "The Future of Time," what does Morrison say it seems like "the future" means to people today?
(a) Infinity.
(b) Despair.
(c) Nothing at all.
(d) 20-40 years from now.

5. What does Morrison say is at its greatest height since the time of the slave trade?
(a) Legislative attempts to integrate newcomers.
(b) The mass movement of people.
(c) Globalism.
(d) The opening of boarders.

6. "Noblesse oblige" is a philosophy that urged the nobility to do what?
(a) Accumulate as much land as possible.
(b) Share their wealth.
(c) Prevent strangers from entering their lands.
(d) Seize power from the church.

7. Based on your reading of "Arts Advocacy," which statement would Morrison agree with?
(a) Real artists are able to create regardless of their circumstances.
(b) Art is a steadying force in society.
(c) The existence of art in a society is precarious.
(d) Artists are not responsible for a dialogue with society.

8. Morrison's discussion of Huckleberry Finn in "Black Matter(s)" is intended as an illustration of what?
(a) The shadow of Puritanism in fiction.
(b) Historical accuracy in fiction.
(c) American Africanism.
(d) Gothic Romanticism.

9. Morrison begins "Moral Inhabitants" with a list of what Colonial import and export items?
(a) Indentured servants.
(b) Slaves.
(c) Guns.
(d) Bibles and other religious tracts.

10. In "Black Matter(s)," Morrison speculates that slaves offered white Americans a sense of what?
(a) Power and authority they had been denied in Europe.
(b) Religious duty to the oppressed.
(c) Permissiveness and freedom lacking in the Europe of that time.
(d) Being monitored by their social inferiors.

11. In "The Future of Time," Morrison points to what two forces as responsible for our modern relationship to the future?
(a) Science and technology.
(b) Secularism and the Cold War.
(c) Religion and literature.
(d) Women's Liberation and the Civil Rights Movement.

12. In "Literature and Public Life," what does Morrison say shapes our understanding of community?
(a) The media, especially television.
(b) Government propaganda.
(c) Literature from the canon.
(d) Literature from outside the canon.

13. In "Literature and Public Life," Morrison says that we live in the age of what?
(a) Resignation.
(b) Spectacle.
(c) Conscience.
(d) Inquiry.

14. In "Black Matter(s)," Morrison says that we can understand something important about literary "whiteness" by studying what?
(a) Literary Blackness.
(b) History.
(c) Changes to the canon over time.
(d) Black writers.

15. The art show Morrison discusses in "Harlem on My Mind" had a catalog with a forward written by whom?
(a) The city parks commissioner.
(b) Romare Bearden.
(c) A high-school student.
(d) Toni Morrison.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Morrison's "Black Matter(s)," what is a key factor in national identity?

2. According to "Harlem on My Mind," almost 28 years after the "Harlem" exhibit, the Guggenheim museum did what?

3. What is it that Morrison says distinguishes globalism from previous movements?

4. In "Moral Inhabitants," Morrison says that the ability to make fine distinctions shows what?

5. In "Women, Race, and Memory," Morrison blames what group for the oppression of women?

(see the answer keys)

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