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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Invisible Ink," what word does Morrison object to when it is applied to text?
(a) Truthful.
(b) Stable.
(c) Dynamic.
(d) Fictive.

2. In "God's Language," what does Morrison say gets more attention than paradise?
(a) Race.
(b) Hell.
(c) Money.
(d) Power.

3. In "Faulkner and Women," what does Morrison call the character of Sula?
(a) An adventuress.
(b) A conqueror.
(c) An artist.
(d) A delight.

4. In "Goodbye to All That," what does Morrison say that she wants her work to disable?
(a) The hegemony of Europeans in the canon.
(b) The art versus politics debate.
(c) The Western canon.
(d) Modern secular humanism.

5. In "Academic Whispers," Morrison says that interview requests used to make her feel like she was being used as what?
(a) A "specimen."
(b) "Journalistic glue."
(c) A "humanistic disciple."
(d) "Literary enforcement."

6. In "Unspeakable Things Unspoken," Morrison brings up Bernal's two models of Greek history in order to illustrate what point?
(a) The European model of Ancient Greece is the basis of Christianity's appropriation of Israel.
(b) The Phoenicians are wrongly viewed as culturally close to ancient Jewish civilization.
(c) Ancient Greece's contributions to Western culture are not as significant as many claim.
(d) Western Civilization's European foundation story rests on dubious scholarship.

7. In "Unspeakable Things Unspoken," Morrison says that what is different about the discussion of including African-American literature in the canon is that unlike earlier arguments over expanding the canon, this one does what?
(a) Arouses much more violent passions in the defenders of the status quo.
(b) Undermines the existence of the canon itself.
(c) Responds to shifting tastes in the reading public.
(d) Calls into question the authenticity of American literature as a category within the canon.

8. In "God's Language," what does Morrison say seems more true the longer she writes?
(a) The impossibility of writing.
(b) That it will be possible to merge the scientific and the artistic.
(c) The centrality of African American subjects.
(d) That she deserves the praise she got earlier in her career.

9. In "The Source of Self-Regard," Morrison suggests that one reason that her work is widely taught is that it is what?
(a) Challenging to younger readers.
(b) A more intimate way of reading history.
(c) Filled with reflection on contemporary social issues.
(d) Made to stand in for all of Black literature.

10. In "The Site of Memory," Morrison remarks upon what tone common in slave narratives?
(a) Fury.
(b) Objectivity.
(c) Despair.
(d) Sarcasm.

11. In "Grendel and His Mother," what claim does Morrison make for Beowulf?
(a) It is an artifact of an irrelevant time.
(b) It functions as a mirror for our own time.
(c) It equals our modern knowledge of reality.
(d) It exposes how values have shifted in Western culture.

12. In "The Writer Before the Page," Morrison compares a successful text to what?
(a) A map.
(b) A shattered mirror.
(c) A guidebook.
(d) A historical narrative.

13. In "Rememory," Morrison complains that a racist society has what effect on her as a writer?
(a) It hobbles her imagination.
(b) It prevents her from being honest.
(c) It makes her question her talent.
(d) It makes her feel burdened by her Blackness.

14. In "Unspeakable Things Unspoken," Morrison comments that race was once used to exclude Blacks, but now that they want their race represented, they are told it does not exist. What function does this detail perform?
(a) It ironically illustrates the constantly shifting rationale for exclusion.
(b) It adds a comic note that breaks the tension of a series of upsetting images.
(c) It introduces a nostalgic tone that supports Morrison's argument with an element of pathos.
(d) It is a straw-man version of the counterclaims Morrison is trying to undermine.

15. In "Chinua Achebe," what does Morrison say she discovered at Africa House?
(a) A series of lectures by Chinua Achebe.
(b) African American art.
(c) African literature.
(d) A writer who helped her meet Chinua Achebe.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Unspeakable Things Unspoken," Morrison says that she sees a reflection of African-American cultural traditions in what form of literature?

2. In "Goodbye to All That," to what other group's struggle does Morrison compare the struggle of Black writers to claim territory that is both identity-specific and identity-neutral?

3. In "The Source of Self-Regard," what does Morrison say is a problem with writing novels that are based in history?

4. In "Unspeakable Things Unspoken," Morrison notes that she almost titled the essay something else--what?

5. What is the purpose of the Edvard Munch quote in "Memory, Creation, and Fiction"?

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