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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. The ending of The Radiance of the King, according to Morrison, indicates that Clarence has undergone what kind of transformation?
(a) He fully inhabits Western ideals of masculinity.
(b) He learns to fear becoming like native Africans.
(c) He is now worthy of being a king.
(d) He opens himself to the African gaze.

2. According to "Harlem on My Mind," almost 28 years after the "Harlem" exhibit, the Guggenheim museum did what?
(a) Mounted an exhibition more concerned with Black politics than art.
(b) Excluded Black artists from a major retrospective exhibition.
(c) Devoted an entire exhibition to Romare Bearden.
(d) Focused on the question of what makes Black art Black.

3. According to "Harlem on My Mind," why did the 1969 exhibit by the same name fail?
(a) New York was not ready for Black art in 1969, and attendance was very low.
(b) It contained racist materials and did not include much art by African American artists.
(c) Critics did not understand the cultural aesthetics the exhibit represented.
(d) The exhibit was too ambitious and tried to incorporate too many different kinds of art.

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

5. In the story that opens "The Nobel Lecture in Literature," what do the children ask the old woman about?
(a) Love.
(b) A baby.
(c) Death.
(d) A bird.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In "The Future of Time," Morrison worries that we increasingly turn to the past for what?

3. In her "Sarah Lawrence Commencement Address," Morrison says that she is willing to talk about typical graduation topics like the future, responsibility, and goodness, but not what?

4. What does Morrison say is at its greatest height since the time of the slave trade?

5. According to Morrison's "Black Matter(s)," Gothic Romance is evidence of what feeling in the new nation?

Short Essay Questions

1. In “Literature and Public Life," what does Morrison blame television for, and what does she propose as a solution?

2. In “Black Matter(s)," what main points does Morrison make about the alleged race-neutrality of American history?

3. In “Wartalk,” how does Morrison say that globalization differs from colonialism and internationalism?

4. In “Moral Inhabitants," Morrison opens with some U.S. Census statistics. What are they and why does she include them?

5. In her speech “Cinderella’s Stepsisters," what is the purpose of the allusion to Cinderella?

6. In “Women, Race, and Memory” how does Morrison describe the way "non-aligned" women are viewed by feminists and anti-feminists, and how do non-aligned women view them?

7. In “Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.," what are the things that Morrison says Dr. King believed in?

8. In “The Habit of Art," why does Morrison allude to Antigone?

9. In “Race Matters," what story does Morrison tell about the ending of Beloved, and why does she tell this story?

10. In “War Against Error," what does Morrison propose as a new "curriculum," and what does she hope it will accomplish?

(see the answer keys)

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