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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 Trouble with Paradise" is mostly about what?
(a) The language needed to describe paradise.
(b) The plot of Morrison's novel Paradise.
(c) Characterization difficulties Morrison had while writing Paradise.
(d) The difference between older and more modern ideas of paradise.

2. In "The Source of Self-Regard," Morrison writes about not wanting to turn her readers into voyeurs. In this context, the word "voyeur" should be defined how?
(a) Someone who gets pleasure from watching something that is private or painful for others.
(b) Someone whose passion outweighs their judgment.
(c) Someone afraid of encountering what is new or different.
(d) Someone who is more confident in their own knowledge than they should be.

3. In "Faulkner and Women," What reasons does Morrison give for not being able to speak to the conference about Faulkner?
(a) She has said everything she has to say about Faulkner already, in her Cornell thesis.
(b) Faulkner's relationship to women is too unpleasant to speak about.
(c) She does not feel like she knows enough about Faulkner.
(d) She is too busy writing Beloved.

4. In "The Site of Memory," Morrison says that slave narratives had two purposes: one was to record the life of an individual human being, and the other was what?
(a) To condemn their former masters.
(b) To contribute to the historical record.
(c) To rebut narratives by plantation owners.
(d) To advance the cause of abolition.

5. In "Rememory," what does Morrison say causes her to rely on memory rather than history?
(a) History isn't relevant to the topics she writes about.
(b) History is oriented toward the "male gaze."
(c) History is a biased record.
(d) History is dull and lifeless.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Chinua Achebe," what does Morrison say she discovered at Africa House?

2. In "Unspeakable Things Unspoken," Morrison introduces Rafferty's criticism of Milan Kundera's Eurocentrism because she says that it can do what?

3. In "The Site of Memory," what tactic does Morrison point out in slave narratives?

4. Who is Margaret Garner?

5. In "God's Language," Morrison uses the word "ruminating" to describe what?

Short Essay Questions

1. In “The Site of Memory," what does Morrison say about how image and memory interacted for her in relation to her father's death and Song of Solomon?

2. In “The Source of Self-Regard," what does Morrison say made her uncomfortable about the letters she received from students, and why did it make her feel this way?

3. According to “The Writer Before the Page," why does Morrison use allusions to folktales in her writing?

4. In “Tribute to Romare Bearden," Morrison praises Bearden's work as a dialogue between artists; how does she see his work impacting her own?

5. In “The Trouble with Paradise" what reasons does Morrison give for leaving the racial identification of those in the Convent ambiguous?

6. In “Gertrude Stein and the Difference She Makes," what confuses Morrison about Stein's portrayal of Rose?

7. In “Invisible Ink," Morrison proposes that current ways of thinking about the interaction between reader and text are missing an element: the "invisible ink" that can manipulate the reader. Explain what she means by this.

8. What point is Morrison trying to illustrate when she brings up the origins of Ancient Greece in “Unspeakable Things Unspoken"?

9. In “God’s Language," what does Morrison say is the problem with trying to use modern language to describe Biblical concepts?

10. In “Unspeakable Things Unspoken," who does Morrison credit with opening up the canon, and how would she like to see it further expanded?

(see the answer keys)

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