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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. Which of the following scenarios is described in No Answer/Silence?

2. Which of the following characterizes the figure "night" in the section "And the night illuminated the night"/Night?

3. What is another name used in The Ribbon/Objects to describe the lover's attachment to an object that belonged to the beloved?

4. In Jealousy, what does Werther's jealousy derive from, according to the author?

5. Which of the following phrases describes the informer in the section called The Informer?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the type of jealousy displayed by Werther in the figure Jealousy.

2. How does the section Fade-Out connect the loved beings withdrawal with the Mother?

3. Describe the lover's struggle with demons in "We are our own demons"/Demons.

4. Novel/Drama: Why does the form in which a love story is told matter?

5. The Unknowable has to do with the lover's ability, or lack thereof, to know the other: what conclusion does the lover come to in this section?

6. Exuberance/Expenditure: Discuss the contrast the author makes between the characters Werther and Albert.

7. Briefly describe the process of induction in the figure "Show me whom to desire"/Induction.

8. In Domnei/Dependency, what does the lover mean when he says: "I am twice subject?"

9. Describe the lover's process of identification, as seen in the character Werther, in the section entitled Identifications.

10. What object does the lover compare himself to in This can't go on/Unbearable?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Obscene, the author argues that modern views make love's sentimentality obscene, therefore, the lover's refusal to abandon sentiment becomes a transgression.

- What are the negative views of sentiment? Of the lover?

- Why is the lover's sentimentality obscene? Provide examples.

Essay Topic 2

"I love you" is a peculiar phrase because, as the author states in I-Love-You (pg. 147), it is the metaphor of nothing else: it only has meaning at the moment it is uttered. Analyze the author's argument in this section.

- How does he describe the utterance in linguistic terms, i.e. how does it fit into language?

- What are the various responses to this utterance, both acceptable and unacceptable to the lover's ears?

- How is I-love-you an "active force," and against what?

Essay Topic 3

On the first page of the book, the author claims that the lover's discourse functions as an affirmation. He discusses this affirmation again in Affirmation (pg. 22), Alone (p. 210) and Signs (p. 214).

- What is the status of love and of the lover's discourse in society?

- What is it defining itself against and why? Is it excluded? How?

- Why is love classified as "intractable"?

(see the answer keys)

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