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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. What is NOT a property of the beautiful in music?

2. Why does Burke use the example of Campanella?

3. To what does a "clear" expression relate?

4. Which two effects are often combined and alternated under the passions mentioned in question 7?

5. What type of poetry operates by imitation?

Short Essay Questions

1. To what effect does Burke use the example of Campanella?

2. According to Burke, how does the human eye work?

3. Summarize the difference between Locke's idea of the nature of darkness and Burke's idea of the nature of darkness.

4. Briefly summarize the three classes of words that Burke identifies.

5. What is unique about the historical figure of Campanella, as related by Burke?

6. How does Burke define ugliness, and how does Burke relate ugliness to beauty?

7. How does Burke define proportion, and under which human faculty does it fall?

8. What does Burke identify as the three effects of words?

9. Why, according to Burke, are humans readily affected by the passions of others?

10. How does Burke use women as examples to demonstrate some of the aspects of beauty?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Burke's attempts to prove a mind-body connection in Part IV. What does Burke acknowledge to be the limitations of this study? How are specific states of mind manifested by the body's reactions? How does Burke define "association?" How does association, as well as natural causes, affect the mind? What methods does Burke employ to discover the connection between mind and body? Does Burke use anecdotal examples, observational evidence or another kind of proof? How does he describe or define the basic cause of emotions being physically manifested in the body? Does the pathway between mind and body seem to run both ways, or only one way, according to Burke's arguments?

Essay Topic 2

What are the limitations of the use of first-person perspective? What are the advantages to it? Do you feel that Burke uses any strategies to combat the limitations of this perspective, and if so, what does he do? What specific language does he employ, and with what results? How do the two Prefaces employ first-person perspective? What tone does Burke adopt in them, and do you think his tone is at all a product of the written point of view? Can you categorize the Prefaces as ultimately self-serving, useful, argumentative, informative to the state of his mind, etc., or is doing so problematic in and of itself? How do these instances of first-person perspective affect your reaction to the text? For example, do you feel more like a real person is speaking to you, rather than like you're being lecture?

Essay Topic 3

Select three examples from anywhere in the text of what you would consider scientific methodology in Burke's writing. These may be specific examples he cites (such as his personal anecdotes or the selections from literature he reads), the structure or progression of his subjects or thought process in a section on a specific topic, or his tone as he considers the nature of things beautiful or sublime. Consider how Burke's methodology is, in itself, rather scientific in nature. For each example you selected, write a synopsis of why the selection seems scientific in nature to you. To be "scientific" in nature is, for example, to test one's theories somehow, to consider other theories in relation to one's own, to give evidence that supports one's theories, to maintain a tone of professional, instead of personal, interest, and so on.

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