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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. How does Gilroy describe Afro-Atlantic culture's place in Western culture?
2. What kind of history did Frederick Douglass propose according to Gilroy?
3. How does Gilroy describe slavery's relation to western civilization?
4. Who first defined the notion of the master-slave dialectic?
5. What kind of relation did Martin Robison Delany foresee between English capital, black American intellect and African labor?
Short Essay Questions
1. What symbol does Gilroy use to symbolize the black Atlantic?
2. What group does Gilroy say his book focuses on?
3. How does the uniqueness of the black Atlantic experience affect views of race according to Gilroy?
4. What value does Gilroy say the language of ethnic opposition has for those who use it?
5. What is the problem with a black identity rooted in skin color for Gilroy?
6. How does Gilroy describe the black experience in England?
7. What does Gilroy use as opposition to the essential blackness some critics advocate?
8. What criticism does Gilroy make of Enlightenment universalist claims?
9. Where does Gilroy say we should look in order to see the reality of black experience?
10. What role should slavery play in the history of Western culture in Gilroy's opinion?
Essay Topics
Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:
Essay Topic 1
At the end of The Black Atlantic Paul Gilroy describes the challenges facing Western culture in the future. How is race related to these challenges, and do you think that this broadening of scope is a fitting gesture to close on? Does it cement Gilroy's narrative, or does it step aside from it?
Essay Topic 2
Write a character sketch of the author based on the style and content of his writing. What values does he hold dear? What are his hopes and fears? What kind of person do you think he is? Anchor your sketch in passages in the book.
Essay Topic 3
How do you think Gilroy would say that black experience in the black Atlantic differs from the Irish or the Catholics in America who are trying to keep a particular ethnic identity alive in a homogenizing culture that turns everyone into Americans insofar as they relinquish their ethnicity?
This section contains 808 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) |