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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. What has been the focus of don Juan's existence?
(a) Avoiding conflict.
(b) Self-actualization.
(c) Absurd escapades.
(d) Short-lived joys.

2. What does Oedipus' remark imply?
(a) That fate is cruel and will defeat you despite your pure nature.
(b) That fate is a human matter, to be settled among men.
(c) That fate is decided prior to birth.
(d) That in certain circumstances, you might negotiate with the gods.

3. What is ridiculous about the writer who emulated Peregrinos?
(a) He tried to commit suicide by drowning in the Seine, but could not sink.
(b) The writer suicided in despair and his relatives benefited hugely from the royalties.
(c) The writer suicided so his book would be noticed, but the book was no good.
(d) He thought the name would make him a great travel writer, but he failed.

4. What status does Camus give Sisyphus?
(a) The trickster.
(b) The absurd hero.
(c) The fool.
(d) The absurd prince.

5. What should be the response to subterfuge?
(a) We should turn to it in hope.
(b) We should turn away from it.
(c) We should admire it for its inventiveness.
(d) We should be suspicious of it.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is Camus' view concerning the idea that the artist can be detached from his work?

2. What is the legendary Faust remembered for?

3. What is astonishing about eternal values?

4. What would be a synonym for the phrase 'fecund rumination' (p. 93 of the Penguin Edition)?

5. What would make man feel alienated in the universe?

Short Essay Questions

1. What technique of Kafka's does Camus posit as the reason for the unity in that writer's work?

2. What is Camus' attitude to Galileo?

3. What does Nietzsche mean when he says 'Great problems are in the street'?

4. What were Sisyphus's sins against the gods, for which he was punished?

5. How does Camus differ from many other commentators when considering the work of Kafka?

6. Why is the fame of a writer likely to endure and that of an actor not to do so?

7. How did Sisyphus attempt to test his wife's love?

8. What, for humanity, are the consequences of living in a world stripped of illusion?

9. What is particularly interesting and unusual about Sisyphus and his paradoxical happiness in his fate?

10. According to Camus, what must we take into consideration when reading the works of Franz Kafka?

(see the answer keys)

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