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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 did Goethe call for when on his deathbed?

2. Of what does the color of the ruined city's columns remind the writer?

3. What is the role of Nemesis?

4. What does the modern political scene force an artist to do?

5. What does Camus describe as 'sheer madness'?

Short Essay Questions

1. Explain the attraction the desert has for thinking human beings.

2. What is the overall impression the reader has of Oran and its people?

3. In what way did the philosopher Socrates demonstrate his lack of intellectual arrogance?

4. In what way is Camus' comments about Algerian youth tempered by sadness?

5. To what do love, peace and beauty form the antidote?

6. What is the essay 'Helen's Exile' concerned with?

7. What does Camus take away from his visit to Tipasa?

8. Can the artist remain aloof from the world he comments upon, depicts and criticizes?

9. What has Camus to say about the shops in Oran?

10. Of what is Camus speaking when he criticizes 'idealism of the worst kind' (p.188 of the Penguin edition)?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Camus' work has within it much that is lyrical in its description of place. Choose a short passage from either his essay on Algiers, Oran or Tipasa and analyse its literary qualities. You will need to comment on word choice, sentence structure, use of imagery and symbolism in the passage. Look also for scenic and emotional contrasts.

Essay Topic 2

'Kafka's literary and philosophical works have had significant influence in ways of thinking and in the creation of other works of art.' Compose an essay that is a response to this statement. You will need to discuss at least two works mentioned by Camus and evaluate the way in whch these works have influenced other writers, citing at least two examples of the 'Kafkaeque'.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay that deals thoughtfully with the following:

In an absurd world, is not philosophy itself absurd? If life has no meaning, why have learned people--over many centuries from Ancient Greece to the present--devoted so much time to discussing it? Might they not have been better occupied?

In other words, you will be demonstrating that philosophy is a necessary activity for mature humanity.

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