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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 is a cathedral similar to a snail shell in the opinion of Bachelard?

2. When is the value of a house as intimate shelter most evident, according to Bachelard?

3. For Bachelard, what do primal images of nests and shells offer to a person?

4. When should metaphor be used, in Bachelard's opinion?

5. As understood by Bachelard, a house features which two seemingly conflicting dimensions?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is topophilia, according to Bachelard?

2. What is the concept of pure sublimation as put forth by Bachelard, and why is it useful?

3. What is "La Redousse?"

4. For Bachelard, how is a nest connected with the foliage of the forest?

5. What does Baudelaire note, with regard to houses and the weather?

6. What is the difference between image and metaphor, for Bachelard?

7. How does Bachelard describe oneiric houses?

8. As explained by Bachelard, what is the beingness, or ontology, of the poetic image?

9. How does Pasternak describe a nest?

10. After years of study as a scientist, Bachelard shifted his attention to what new reality?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What or who are the five characters of type created by Bachelard in "The Poetics of Space"? What is his motivation for creating each character? Why does he not feature a character known as "The Scientist"?

Essay Topic 2

Why does Bachelard cite so many writers and great thinkers to shore up his theories rather than create his own isolated narrative? Is his need to cite authors for "evidence" a remnant of his scientifically-oriented mode of thinking? Is his technique successful?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the significance of the struggle of Bosco's "La Redousse" against the menagerie of the hurricane. Why does Bachelin consider winter to be the oldest season reminding us of remote past? In "House and Universe," what does Bachelard state is the relationship between a house and the universe?

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