Exam Topics B - REL 407 Narrative Selves

The exam will be the readings and lectures. If you will not be here on Tuesday, February 25 to take the exam, you must make prior arrangements by Tuesday, February 18. You must receive prior permission for absence as well as to take the exam separately. Only exceptional cases will be allowed.

The exam will be multiple choice, and as covered in the syllabus, will count 10% of your grade. There is only one right answer per question. If there appears to be more than one right answer, pick the best answer.

If you have any questions about the exam or the topics included in the exam, please ask. You can come in during office hours, make an appointment or inquire by email.

Week 4: Memories of the Self: Christian and Freudian

• According to Mark Freeman in Rewriting the Self, what makes Augustine's The Confessions the prototype for the modern Western autobiographical narrative self?
• According to Freeman, what are recognition, distanciation, and appropriation? (44-45).
• According to Freeman, why was the idea of the story inherent in clinical case histories so troubling for Freud (231).
• According to Marin Conway in Autobiographical Memory, what is Freud's notion of "past as dictator"? (23-24).

Week 5: Zhuangzi's Daoism: Narrative, Perpectivalism, and the Dao.

• The story of how the Zhuangzi was compiled
• Who was Zhuangzi - lifestyle, family, contradictions in his story
• The relation between perspectivalism, illusion, and oneness in CT's view of language, truth, and reality
• The narrative significance of figures like Cook Ting and Woodworker Ch'ing
• The narrative significance of figures like the Woman Crookback, Crippled Shu and the Madman of Ch'u
• Four uses of language in the Zhuangzi
• Usefulness and uselessness as Taoist themes in Zhuangzi
• Zhuangzi's view of death

Week 6: Shin Tradition of Pure Land Buddhism: Narrative Oceans of Karma and Light.

• What does "Coffinman" refer to?
• What does Aoki experience when he prepares his former girlfriends' father's body for the funeral? How does this change his life?
• What does mizore, a Japanese word for a mixture of snow and rain, have to do with life and death?
• According to Unno, historically what are the differences between Buddhism and psychotherapy regarding the relation between practical needs and the larger theoretical (narrative) framework?
• According to Unno, what is the significance of deep listening in eliciting the narrative of the self?

Week 7: Spiritual Autobiography: Jewish, Christian, Jungian, and Beyond

• For Etty Hillesum in An Interrupted Life, what is the significance of her keeping her journal?
• For Etty, what is the meaning of death in the larger scope of her story?
• According to Alasdaire MacIntyre, where has the modern/postmodern self broken down?
• According to Tom Kasulis, what is the significance of integrity and intimacy concerning the self as generally defined by Asian and Western cultures?