Deck 4: Literature

Question 1

The first novel of the Western world is entitled

A) Don Quixote.
B) The Iliad.
C) Gilgamesh.
D) The Tale of Genji.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

According to many historians, the first prose fiction novel is

A) The Tale of Genji.
B) The Iliad.
C) Don Quixote.
D) Gilgamesh.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which literary form is considered an American invention?

A) the novel
B) haiku poetry
C) the short story
D) the sonnet

Answer 3

C

Question 4

A poetic form featuring 14 lines and often written in iambic pentameter is

A) lyrical poetry.
B) blank verse.
C) haiku.
D) the sonnet.

Question 5

Tales of knights, chivalrous deeds, and fair ladies, such as the stories about King Arthur, are features of a genre called the

A) picaresque.
B) epic.
C) romance.
D) novella.

Question 6

Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" ends with the revelation that the officials have chosen someone to die. It provides an example of

A) symbolism.
B) a couplet.
C) an epiphany.
D) a conceit.

Question 7

Which of the following types of poetry is most likely to be sung or intoned?

A) narrative poetry.
B) religious poetry.
C) postmodern poetry.
D) sonnets.

Question 8

The work that gives insight into the cultural history of Greece and Troy is

A) The Aeneid.
B) For Whom the Bell Tolls.
C) The Iliad.
D) Gilgamesh.

Question 9

As an epic, Homer's The Iliad is essentially a(n)

A) tragic poem about the brutal death of Hector.
B) nationalist poem in the vein of Virgil's Aeneid.
C) clear lesson on the dangers of pride.
D) oral form that offers more variety than today's written texts.

Question 10

If a short story depicts a strong reaction against fantasy stories, it is likely to be an example of

A) realism.
B) magical realism.
C) modernism.
D) postmodernism.

Question 11

A poet or artist such as Gerard Manly Hopkins, who made a deliberate break with the past, provides an example of

A) modernism.
B) postmodernism.
C) realism.
D) a masterpiece.

Question 12

In John Donne's sonnet "Batter My Heart" the speaker uses a poetic tool called a conceit to

A) relate the beauty of his love Juliet.
B) bemoan the inevitable loss of childhood.
C) show the consequences of long-standing racial injustice.
D) talk about his struggle to free himself from sin.

Question 13

John Updike's short story "Varieties of Religious Experience" shows

A) how themes of religious poetry can be used in prose fiction.
B) a set of perspectives on the tragedy of 9/11.
C) a post-modern backlash against realism.
D) a return to realism as a backlash against the post-modern.

Question 14

The kind of fiction by Gabriel García Márquez in which otherwise true-to-life events take place in a world of supernatural events is called

A) modernism.
B) postmodernism.
C) magical realism.
D) metaphysical conceit.

Question 15

Georgia Douglas Johnson's poem that opens with the lines "Don't knock at my door, little child, / I cannot let you in . . ." describes the speaker's

A) experience of innocence.
B) struggle against sin and evil.
C) feeling at the moment of death.
D) unwillingness to give birth.

Question 16

A work of literature that has endured over time and continues to be relevant is considered a(n)

A) classic.
B) masterpiece.
C) genre.
D) epic.

Question 17

An epic is a

A) novel composed of letters.
B) long narrative recounting the actions of a hero.
C) story filled with knights doing chivalrous deeds.
D) tale filled with comical adventures.

Question 18

A novel that is experimental, obscure, and fragmented is likely to be a work of

A) magical realism.
B) epiphany.
C) modernist fiction.
D) postmodern fiction.

Question 19

The genius of Shakespeare's sonnets is that they

A) are the first to add couplets at the end of sonnets.
B) merge complex thoughts with masterful rhyme and meter.
C) provide models of metrical regularity.
D) invent the poetic form known as the sonnet.

Question 20

The name given for literary types is

A) classic.
B) masterpiece.
C) epic.
D) genre.

Question 21

John Donne's Holy Sonnet 14, "Batter My Heart" contains a number of conceits and metaphors. Identify at least four different examples of metaphors and discuss how they might apply to a larger conceit in the poem.
I. Identify and explain four metaphors such as "knock, breathe, shine, mend;" "break, blow, burn;" "reason, your viceroy;" "betroth'd to your enemy;" etc.
II. Explain how these fit into the larger conceit of the speaker's plea that God use greater force to keep him from sinning.

Question 22

What is a conceit?

Question 23

Using at least three examples from this chapter, explain how the modern American novel differs in terms of style and focal points from novels written in the 19^th century.
I. Explain the style and focal points of the modern American novel.
II. Explain the style and focal points of novels from the nineteenth century.
III. Name novels from both periods.
IV. Use examples from these novels to explain the changes that took place in novel form.

Question 24

Describe the Harlem Renaissance.

Question 25

What is the Jazz Age?

Question 26

What is a literary epiphany?

Question 27

Explain the chapter's definition of masterpiece. Then, choose a work of fiction or poetry that exemplifies the spirit of that concept. Identify the features of the work that make it a masterpiece.
I. Explain what is meant by the term "masterpiece."
II. Choose a work of literature.
III. Identify the features of that work that demonstrate it is a masterpiece.

Question 28

The Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance happened at approximately the same time. Discuss why you think this occurred and what impact both movements still have today.
I. Mention key aspects of the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance.
II. Discuss important historical events from the time, such as World War I, the turn of a new century, and societal changes for African Americans.
III. Identify the impact on our culture by indicating why these movements were so important that they are still discussed.

Question 29

What is a masterpiece?

Question 30

Consider the Walt Whitman poem "Come Up from the Fields, Father." Identify and explain parts of the poem where the death of a child affects the parents and provides a contrast with the world of the first part of the poem.
I. Identify places in the poem where the loss of a child affects the parents.
II. Explain those effects.
III. Show the difference between the mood of the first half of the poem and the second.