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CLEP American Literature
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. First great writer of psychological fiction; obsessed with sin and guilt. 'The Scarlet Letter' - 'Young Goodman Brown' - Claimed his work was romance and therefore not required to be realistic.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Henry David Thoreau
Robert Lowell
Poetry
2. A group of lines in a poem. - Lines of poems are grouped into _______s - just as sentences of prose are grouped into paragraphs.
James Thurbur
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Stanza
Loss of Traditional Values
3. Pattern of five feet (groups of syllables) - each having one unstressed syllable and one stressed syllable.
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Iambic Pentameter
John Steinbeck
Nietzscheism
4. The Bard of Harlem; most successful black writer in America during the Harlem Renaissance. Wanted to capture the dominant oral traditions of black culture in written form. Best known for his poetry: 'The Weary Blues -' 'Fields of Wonder -' and 'The D
Naturalism
Prose
Langston Hughes
Verse
5. Written by Michael Wigglesworth - the most famous poem of 17th Century - proceeds from judgement day to hell and then to paradise. First American Best Seller.
The Day of Doom
Verse
Broadside
Puritan Poetry
6. Wrote gold-rush stories like 'The Luck of Roaring Camp' and 'The Outcasts of Poker Flat'; never matched up to his previous fame local colorist
Bret Harte
James Weldon Johnson
T.S Eliot
Vachel Lindsay
7. Wrote 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Work reflects the changing attitude of Jews living in post-World War II America.
T.S Eliot
Edgar Allen Poe
Phillip Roth
James Baldwin
8. Writings portray the lives of poor - oppressed black women in the early 1900s.
Stephen Crane
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Emile Zola
Alice Walker
9. Ben Franklin paid his passage to America. First Pamphlet was Common Sense : credited with getting the colonists to see the 'advantage - necessity - and obligation' of breaking with Britain. Followed by a series of pamphlets - collectively called 'An
Verse
Edwin Arlington Robinson
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Thomas Paine
10. She holds a unique place in American history as both the wife of one president and the mother of another. In her own right - she was an ardent American patriot. Her perseverance during the American Revolution kept her family together and enabled her
William S. Burroughs
The 3 primary literary genres
Abigail Adams
Loss of Traditional Values
11. A piece of literature intended to be performed in front of an audience.
Drama
Vachel Lindsay
Toni Morrison
T.S Eliot
12. Friedrich Nitezche's belief in the 'will to power' as the primary force of society and the individual.
Nietzscheism
Thomas Morton
Robert Lowell
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
13. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
T.S Eliot
Stanza
Genteel Tradition
Foot
14. (Colonial Period) 1. God is King and Ruler. 2. Our duty in this world is to see that God's will prevails.3. Man is depraved from birth. 4. Few will be saved. Damned are damned despite their best efforts. Belief in Covenant Theology : God's covenant w
Loaded Words
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Calvinism
James Fenimore Cooper
15. Chicago School - Work bridges folk poetry and modernist poems. Used music and strong rhythm - Wrote 'The Congo'
Vachel Lindsay
Ralph Ellison
James Thurbur
Ezra Pound
16. A story in poetic form. Has plot. characters and theme.
Determinism
J.D Salinger
Rhyme Scheme
Narrative Poem
17. The beat or rhythm of a poem - created by a pattern of stressed an unstressed syllables.
Persona
Refrain
Meter
Edgar Lee Masters
18. (Colonial Period) Began 'The History of New England' aboard the Arbella in 1630. Lead 2 -000 English emigrant to Massachusetts Bay. Made daily journal-style entries until his death. Intended it to be an account of his long governorship. Style is pla
Beat Writers
Meter
Scan
John Winthrop
19. Wrote 'Daddy' and 'The Bell Jar' - Confessional Poet
James Thurbur
Flannery O'Connor
Sylvia Plath
F. Scott Fitzgerald
20. Unrhymed poetry Captures natural rhythm of speech.
Blank Verse
James Weldon Johnson
Gothic
Washington Irving
21. First Black woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Novel focus on black cultural identity in contemporary America. Wrote 'The Bluest Eye -' 'Tar Baby -' and 'Beloved'
Calvinism
Toni Morrison
Countee Cullen
Melting Pot
22. Considered the voice of the Twenties. Wrote 'The Great Gatsby' - Heavy drinking problem.
Samuel Sewall
Rhyme Scheme
Alice Walker
F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Movement in the early part of the 20th Century where writers experimented with new themes such as fragmentation - stream of consciousness - and imagery.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
J.D Salinger
Wonders of the Invisible World
Modernism
24. That America's unique identity transcends ethnic - cultural - or religious backgrounds. Idea given by St. Jean de Crevecoeur
Jonathan Edwards
Drama
John Smith
Melting Pot
25. Pilgrim's constitution. Shaped the politics - religion - and social behavior of the first settlers. Eventually influenced the shape - style and content of the U.S Constitution. William Bradford was famous for being one of the authors and signers.
Claude McKay
Henry James
Emile Zola
Mayflower Compact
26. Written by Cottonn Mather - to justify the execution of 19 women during the Salem Witch Trials.
Drama
Jack London
Wonders of the Invisible World
Realism
27. An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th Century and characterized by a heightened interest in nature - emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination - departure from the attitudes and forms of
Romanticism
Samuel Sewall
Mayflower Compact
Sonnet
28. The repeated use of identical sounds.
Gothic
Theodore Dreiser
Sarah Orne Jewett
Rhyme
29. (Colonial Period) Stands in direct opposition to the principles - personalities and literary styles of William Bradford and John Winthrop. Did not come to settle the land and establish God's Kingdom - but to trade beaver pelts and live pleasantly. Es
Booker T. Washington
Thomas Morton
Jack Kerouac
Mayflower Compact
30. A long narrative that represents characters in a high position who take part in a series of adventures of significance.
Willa Cather
W.E.B Du Bois
Epic Story
Romanticism
31. Produces ribald - exuberant - feminist poems - novels and essays. Most famous novel is 'Fear of Flying.'
Ralph Ellison
American Adam
Erica Jong
Loss of Traditional Values
32. Famous Poet and Novelist - 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'
Willa Cather
James Fenimore Cooper
Meter
Maya Angelou
33. Southern Gothic writer. Creates stories that simultaneously shock readers and reflect her strong Catholic faith.
34. Stylistic Elements Parallel Structure: repeated used of phrases - clauses - or sentences that are similar in structure. Rhythm - Forceful and Direct Language
Scientism
Vachel Lindsay
Phillip Roth
The Declaration of Independence
35. Applying the evolutionary 'survival of the fittest' concept to a world marked by struggle and competition. (Promulgated by Herbert Spencer - a best-selling sociologist of the late 19th Century.
Social Darwinism
Narrative Poem
Norman Mailer
Abigail Adams
36. An organization of the leading transcendentalists living around Boston. They were interested in new developments in theology - philosophy - and literature. Major writers: Ripley - Emerson - Alcott - Fuller - Hawthorne - Thoreau - Channing - Hedge - P
American Adam
Three main colonial era poets
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Transcendental Club
37. Wrote 'The Call of the Wild -' 'White Fang -' ' Sea Wolf -' and 'To Build a Fire.' Socialist. Naturalist
John Adams
Jack London
Jack Kerouac
Naturalism
38. The belief that 'true' Americans were those of earlier Anglo-Saxon descent - and that this 'race' was under threat from the growing influx of Central European and Asian immigrants.
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Alice Walker
Realism
Nativism
39. Created new poetic forms and subjects to fashion a distinctly American type of poetic expression. Rejected conventional themes - traditional literary references - allusions - and rhymes. Used long lines to capture rhythms of natural speech - free ver
The Declaration of Independence
Walt Whitman
Blank Verse
Alice Walker
40. Prose - Poetry - Drama
Edith Wharton
The 3 primary literary genres
Determinism
Broadside
41. Ezra Pound and T.S Eliot
The Declaration of Independence
Beat Movement
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Racialism
42. A pattern of stressed unstressed syllables that create a beat - as in music.
Rhythm
Realism
Epic Story
Ernest Hemmingway
43. Considered the greatest humorist of 19th century American Literature. Wrote 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' and 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' Master of 'Local Color' writing. Used vernacular - exaggeration and deadpan narrator to create humor.
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Broadside
Jack London
Prose
44. In the 1920s - became the symbol of the liberated woman for her wit and independence. Known for her caustic and clever poems and short stories.
Narrative Poem
Flannery O'Connor
Aphorisms
Dorthy Parker
45. Local Colorist Wrote 'The Country of the Pointed Firs' Famous for use of idiomatic language - conservative values and imagery and vivid descriptions of rural New England.
John Adams
Washington Irving
Jack Kerouac
Sarah Orne Jewett
46. Leader of naturalism in American writing. Wrote 'An American Tragedy'
Theodore Dreiser
Booker T. Washington
Henry James
Cotton Mather
47. Imagist Poet - Wrote 'In a Station of the Metro -' ' The Pisan Cantos -' 'Hugh Selwyn Mauberly -' and 'Mauberly.' Modeled 'Cantos' after Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' - Infamous traitor; Staunch supporter of Mussolini during WWII. Didn't speak for the
Ernest Hemmingway
Edgar Allen Poe
Ezra Pound
Samuel Sewall
48. Unorthodox writers who hung around the bars and coffee houses of San Francisco's North Beach.
Rhythm
Walt Whitman
Beat Writers
John Adams
49. Local Colorist Great Niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Monologue
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Drama
50. The primacy of science over religious - mythical - or spiritual interpretations of life.
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Wonders of the Invisible World
Scientism
Naturalism