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CLEP American Literature

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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  • Match each statement with the correct term.
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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. Story in which the characters - setting and action represent abstract concepts apart from their literal meaning.






2. Characterized by: Ordinary Language - Free Verse - Concentrated Word Pictures - Very specific words and phrases - Advanced by Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell; also utilized by Robert Frost






3. (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






4. 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.






5. A pattern of stressed unstressed syllables that create a beat - as in music.






6. Famous for writing - marriages - divorces and media hype. Wrote 'The Executioner's Song.'






7. A literary argument that aims to change public opinion rather than entertain.






8. Best-known and most influential early Naturalist. Rougon-Marcquart






9. Words that carry a strong emotional overtones.






10. The idea that there is something different - unique and special about Americans.






11. All events follow natural laws.






12. (Colonial Period) Only person to publicly repent his part in the Salem Witch Trials. Published America's first anti-slavery tract.






13. The repeated use of identical sounds.






14. People who are best adapted to survive are chosen through the process of natural selection.






15. Produced a number of sketches - poems - and a one-act pay titled 'Cane.'






16. The primacy of science over religious - mythical - or spiritual interpretations of life.






17. Brief - musical poems that convey a speaker's feelings.






18. A false science that argued tat different human races possessed distinguishing traits that determined their particular behavior and achievement in society.






19. The reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some distant ancestor that have not been present in intervening generations - such as hand like a hairy paw.






20. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.






21. (Colonial Period) Wrote Of Plymouth Plantation (First Thanksgiving) - Chronicled the Pilgrim experience from the religious considerations that caused them to leave England for Holland and then for America.Style is dignified and Grave - and events are






22. 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.






23. Key intellectual and philosophical voice of 19th-century America. Key player in the transcendentalist movement. First to define what made American poetry American - it is verse that celebrates ordinary experience rather than the epic themes of the pa






24. 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.






25. Writings interweave sexual and racial concerns; what it means to be black and homosexual in America in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.






26. Pattern of five feet (groups of syllables) - each having one unstressed syllable and one stressed syllable.






27. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.






28. Leader of naturalism in American writing. Wrote 'An American Tragedy'






29. 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.






30. A philosophy pioneered by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 1830's and 1840's - in which each person has direct communication with God and Nature - and there is no need for organized churches. It incorporated the ideas that mind goes beyond matter - intuiti






31. Wrote 'Native Son -' and 'Black Boy' - First Black Best-Seller - Staunch Communist : Believed it was black America's best hope for equality.






32. (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






33. Wrote Catcher in the Rye






34. People who sang lyrics as they played string-like instruments.






35. Typically referred to as the greatest American novelist (next to Mark Twain) of the second half of the 19th century. Main theme of his work was the innocence and exuberance of America compared to the corruption and wisdom of Europe. Wrote 'The Portra






36. Wrote 'Daddy' and 'The Bell Jar' - Confessional Poet






37. A social and artistic movement of the 1950's stressing unrestrained literary self expression and nonconformity with the mainstream culture






38. 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






39. Wrote 'The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.' Escaped slave that became one o f the most effective orators of his day - an influential newspaper writer - a militant abolitionist - and a famous diplomat.






40. 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'






41. Written by Cottonn Mather - to justify the execution of 19 women during the Salem Witch Trials.






42. Wrote 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' - first American novel to sell a million copies. The most influential book of the 19th century. Credited with starting the Civil War. Most famous American woman of her day.






43. Wrote 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Work reflects the changing attitude of Jews living in post-World War II America.






44. Prose - Poetry - Drama






45. Wrote 'Songs of Jamaica' - Poetry and 'Harlem Shadows' (first great literary achievement of the Harlem Renaissance. Much of his poetry evokes the rich heritage of Jamaica.






46. 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






47. Poetry that does not have a regular beat - rhyme or line length. Walt Whitman






48. A type of literature win which words are selected and strung together for their beauty - sound - and power to express feelings.






49. End : occurs when words at the ends of lines of poetry rhyme. Internal: occurs when words within a sentences share the same sound - such as 'Each narrow cell in which we dwell.'






50. 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.







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