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Test your basic knowledge |
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. 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
Langston Hughes
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Gothic
Harriet Beecher Stowe
2. First Black female poet to win a Pulitzer. Best known for her poems 'The Bean Eaters' and 'We Real Cool.'
Gwendolyn Brooks
J.D Salinger
Thomas Jefferson
Racialism
3. Confessional Poet - Wrote 'Lord Weary's Castle' and 'In Life Studies'
Edgar Allen Poe
Naturalism
Robert Lowell
The 3 primary literary genres
4. A piece of literature intended to be performed in front of an audience.
Monologue
Broadside
American Adam
Drama
5. Resisted materialism and chose a life of simplicity - close to nature. Walden is a guidebook for life - showing the reader how to live wisely in a world designed to make wise living impossible. 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience' has become a primer
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
Henry David Thoreau
Nietzscheism
William S. Burroughs
6. All written work that is not poetry - drama or song. Articles - autobiographies - biographies - essays - novels and editorials are prose.
Richard Wright
Edith Wharton
Prose
Edgar Allen Poe
7. A social and artistic movement of the 1950's stressing unrestrained literary self expression and nonconformity with the mainstream culture
Beat Movement
John Steinbeck
W.E.B Du Bois
James Thurbur
8. Chicago School - Wrote 'Lucinda Matlock' - Created 'Spoon River Anthology' - Spoon River poems are characterized by: An unpoetic - colloquial style - frank descriptions of sex - a very critical view of small town life - and a description of he inner
Edgar Lee Masters
Walt Whitman
Maya Angelou
Abigail Adams
9. 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.
Edwin Arlington Robinson
William Bradford
Thomas Jefferson
Harriet Beecher Stowe
10. (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
Racialism
James Weldon Johnson
Jack London
John Winthrop
11. All events follow natural laws.
Rhythm
Naturalism
Determinism
William S. Burroughs
12. Leader of naturalism in American writing. Wrote 'An American Tragedy'
Theodore Dreiser
W.E.B Du Bois
Herman Melville
T.S Eliot
13. Wrote 'Portnoy's Complaint.' Work reflects the changing attitude of Jews living in post-World War II America.
Blank Verse
James Baldwin
Phillip Roth
Imagist Poetry
14. The primacy of science over religious - mythical - or spiritual interpretations of life.
Scientism
Henry James
Transcendental Club
Walt Whitman
15. 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
Herman Melville
Social Darwinism
Walt Whitman
Saul Bellow
16. Wrote 'The Red Badge of Courage' and 'Maggie: A Girl of the Streets -' and 'The Open Boat.' Red Badge of Courage is considered the first modern war novel. Work is celebrated for its images and symbolism. Work is often described as impressionist due t
Cotton Mather
Robert Lowell
Nativism
Stephen Crane
17. 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
The 3 primary literary genres
Transcendentalism
William Faulkner
Poetry
18. People who are best adapted to survive are chosen through the process of natural selection.
Darwinism
Imagist Poetry
Loaded Words
Ralph Ellison
19. Coined the term 'Beat Generation' - Wrote 'On the Road' - All of his books are Autobiographical
Thomas Jefferson
Jack Kerouac
Frank Norris
Maya Angelou
20. 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
Gothic
Allen Ginsberg
Loaded Words
Romanticism
21. Local Colorist Wrote 'The Awakening' Writing is memorable for its : Vivid and economical style - Rich Local Dialect - and Penetrating view of the culture of South Louisiana.
Henry James
Kate Chopin
Claude McKay
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
22. Written by Cottonn Mather - to justify the execution of 19 women during the Salem Witch Trials.
Wonders of the Invisible World
Gothic
Ralph Ellison
T.S Eliot
23. Wished to return to more primitive principles - to simplicity - sobriety - religious earnestness - and personal self-control. Aim was to purify church of England from 'Popery' - Persecuted harshly by Charles I and Archbishop of Canterbury William Lau
J.D Salinger
Verse
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
24. Writings portray the lives of poor - oppressed black women in the early 1900s.
Alice Walker
Nativism
Frank Norris
Transcendentalism
25. Literary movement of the 19th century Presented the details of ordinary life in art. Realists rejected the heroic and adventurous and concentrated on pessimistic views of poverty - prostitution and pain. Reaction to Romanticism.
Realism
Jack Kerouac
Nativism
William Byrd
26. Writings interweave sexual and racial concerns; what it means to be black and homosexual in America in the 2nd half of the 20th Century.
Refrain
Persona
James Baldwin
John Steinbeck
27. A story in poetic form. Has plot. characters and theme.
Narrative Poem
Prose
Abigail Adams
William Byrd
28. Brief - musical poems that convey a speaker's feelings.
Claude McKay
Jack Kerouac
Wonders of the Invisible World
Lyric Poem
29. 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.
Atavism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Rhyme Scheme
30. A long narrative that represents characters in a high position who take part in a series of adventures of significance.
Epic Story
Loaded Words
e.e cummings
Edgar Lee Masters
31. Chicago School - Work bridges folk poetry and modernist poems. Used music and strong rhythm - Wrote 'The Congo'
Vachel Lindsay
Zora Neal Hurston
William Byrd
Norman Mailer
32. New England local color writer - is known primarily for her two collections of stories. 'A Humble Romance' and 'A New England Nun'
Willa Cather
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Alice Walker
Jack London
33. Unrhymed poetry Captures natural rhythm of speech.
William Faulkner
Zora Neal Hurston
Narrative Poem
Blank Verse
34. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
Transcendental Club
Edward Teller
Foot
Maya Angelou
35. Ranked as top American novelist - even though few of his contemporaries recognized his genius. Moby Dick is considered to be America's greatest prose epic. It is also top contender for best American novel. Wrote the first great romance about the Sout
Herman Melville
Iambic Pentameter
Thomas Jefferson
William Bradford
36. Used to describe literature that was pandered to the polite - refined - and delicate elements of society. Denied the unsavory underbelly of life.
Genteel Tradition
Jean Toomer
Aphorisms
Melting Pot
37. 'The Old Man and the Sea -' 'The Sun Also Rises -' 'A Farewell to Arms -' and 'For Whom the Bell Tolls.' Writing style emphasizes: Short sentences - brief paragraphs - active verbs - authenticity - compression - clarity - and immediacy. Produced some
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Cotton Mather
Ernest Hemmingway
Ralph Ellison
38. American novelist - essayist - social critic - painter and spoken performer. Most of his works are autobiographical. Frequently experimented with drugs. He wrote the 'Naked Lunch' and the 'Cities of Red Night'
William S. Burroughs
Frank Norris
Drama
John Smith
39. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.
John Adams
Ballad
Jean Toomer
Blank Verse
40. 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
Transcendental Club
Beat Movement
Henry James
Social Darwinism
41. (Colonial Period) Primarily written to set forth orthodox Calvinist Christianity. Not considered the best representation of poetry during the whole period. Rarely approached excellence of English models. Too much of an emphasis on heavenly values and
Wonders of the Invisible World
Puritan Poetry
Foot
Ernest Hemmingway
42. The process of reading a poem to figure out it's meter.
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
Scan
Emile Zola
Frank Norris
43. 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
Naturalism
Aphorisms
Kate Chopin
Transcendental Club
44. 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
Beat Movement
Abigail Adams
Ernest Hemmingway
Alice Walker
45. Greatest poet of American colonial period. Influenced T.S Elliot - Ezra Pound - and other modern-day metaphysical poets. Defined 'American'
Nativism
Edward Teller
Saul Bellow
Verse
46. A pattern of stressed unstressed syllables that create a beat - as in music.
Modernism
Rhythm
Bret Harte
Henry James
47. 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.
Narrative Poem
Mayflower Compact
William Bradford
Stanza
48. 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
Thomas Paine
Mary Wilkins Freeman
James Fenimore Cooper
James Thurbur
49. (Colonial Period) First writer of American Literature. Wrote 'The Generall Historie of Virginia - New England - and The Summer Isles.' Archetypal American.
Toni Morrison
Theodore Dreiser
John Smith
e.e cummings
50. A line or group of lines repeated at the end of a poem or song. Refrains reinforce the main point and create musical effects.
Samuel Sewall
Mayflower Compact
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Refrain