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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. 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
Wonders of the Invisible World
Edith Wharton
Romanticism
Transcendental Club
2. All written work that is not poetry - drama or song. Articles - autobiographies - biographies - essays - novels and editorials are prose.
Drama
Samuel Sewall
Determinism
Prose
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
e.e cummings
John Winthrop
Beat Movement
Imagist Poetry
4. 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.
Alice Walker
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Lyres
Atavism
5. 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
Frank Norris
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Edgar Lee Masters
Iambic Pentameter
6. Chicago School - Work bridges folk poetry and modernist poems. Used music and strong rhythm - Wrote 'The Congo'
William Byrd
Vachel Lindsay
American Adam
Atavism
7. 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
Monologue
Thomas Jefferson
Narrative Poem
8. Chicago School : Verses often concern ordinary - everyday people; realistic poems and dramatic emphasis attract a large audience. Wrote 'Chicago -' and a biography of Abraham Lincoln. Poems describe everyday Americans - have a positive tone - use sim
Emile Zola
William Bradford
Carl Sandburg
Jack Kerouac
9. Famous for writing - marriages - divorces and media hype. Wrote 'The Executioner's Song.'
Bret Harte
Norman Mailer
Loss of Traditional Values
Anne Sexton
10. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
Rhyme Scheme
Gothic
Foot
Vachel Lindsay
11. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.
Zora Neal Hurston
Ballad
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Rhyme
12. Leader of naturalism in American writing. Wrote 'An American Tragedy'
Frank Norris
Theodore Dreiser
Rhyme Scheme
Ralph Waldo Emerson
13. 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
Genteel Tradition
Frederick Douglass
Walt Whitman
Stephen Crane
14. Wrote 'Native Son -' and 'Black Boy' - First Black Best-Seller - Staunch Communist : Believed it was black America's best hope for equality.
Gwendolyn Brooks
Richard Wright
William Bradford
Cotton Mather
15. Wrote 'The Invisible Man' - Considered a landmark achievement in American literature
Sylvia Plath
Ralph Ellison
Langston Hughes
Narrative Poem
16. (Colonial Period) Best-known Southern colonial writer. Famous for 'The History of the Dividing Line' and 'The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover'
W.E.B Du Bois
William Byrd
Melting Pot
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
17. The idea that there is something different - unique and special about Americans.
Meter
e.e cummings
Cotton Mather
American Adam
18. Used to describe literature that was pandered to the polite - refined - and delicate elements of society. Denied the unsavory underbelly of life.
Rhythm
Genteel Tradition
Norman Mailer
John Winthrop
19. 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
Henry David Thoreau
Edgar Lee Masters
Beat Movement
Beat Writers
20. (Colonial Period) One of the most brilliant of American thinkers. Theologian and philosopher; vigorous defender of Calvinistic orthodoxy at the end of the Puritan era. Influenced major nineteenth century writers such as Emerson - Hawthorne - Melville
Polemic
Theodore Dreiser
Jonathan Edwards
John Adams
21. Considered the voice of the Twenties. Wrote 'The Great Gatsby' - Heavy drinking problem.
Nativism
Jack Kerouac
Thomas Jefferson
F. Scott Fitzgerald
22. (Colonial Period) Only person to publicly repent his part in the Salem Witch Trials. Published America's first anti-slavery tract.
American Adam
The Declaration of Independence
Social Darwinism
Samuel Sewall
23. A regular pattern of words that end with the same sound.
American Adam
Rhyme Scheme
John Adams
William Faulkner
24. Unrhymed poetry Captures natural rhythm of speech.
Scan
Blank Verse
Richard Wright
Cotton Mather
25. A social and artistic movement of the 1950's stressing unrestrained literary self expression and nonconformity with the mainstream culture
Beat Movement
Calvinism
Gothic
John Steinbeck
26. 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
Ezra Pound
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
Aphorisms
Erica Jong
27. 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.
Rhyme Scheme
Kate Chopin
Calvinism
Ezra Pound
28. A literary mask a writer assumes for the purpose of creating a character in a poem.
Nativism
Persona
Robert Lowell
Phillip Roth
29. Credited with creating: the modern short story and the detective novel - and the entire genre of mystery. Wrote 'The Philosophy of Composition' - 'The Raven' - 'Tell-Tale Heart -' 'The Cask of Amontillado -' and 'The Gold Bug.' (The first detective
The 3 primary literary genres
Emily Dickinson
Edgar Allen Poe
Loss of Traditional Values
30. A story in poetic form. Has plot. characters and theme.
Vachel Lindsay
Narrative Poem
Iambic Pentameter
John Smith
31. Anne Bradstreet - Michael Wigglesworth - Edward Taylor
Loaded Words
Edwin Arlington Robinson
Aphorisms
Three main colonial era poets
32. Movement in the early part of the 20th Century where writers experimented with new themes such as fragmentation - stream of consciousness - and imagery.
Saul Bellow
Polemic
Modernism
Vachel Lindsay
33. 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.
Emily Dickinson
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Theodore Dreiser
Broadside
34. Won the Nobel Prize - Novels concentrate on the turmoil of modern Jewish life.
James Weldon Johnson
Rhyme Scheme
Saul Bellow
Sonnet
35. Coined the term 'Beat Generation' - Wrote 'On the Road' - All of his books are Autobiographical
Jack Kerouac
Zora Neal Hurston
James Baldwin
Aphorisms
36. Wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk' - Founder of the NAACP
James Baldwin
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
W.E.B Du Bois
Anne Sexton
37. Story in which the characters - setting and action represent abstract concepts apart from their literal meaning.
Emile Zola
Foot
Allegory
Blank Verse
38. New England local color writer - is known primarily for her two collections of stories. 'A Humble Romance' and 'A New England Nun'
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Abigail Adams
Foot
39. 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.'
Darwinism
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Cotton Mather
Emily Dickinson
40. 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.
Calvinism
William Faulkner
Nativism
Washington Irving
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
Sonnet
Puritan Poetry
Iambic Pentameter
William Faulkner
42. A single sheet of paper printed on one or both sides. 'The Dying Redcoat'
Jack Kerouac
Jack London
The Declaration of Independence
Broadside
43. 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
The Declaration of Independence
J.D Salinger
Bret Harte
Transcendental Club
44. America's most popular humorist in the 30s and 40s. Frequently explored the battle of the sexes. Wrote 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.'
J.D Salinger
James Thurbur
T.S Eliot
Ralph Waldo Emerson
45. Friedrich Nitezche's belief in the 'will to power' as the primary force of society and the individual.
The Day of Doom
Allegory
James Fenimore Cooper
Nietzscheism
46. Autobiography is considered the one of the greatest ever written. Wrote Poor Richard's Alamanac
Benjamin Franklin
Scan
The 3 primary literary genres
Saul Bellow
47. 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
Wonders of the Invisible World
Jean Toomer
Beat Writers
Romanticism
48. Famous Poet and Novelist - 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'
Henry David Thoreau
Meter
J.D Salinger
Maya Angelou
49. Words that carry a strong emotional overtones.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Loaded Words
Alice Walker
Langston Hughes
50. Recluse - agoraphobic - Didn't title her poems. All are designated by numbers. Paved the way for the Imagist movement of the 1920s. Considered on of the founders of Modern American Poetry. Concrete imagery - forceful language - and unique style usher
Emily Dickinson
Richard Wright
Maya Angelou
Edith Wharton