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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. 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.
Stephen Crane
Allegory
Thomas Morton
Frederick Douglass
2. A literary mask a writer assumes for the purpose of creating a character in a poem.
Persona
Countee Cullen
Prose
John Adams
3. Wrote 'The Souls of Black Folk' - Founder of the NAACP
Loaded Words
Ballad
Henry David Thoreau
W.E.B Du Bois
4. (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
Jonathan Edwards
Ezra Pound
Transcendental Club
James Thurbur
5. 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
Walt Whitman
James Thurbur
Herman Melville
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
6. Writings portray the lives of poor - oppressed black women in the early 1900s.
Loss of Traditional Values
Alice Walker
Bret Harte
Polemic
7. 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
Modernism
Drama
Zora Neal Hurston
Imagist Poetry
8. Local Colorist Great Niece of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Wrote 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
Theodore Dreiser
Claude McKay
9. Wrote 'Howl -' ' Empty Mirror -' and 'Kaddish and Other Poems' - Poet
Sylvia Plath
Racialism
Kate Chopin
Allen Ginsberg
10. (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
American Adam
Ernest Hemmingway
Abigail Adams
Thomas Morton
11. Won the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize - Works focused on the South - Wrote 'As I Lay Dying -' 'Sanctuary -' and 'The sound and the Fury.' Experimented with Stream of Consciousness writing. Considered the most innovative novelist of his time.
Calvinism
William Faulkner
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Rhythm
12. 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'
Determinism
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
William Faulkner
Toni Morrison
13. A pattern of stressed unstressed syllables that create a beat - as in music.
Thomas Paine
John Adams
Verse
Rhythm
14. 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
Social Darwinism
Emily Dickinson
Willa Cather
Kate Chopin
15. Wrote 'The Call of the Wild -' 'White Fang -' ' Sea Wolf -' and 'To Build a Fire.' Socialist. Naturalist
Jack London
Sylvia Plath
Henry David Thoreau
Walt Whitman
16. Wrote 'Native Son -' and 'Black Boy' - First Black Best-Seller - Staunch Communist : Believed it was black America's best hope for equality.
Richard Wright
Social Darwinism
Beat Writers
F. Scott Fitzgerald
17. 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.
Nativism
Phillip Roth
Bret Harte
James Baldwin
18. Used to describe literature that was pandered to the polite - refined - and delicate elements of society. Denied the unsavory underbelly of life.
Genteel Tradition
Willa Cather
James Thurbur
Anne Sexton
19. A false science that argued tat different human races possessed distinguishing traits that determined their particular behavior and achievement in society.
Racialism
Wonders of the Invisible World
Robert Frost
Benjamin Franklin
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
Walt Whitman
Romanticism
Zora Neal Hurston
Meter
21. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
Jean Toomer
e.e cummings
Foot
Jack Kerouac
22. 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.
Edith Wharton
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Vachel Lindsay
Mayflower Compact
23. Movement in the early part of the 20th Century where writers experimented with new themes such as fragmentation - stream of consciousness - and imagery.
Gothic
Lyres
Emily Dickinson
Modernism
24. Prose - Poetry - Drama
Jack Kerouac
Transcendentalism
Determinism
The 3 primary literary genres
25. America's most popular humorist in the 30s and 40s. Frequently explored the battle of the sexes. Wrote 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.'
James Thurbur
Erica Jong
Stephen Crane
Theodore Dreiser
26. (Colonial Period) First writer of American Literature. Wrote 'The Generall Historie of Virginia - New England - and The Summer Isles.' Archetypal American.
Prose
Edith Wharton
Edwin Arlington Robinson
John Smith
27. (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
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Thomas Morton
Calvinism
Transcendentalism
28. 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.
Mayflower Compact
Langston Hughes
William Bradford
Nathaniel Hawthorne
29. First vice president and second president. Member of the First and Second Continental Congresses. Helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Husband of Abigail Adams.
Darwinism
John Adams
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
Emile Zola
30. Coined the term 'Beat Generation' - Wrote 'On the Road' - All of his books are Autobiographical
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jack Kerouac
Verse
Jonathan Edwards
31. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.
Ballad
Modernism
Jack London
Norman Mailer
32. The idea that there is something different - unique and special about Americans.
Scientism
American Adam
Thomas Morton
Emile Zola
33. (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
Frank Norris
Mayflower Compact
Puritan Poetry
Melting Pot
34. A piece of literature intended to be performed in front of an audience.
Stanza
Lyric Poem
Refrain
Drama
35. All events follow natural laws.
Emily Dickinson
Determinism
Nietzscheism
Loaded Words
36. Wrote 'Richard Cory' - Created poems dealing with historic myths and characters. Known primarily for short - ironic characteristics of ordinary individuals. Won 3 Pulitzers : 'Collected Poems -' 'The Man Who Died Twice -' and 'Tristram'
Poetry
Claude McKay
Emily Dickinson
Edwin Arlington Robinson
37. A stanza.
Gwendolyn Brooks
Ralph Ellison
Verse
Edgar Lee Masters
38. Work did not have a political agenda. Wrote 'Their Eyes Were Watching God -' 'Mules and Men -' and 'Jonahs Gourd Vine.' Considered one of the key black writers of the 20th Century.
Drama
Stephen Crane
Zora Neal Hurston
The Declaration of Independence
39. Won 4 Pulitzers - Top 20th Century Poet - Wrote 'The Road Not Taken -' ' Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening -' and 'Mending Wall'
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Rhyme
Loss of Traditional Values
Robert Frost
40. Naturalist - Wrote 'McTeague - a Story of San Francisco'
Edith Wharton
Loaded Words
Frank Norris
James Weldon Johnson
41. 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
Henry James
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Beat Movement
John Steinbeck
42. Major theme of 20th Century literature.
Richard Wright
Nativism
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Loss of Traditional Values
43. 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
Epic Story
Monologue
Herman Melville
Norman Mailer
44. A social and artistic movement of the 1950's stressing unrestrained literary self expression and nonconformity with the mainstream culture
Lyres
Romanticism
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
Beat Movement
45. First Black female poet to win a Pulitzer. Best known for her poems 'The Bean Eaters' and 'We Real Cool.'
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Gwendolyn Brooks
Booker T. Washington
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
46. A 14-line poem with a set rhythm and rhyme scheme.
Sonnet
T.S Eliot
Ralph Waldo Emerson
e.e cummings
47. Best-known and most influential early Naturalist. Rougon-Marcquart
Modernism
Genteel Tradition
Emile Zola
Washington Irving
48. Brief - musical poems that convey a speaker's feelings.
John Smith
Naturalism
Lyric Poem
J.D Salinger
49. 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.
James Weldon Johnson
Romanticism
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Flannery O'Connor
50. People who are best adapted to survive are chosen through the process of natural selection.
Naturalism
Langston Hughes
Calvinism
Darwinism