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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. (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






2. Words that carry a strong emotional overtones.






3. A story in poetic form. Has plot. characters and theme.






4. Friedrich Nitezche's belief in the 'will to power' as the primary force of society and the individual.






5. 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'






6. Used to describe literature that was pandered to the polite - refined - and delicate elements of society. Denied the unsavory underbelly of life.






7. Confessional Poet - Wrote 'Lord Weary's Castle' and 'In Life Studies'






8. Produces ribald - exuberant - feminist poems - novels and essays. Most famous novel is 'Fear of Flying.'






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






10. 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.






11. Well-known humorists.






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






13. Literary movement of the 19th century that traced the effects of heredity and environment on people who ere helpless to change their situations. Also called Determinism for its belief in the effects of environment - heredity - and chance on human fat






14. 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






15. A regular pattern of words that end with the same sound.






16. 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.






17. (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






18. 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






19. Writings portray the lives of poor - oppressed black women in the early 1900s.






20. Greatest poet of American colonial period. Influenced T.S Elliot - Ezra Pound - and other modern-day metaphysical poets. Defined 'American'






21. 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






22. A literary mask a writer assumes for the purpose of creating a character in a poem.






23. A group of lines in a poem. - Lines of poems are grouped into _______s - just as sentences of prose are grouped into paragraphs.






24. Book of feline poems - 'Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats -' formed the basis of the Broadway hit 'Cats.' Wrote 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock - Published 'The Waste-Land' which became the most famous poem of the first half of the 20th Centur






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






26. A single sheet of paper printed on one or both sides. 'The Dying Redcoat'






27. 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.'






28. All written work that is not poetry - drama or song. Articles - autobiographies - biographies - essays - novels and editorials are prose.






29. The process of reading a poem to figure out it's meter.






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






31. Unrhymed poetry Captures natural rhythm of speech.






32. A stanza.






33. (Colonial Period) One of colonial New England's most eminent clergyman. Greatest achievement was as an historian of the Puritan experience. 'Diary of Cotton Mather' - Account of Mather wrestling with sexual temptation to marry a much younger women di






34. Autobiography is considered the one of the greatest ever written. Wrote Poor Richard's Alamanac






35. 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'






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






37. Naturalist - Wrote 'McTeague - a Story of San Francisco'






38. Won 4 Pulitzers - Top 20th Century Poet - Wrote 'The Road Not Taken -' ' Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening -' and 'Mending Wall'






39. 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.






40. Created the first American adventure story. First successful American novelist. 'Father of the American novel.' Very litigious - cranky and vain. Most famous for the 'Leatherstocking Tales': A series of five novels about the frontiersman - Natty Bump






41. Stylistic Elements Parallel Structure: repeated used of phrases - clauses - or sentences that are similar in structure. Rhythm - Forceful and Direct Language






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






43. A line or group of lines repeated at the end of a poem or song. Refrains reinforce the main point and create musical effects.






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






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






46. Wrote 'The Call of the Wild -' 'White Fang -' ' Sea Wolf -' and 'To Build a Fire.' Socialist. Naturalist






47. (Colonial Period) Best-known Southern colonial writer. Famous for 'The History of the Dividing Line' and 'The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover'






48. Major theme of 20th Century literature.






49. Famous Poet and Novelist - 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'






50. Father of American Literature - First American writer to achieve an international reputation. Rip Van Winkle (antihero). Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The Devil and Tom Walker. Was 50 years old before his real name appeared on any of his books. Used alias