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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. Genius; called the 'Black Keats' - Worked within traditional poetic forms rather than jazz rhythms. Wrote ' Copper Sun -' and 'The Ballad of the Brown Girl.'
Emile Zola
Countee Cullen
Loss of Traditional Values
Richard Wright
2. (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
Mary Wilkins Freeman
Broadside
Cotton Mather
Benjamin Franklin
3. Stylistic Elements Parallel Structure: repeated used of phrases - clauses - or sentences that are similar in structure. Rhythm - Forceful and Direct Language
John Steinbeck
James Thurbur
Norman Mailer
The Declaration of Independence
4. A line or group of lines repeated at the end of a poem or song. Refrains reinforce the main point and create musical effects.
Scan
Refrain
Gothic
Bret Harte
5. 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
American Adam
Jean Toomer
Iambic Pentameter
T.S Eliot
6. Wrote 'Daddy' and 'The Bell Jar' - Confessional Poet
Beat Movement
Sylvia Plath
Zora Neal Hurston
Edwin Arlington Robinson
7. A story told in song form. Ballads often tell stories of adventure and love.
William Faulkner
Jonathan Edwards
Ballad
Scan
8. 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
Booker T. Washington
Romanticism
Edgar Lee Masters
Verse
9. 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
Ralph Ellison
Washington Irving
Scan
Social Darwinism
10. Friedrich Nitezche's belief in the 'will to power' as the primary force of society and the individual.
John Adams
Cotton Mather
Nietzscheism
Polemic
11. 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.
Imagist Poetry
Nietzscheism
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
12. Wrote 'The Invisible Man' - Considered a landmark achievement in American literature
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ralph Ellison
Herman Melville
Iambic Pentameter
13. America's most popular humorist in the 30s and 40s. Frequently explored the battle of the sexes. Wrote 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.'
Abigail Adams
Gwendolyn Brooks
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
James Thurbur
14. Considered the voice of the Twenties. Wrote 'The Great Gatsby' - Heavy drinking problem.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
James Thurbur
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Allen Ginsberg
15. 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
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Narrative Poem
Puritan Poetry
16. Story in which the characters - setting and action represent abstract concepts apart from their literal meaning.
Allegory
Sylvia Plath
Stephen Crane
Theodore Dreiser
17. A group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.
The Day of Doom
Loss of Traditional Values
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
Foot
18. Wrote 'The Call of the Wild -' 'White Fang -' ' Sea Wolf -' and 'To Build a Fire.' Socialist. Naturalist
J.D Salinger
Social Darwinism
Thomas Morton
Jack London
19. 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
Frank Norris
John Winthrop
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Henry James
20. 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
Imagist Poetry
Edith Wharton
Bret Harte
Persona
21. '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
William Byrd
Romanticism
Polemic
Ernest Hemmingway
22. 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.
Blank Verse
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Declaration of Independence
Monologue
23. 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.'
James Fenimore Cooper
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Robert Lowell
Prose
24. Produces ribald - exuberant - feminist poems - novels and essays. Most famous novel is 'Fear of Flying.'
Thomas Morton
Erica Jong
Aphorisms
Edgar Allen Poe
25. Brief - musical poems that convey a speaker's feelings.
Lyric Poem
Countee Cullen
Beat Movement
Maya Angelou
26. Wrote 'The House of Mirth -' and 'The Age of Innocence' most famous for 'Ethan Frome' Noted use of indirection and allusion. First women to win a Pulitzer for 'The Age of Innocence' Main themes were upper-class life and the constraints it placed on b
Edith Wharton
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
William Byrd
J.D Salinger
27. (Colonial Period) Best-known Southern colonial writer. Famous for 'The History of the Dividing Line' and 'The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover'
Saul Bellow
William Byrd
James Fenimore Cooper
Loss of Traditional Values
28. Won the Nobel Prize - Novels concentrate on the turmoil of modern Jewish life.
William Byrd
The Declaration of Independence
Imagist Poetry
Saul Bellow
29. Greatest poet of American colonial period. Influenced T.S Elliot - Ezra Pound - and other modern-day metaphysical poets. Defined 'American'
Transcendentalism
Scan
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
Edward Teller
30. 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
Blank Verse
Abigail Adams
Thomas Morton
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
31. (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
William S. Burroughs
Atavism
Countee Cullen
Calvinism
32. 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
Determinism
Henry David Thoreau
Narrative Poem
Nietzscheism
33. 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.
John Steinbeck
Mary Wilkins Freeman
The Day of Doom
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)
34. Prose - Poetry - Drama
The 3 primary literary genres
Emily Dickinson
Gothic
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
35. Famous for writing - marriages - divorces and media hype. Wrote 'The Executioner's Song.'
Norman Mailer
Narrative Poem
Langston Hughes
Robert Lowell
36. Wrote 'since feeling is first -' 'somewhere i have never traveled - gladly beyond -' and 'The Enormous Room' - Experimented with : form - punctuation - spelling - typography - grammar - imagery - rhythm - and syntax.
Erica Jong
Genteel Tradition
Nativism
e.e cummings
37. 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
James Thurbur
Emily Dickinson
Beat Movement
Calvinism
38. 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
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thomas Jefferson
Sarah Orne Jewett
Henry David Thoreau
39. 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
Alice Walker
Langston Hughes
Booker T. Washington
Scientism
40. All written work that is not poetry - drama or song. Articles - autobiographies - biographies - essays - novels and editorials are prose.
Prose
Persona
The Declaration of Independence
Blank Verse
41. 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
Naturalism
John Steinbeck
Herman Melville
Sarah Orne Jewett
42. Won 4 Pulitzers - Top 20th Century Poet - Wrote 'The Road Not Taken -' ' Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening -' and 'Mending Wall'
Two Most Famous Poets of the 20th Century
Robert Frost
William Byrd
Allegory
43. Wrote 'My Antonia' and 'Death Comes for the Archbishop' Won a Pulitzer for her novel 'One of Ours'
Theodore Dreiser
Thomas Paine
Willa Cather
Gothic
44. A regular pattern of words that end with the same sound.
Rhyme Scheme
e.e cummings
Rhythm
Melting Pot
45. (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
Atavism
Phillip Roth
Alice Walker
Puritan Poetry
46. That America's unique identity transcends ethnic - cultural - or religious backgrounds. Idea given by St. Jean de Crevecoeur
Phillip Roth
Determinism
Melting Pot
John Winthrop
47. Well-known humorists.
End Rhyme vs Internal Rhyme
Darwinism
Samuel Sewall
Robert Benchley - Will Rogers and the Marx Brothers
48. A literary argument that aims to change public opinion rather than entertain.
Polemic
Theodore Dreiser
Zora Neal Hurston
Sonnet
49. 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
Transcendental Club
Imagist Poetry
Foot
Racialism
50. Unorthodox writers who hung around the bars and coffee houses of San Francisco's North Beach.
Robert Frost
Beat Writers
John Steinbeck
Puritans (Saints - Separatists)