Test your basic knowledge |

GRE Literature: World Literature

Subjects : gre, 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. Criminal who also goes by Trompe-la-Mort - Jacques Collin - and Abbé Herrera






2. Wrote 'The Roads to Freedom -' a WWII triology about Mathieu - a socialist teacher of philosophy and somewhat of a stand-in for the author.






3. Reification and class consciousness - Wrote 'The Theory of the Novel' and 'The Historical Novel'






4. Wrote 'Charles Dickens: The World of His Novels' and 'The Critic as Host'






5. Vasili'S cold - imperious - and beautiful daughter - who seduces Pierre into marriage - only to take up with another man immediately. She has affairs with many men - including her brother Anatole. Though known in social circles as a witty woman - she

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


6. Raskolinikov'S sister - she is decisive and brave - ending her engagement with Luzhin when he insults her family and fending off Svidrigailov with gunfire.






7. Known for his combination of realism and romanticism and his dedication to finding 'le mot juste' ('The right word') - which he considered has the key mean to achieve quality in literary art.






8. Wrote 'The Sandbox -' a universal failure.






9. Wrote 'Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature' and 'Contingency - Irony - and Solidarity' - ironism - final vocabulary - and postphilosophy






10. Ends: 'But that is the beginning of a new story—the story of the gradual renewal of a man - the story of his gradual regeneration - of his passing from one world into another - of his initiation into a new unknown life. That might be the subject of a

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


11. Achilles' son






12. Dmitri Razumikhin and Katerina Ivanova

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


13. Wrote 'The Laugh of the Medusa'






14. The story is about a businessman called Blake - who is accosted on a train at gunpoint by his former secretary - named Miss Dent. The woman is mentally ill - and is particularly upset with how Blake left her after a one-night stand and then fired her

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


15. Wrote 'The Shadow of a Gunman' and 'Red Roses for Me'

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


16. David Lurie is a professor of English at a technical university in Cape Town who seduces a student and loses everything: his reputation - his job - his peace of mind - his good looks - his dreams of artistic success - and finally even his ability to

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


17. The protagonist and 'misanthrope' of the title. He is quick to criticize the flaws of everyone around him - including himself. He cannot help but love Célimène though he loathes her behaviour.






18. Concerns a woman - Oedipa Maas - possibly unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies - Thurn und Taxis and the Trystero

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


19. Group of literary theorists and critics working from a phenomenological perspective.






20. James and Edward Tyrone

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


21. It describes the rise of a populist politician who calls his movement 'patriotic' and creates his own militia (the Minute Men or 'MM' - paralleling Hitler'S 'SS') and takes unconstitutional power after winning election — mirroring what Hitler was doi

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


22. 'The Heresy of Paraphrase' - Wrote 'The Well Wrought Urn' and 'Understanding Poetry'






23. A beautiful - aristocratic married woman whose pursuit of love and emotional honesty makes her an outcast from society. Her adulterous affair catapults her into social exile - misery - and finally suicide.






24. The 'Intentional' and 'Affective' Fallacies






25. The protagonist of 'The Mill on the Floss.' Her brother is Tom.






26. The assumption that the physical presence of a speaker authenticates his speech. Speaking would then precede writing (the sign of a sign) - since the writer is not present at the reading of his text toauthenticate it.






27. Masha - Olga and Irina - Andrei Prozorova and Natalia Ivanova - The characters identify Moscow with their happiness - and thus to them it represents the perfect life. However as the play develops Moscow never materializes and they all see their dream

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


28. A beautiful young woman who is courted by both Levin and Vronsky - and who ultimately marries Levin. Modeled on Tolstoy'S real-life wife - she is sensitive and perhaps a bit overprotected - shocked by some of the crude realities of life.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


29. 'The Camera Eye' sections are written in stream of consciousness technique and add up to an autobiographical Künstlerroman. Narrates the lives of twelve characters in free indirect speech.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


30. Chronicles the tragedy of Edward Ashburnham and his own seemingly perfect marriage and that of two American friends. The novel employs a series of flashbacks in non-chronological order - as well as an unreliable narrator.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


31. Wrote 'The Symbolist Manifesto'






32. 'The postmodern condition' and 'The collapse of the grand narrative'






33. Wrote 'Culture and Society' and 'The Country and the City'






34. The protagonist of 'The Red and the Black' - Contains the epitaph 'The truth - the harsh truth - Mathilde de la Mole - Madame de Rênal and M. Pirard - A sociological satire of the French social order under the Bourbon Restoration






35. Saintly character who represents the ideal of the simple - life-affirming philosophy of the Russian peasantry

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


36. Wrote 'The Lesson -' 'The Chairs -' and 'The Bald Soprano'






37. The narrator of Camus' 'The Fall.' A wealthy lawyer who often speaks of his love for high - open places.






38. Became the subject of a heated 'querelle' over the neoclassical unities. The play focuses on Don Rodrigue and Chimène. Rodrigue'S father - Don Diègue - is the old upstart general of medieval Spain and past his prime - whereas Chimène'S father is the

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


39. A rich and rakish landowner who seduces Emma as one more addition to a long string of mistresses. Though occasionally charmed by Emma - he feels little true emotion towards her.






40. A semi-autobiographical novel which tells the story of Geoffrey Firmin - an alcoholic British consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac on the Day of the Dead.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


41. He is a pompous speechmaker - endlessly rattling on about medical techniques and theories that he really knows nothing about. His presence serves - in part - to heighten our sense of Emma'S frustration with her life.






42. Set partially in the Berghof sanatorium.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


43. The Kafka-influenced novel concerns a dejected researcher who becomes convinced that inanimate objects and situations encroach on his ability to define himself - on his intellectual and spiritual freedom. The protagonist is Antoine Roquentin - Anna

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


44. Wrote 'Bodies that Matter' and 'Gender Trouble'






45. Wrote 'Anatomy of Criticism' and 'The Well-Tempered Critic' - 'centripetal' and 'centrifugal'






46. A flirtatious - witty - young socialite who sends identical love letters to Alceste - Oronte - Acaste - and Clitandre.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


47. Valentin Voloshinov and Terry Eagleton -






48. Orgon and Elmire - Damis - Mariane - and Dorine

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


49. Wrote exclusively in Alexandrine. His dramaturgy is marked by his psychological insight - the prevailing passion of his characters - a strong Jansensist sense of fate - and the nakedness of both the plot and stage.






50. The protagonist of 'The Stranger'