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GRE Subject Eng Lit > P.R Practice Test > Flashcards

P.R Practice Test Flashcards

Some explanations from Practice Test answers I found unfamiliar

1
Q

The more important four muses

A

Erato: Lyric poetry
Calliope: Epic poetry
Thalia: Comedy
Melpomene: Tragedy

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2
Q

Person who suggested Alexander Pope(1688-1744) write [Rape of the Lock(1712)]

A

John Caryll

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3
Q

Vignette

A

Need to fill in

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4
Q

Heroic Couplet

A

Rhymes aabbcc.
Iambic pentameter.
Doesn’t have to be heroic in content.

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5
Q

Enjambed line

A

The meaning runs on to the next line.

Ex) “Say, what strange motive Goddess! could compel”

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6
Q

[tour de force]

A

Technical virtuosity in a work of art - Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” uses enjambment to give speaker voice a natural quality.

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7
Q

A meaning of “vouchsafe”

A

To grant - as with condescension - permit. Deign.

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8
Q

Symbolist Movement

A

late 19th cen. phenomenon of French origin. Yeats is a good example.

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9
Q

Usage of “sweetness and light” in Jonathan Swift’s [Battle of the Books]

A

Quality and beneficial values of classical literature (“Hellenism”)

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10
Q

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s categories of imagination

A

Primary imagination: artistic inspiration

Secondary imagination: occurs only when one is conscious of the fact of imagining something

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11
Q

Author of [Prometheus Bound]

A

Aeschylus. His version of the myth is used in [Prometheus Bound] by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

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12
Q

Two variations of Prometheus myth

A

Sometimes he is the one that created men from clay.

Pandora is sent to Prometheus’ brother to release evil into the world.

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13
Q

Poetic Inversion

A

inverting the customary order of words

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14
Q

Creator of Achilles’ armor

A

Hephaistos had to make it twice due to Patroclus wearing it then dying, leaving it to Hector.

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15
Q

Creator of Parthenon

A

Athenians

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16
Q

Cause of Trojan War

A

Primarily Zeus, because he ordered Thetis (who was prophesied to bear a son that would be greater than his father) to marry Peleus, an old human king. The marriage celebration (held by Zeus) involved Eris.

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17
Q

Reference to Daedalus

A

James Joyce’s narrator in [A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man] and also a character in [Ulysses]

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18
Q

Creator of the Trojan Horse

A

Epeius, a Greek craftsman

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19
Q

Reaction to J. M. Synge’s [The Playboy of the Western World(1907)]

A

Despite poetic richness, protest due to morally unflattering portrayal of Irish working class (even though he was Irish himself).

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20
Q

W. B. Yeat’s contribution to Irish theater

A

Helped found Irish National Theater Company. Was one of the directors of Abbey Theater in Dublin.

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21
Q

W. B. Yeats [The Countess Cathleen(1892)]: Content

A

Dramatization of an Irish fable about people who sell their souls to get food during a famine.

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22
Q

Seán O’Casey [The Plough and the Stars(1926)]: Content and Reaction

A

Irish nationalism and poverty was theme. Again caused outrage for unidealized vision of Irish “folk”.

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23
Q

Oscar Wilde(1854-1900) [Salomé(1891)]: Content

A

“bring me the head of John the Baptist”

“Dance of Seven Veils”

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24
Q

Humanist Critic concern

A

Relation of the work to the moral universe.
Matthew Arnold is 19th cen. example of classical humanist. Irving Babitt was more dogmatic (saw art as primarily a moral/educational function)

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25
Q

Mikhail Bakhtin(1895-1975): Intro

A

Little known in the West until mid 1970s.

Novel is characterized by play of the microlanguages within a language(language of farmer battle with language of the farmer, language of irony battle with language of sincerity).
“heteroglossia”

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26
Q

Heteroglossia

A

Need to fill in

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27
Q

Jonathan Harker

A

Character whose diaries^letters narrate Bram Stoker(1847-1912)’s [Dracula(1897)]. The line “children of the night” comes from the book.

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28
Q

Natty Bumppo

A

Main character of James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851)’s [Leather-Stocking Tales(1823-1841)].

Also called “Deerslayer” “Hawkeye” “Leather-stocking”. Nature lover and a crack shot who always does the righteous.

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29
Q

Charles Dickens(1812-1870) [David CopperField(1850)]: Synopsis

A

Partly autobiographical.
Mr. and Mrs. Micawber, Uriah Heep

Need to fill in.

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30
Q

Saul Bellow(1915-2005) [The Adventures of Augie March(1953)]: Content

A

Coming-of-age novel set in depression-era Chicago

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31
Q

People that dramatized Mephistopheles

A

Christopher Marlowe(1564-1593), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832), Thomas Mann(1875-1955)

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32
Q

Narrator of [The Thousand and One Arabian Nights]

A

Scheherazade

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33
Q

First narrator of Emily Brontë(1818-1848) [Wuthering Heights(1847)]

A

Mr. Lockwood

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34
Q

Robert Browning(1812-1889) “Caliban upon Setebos” Characteristic:

A

Caliban monologues about Setebos, a deity Caliban and Sycorax worship.

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35
Q

Pen name of Charles Lamb

A

Elia

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36
Q

What work is Bigger Thomas of

A

Richard Wright(1908-1960)’s [Native Son(1940)]

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37
Q

Richard Wright(1908-1960)’s [Black Boy(1945)]: Content

A

autobiographic.

Need to fill in.

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38
Q

Balanced Stanza

A

rhymes abcb.

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39
Q

Ottava Rima

A

rhymes abababcc. “eight rhyme” in Italian. Differentiate from “octave”.

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40
Q

Rhyme Royal

A

rhymes ababbcc. Seven lines.

41
Q

Edith Wharton(1862-1937) [The House of Mirth(1905)]: Content and style

A

Lily Bart in New York City.

Elaborate, delicate, interior style.

42
Q

Elizabeth Gaskell(1810-1865) [North and South(1854)]: Content

A

Portrayal and outcry against social conditions in 19th cen. industrialization

43
Q

Details of James Joyce(1882-1941) [Dubliners(1914)] “The Dead”

A

Gabriel

Dublin at Christmas c. 1900

44
Q

Joseph Conrad(1857-1924) “Youth(1898)”: Content

A

A seafaring youth encounters ordeal and loves it.

45
Q

Carson McCullers(1917-1967) [The Ballad of the Sad Cafe(1951)]: Content

A

American southern gothic writer

Chaos wrought on a woman when her cousin Lymon Willis(dwarf, deformed, charismatic) enters her world

46
Q

D. H. Lawrence(1885-1930) “The Odour of Chrysanthemums(1909)”: Content

A

A woman waits her husband to return from the mines but he has died in a cave-in. He was separated from her in life and it has hardly changed.

47
Q

Henry James(1843-1916) [The Aspern Papers(1888): Content

A

The unsuccessful attempts of a biographer of a dead poet(Jeffrey Aspern, fictionalized Byron) to get some papers from the poet’s former mistress and her homely daughter. Set in Venice. The biographer at first inadvertently and then intentionally encourages the daughter’s infatuation with him to get the papers.

48
Q

Dante’s Beatrice

A

A Florentine woman who in Alighieri Dante(1265-1321)’s [Paradiso] acts as his guide. A dramatization of their “love at first sight” is in Vita Nuova(1294)

49
Q

Leda’s offspring

A

Clytemnestra (who kills Agamemnon)
Helen
Castor and Pollux (twins)

50
Q

simile

A

need to fill in

51
Q

Prospopoeia

A

A personified object has human qualities and also speaks

52
Q

Transitive/Intransitive Verbs

A

Need to fill in

53
Q

Who killed Medusa?

A

Perseus

54
Q

Imogen

A

Character from William Shakespeare(1564-1616)’s [Cymbeline(1623)] who is embodiment of goodness.

55
Q

William Shakespeare(1564-1616) [Cymbeline(1623)]: Synopsis

A

Need to fill in

56
Q

Aristophanes(446-386 BC): Works

A
57
Q

Euripides [Medea]: Content

A

A woman is ungratefully abandoned by lover Jason. She kills his bride-to-be, the bride’s father Creon, and the children fathered by Jason… and gets away with it.

58
Q

Eugene O’Neill(1888-1953) [Mourning Becomes Electra(1931)]

A

Need to fill in

59
Q

Racine(1639-1699) [Phaedra(1677)]

A

Racine was master of French neoclassical theater

need to fill in

60
Q

August Strindberg(1849-1912)

A

Modern, doesn’t draw from classical sources

Need to fill in

61
Q

George Chapman(1559-1634): Intro

A

An early translator of the Greeks

62
Q

Hanuman

A

Hindu monkey god

63
Q

Important People that effected Enlightenment

A

Voltaire

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

64
Q

Heroic Stanza (not Heroic Verse)

A

rhymes abab. Four line, usually iambic pentameter.

65
Q

Ballad Stanza (not to be confused with Heroic Stanza)

A

abcb, but many exceptions.

66
Q

Gwendolyn Brooks(1917-2000)

A

Poet

Need to fill in

67
Q

Nikki Giovanni (1943-)

A

Poet

Need to fill in

68
Q

Lorraine Hansberry(1930-1965)

A

Dramatist
[A Raisin in the Sun(1959)] title refers to Langston Hughes’ poem.
Need to fill in

69
Q

Mary Queen of Scots

A

Catholic

Need to fill in

70
Q

Queen Isabella (of Ferdinand and Isabella)

A

Catholic

Need to fill in

71
Q

Margery Kempe(1373-1438)

A

After a long marriage in which she bore several children, devoted life to Christ, wandered through Europe proselytizing for Church.
[The Book of Margery Kempe(1501)]

72
Q

Mary Rowlandson(1637-1711)

A

[The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson(1682)]

73
Q

Sarah Orne Jewett(1849-1909)

A

[The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)] Quiet and lyrical.

74
Q

Transition period for Late Old English and Middle English

A

13th cen.

75
Q

[The Gilgamesh Epic]

A

At least 1500 years older than [The Iliad]. Like Beowulf(hero must battle supernatural monsters)

76
Q

[The Niebelungenlied(13th cen.)]

A 
Main character is Siegfried. Romances, marriages, wars, betrayals, murders that happen with treasure Niebelung.
William Morris(1834-1896) [Sigurd the Volsung(1876)] uses an earlier version of the legend
77
Q

Eudora Welty(1969-2001)

A

Southern gothic writer, often comments on religious preoccupation. Not as extreme as O’Connor.

Need to fill in

78
Q

Willa Cather(1873-1947)

A

Associated with West and Midwest.

Need to fill in

79
Q

Nadine Gordimer(1923-2014)

A

South African novelist

Need to fill in

80
Q

May Sarton(1912-1995)

A

New England poet, novelist, diarist.

81
Q

Ben Jonson(1572-1637) [Volpone: The Fox(1606)]

A

In Venice. Volpone(fox) and his confederate Mosca(fly) attempt to cheat everyone, especially Volpone’s heirs. Mosca tries to blackmail Volpone and Volpone reveals their scheming ways to the authorities.

82
Q

What did Henry Fielding satirize about Samuel Richardson?

A

Telling people how to live

83
Q

Ptolemaic model

A

Stars and other heavenly bodies are fixed upon nested spheres that rotate about the earth

(eventually replaced by heliocentric model of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo)

84
Q

Jamesian

A

baroque sentence structure

hesitation, consideration. possibilities envisioned and discarded

85
Q

Countee Cullen(1903-1946)

A

Traditional, academic verse. Part of Harlem Renaissance.

Need to fill in

86
Q

Paul Laurence Dunbar(1872-1906)

A

Used idioms of black speech in his verse.

Need to fill in

87
Q

Amiri Baraka (1934-2014)

A

Born LeRoi Jones.
Poet, playwright, novelist, belles-lettrist.
[Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note(1961)]: Poetry collection
[The Dutchman(1964)]: Play
[Blues People(1963)]: Study of jazz

88
Q

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

A

“no ideas but in things”

[Paterson(1946)]: hometown Paterson, New Jersey. WCW practiced medicine here.

89
Q

Ted Hughes(1930-1998): Intro

A

Was married to Sylvia Plath(1932-1963)
Poet laureate of Britain.
Unflinching investigation of darker human nature (people portrayed as beasts.), contemporary style

“Crow(1970)”

90
Q

Jack London(1876-1916)

A

U.S. novelist, activist, journalist.

91
Q

William Dean Howells(1837-1920): Intro

A

Saw literature as potentially injurious.
Edited at [Harper’s] [Atlantic Monthly] magazines.

Realist technique in fiction, socialist politics, crusty moralizing.

92
Q

Djuna Barnes (1892-1982)

A

Modernist writer

Need to fill in

93
Q

F. Scott Fizgerald(1896-1940): Works

A

[This Side of Paradise(1920)]
[The Great Gatsby(1925)]
[Tender is the Night(1934)]

94
Q

John Bunyan(1628-1688): Work other than [Pilgrim’s Progress(1678)]

A

[Grace Abounding for the Chief of Sinners(1666)]

Need to fill in

95
Q

Walter Pater(1839-1894)

A

A serious writer

Need to fill in

96
Q

Fyodor Dostoyevsky(1821-1881) [Notes from the Underground(1864)]: Content

A

Bitter, sensitive, hypochondriacal, anonymous narrator is alienated from society

97
Q

Rainer Maria Rilke(1876-1925) [The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge(1910)]: Notes

A

Series of nearly autobiographical spiritual musings.

“object poems” - describing physical objects in a way that eliminates distance between observer and observed.

98
Q

Albert Camus(1913-1960) [The Stranger(1942)]: Content

A

Seemingly disaffected, matter-of-fact narrator. Starts with death of narrator’s mother. Center event is seemingly motiveless killing of a stranger on a beach and the trial.

GRE Subject Eng Lit (11 decks)

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