GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Cultural and Historical Contexts
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #301 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Who is the author of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”?
Joyce Carol Oates
Kate Chopin
Mary Robison
Barbara Kingsolver
Ayn Rand
Joyce Carol Oates
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” (1966) is one of Joyce Carol Oates’ best known short stories.
Mary Robison wrote Believe Them: Stories (1988), Ayn Rand wrote We the Living (1936), Kate Chopin wrote "The Storm" (1898), and Barbara Kingsolver wrote Animal Dreams (1990).
Example Question #302 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Which of the following is not another work by the author of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”?
Too Much Happiness
them
Black Water
What I Lived For
The Wheel of Love and Other Stories
Too Much Happiness
Too Much Happiness (2009) is a short story collection by the Canadian writer Alice Munro. All the other titles are works by Joyce Carol Oates.
Black Water was published in 1992, What I Lived For was published in 1994, The Wheel of Love and Other Stories was published in 1970, and them was published in 1969.
Example Question #301 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
What philosophical system did the author of The Fountainhead engender?
McCarthyism
Logical Positivism
Existentialism
Nihilism
Objectivism
Objectivism
Objectivism, which has been described variously as rational individualism and monomaniacal solipsism, claims that the pinnacle of human accomplishment is personal success and happiness. These philosophical views are developed most thoroughly in Atlas Shrugged (1957).
The Fountainhead was published in 1943.
Example Question #62 : Contexts Of American Prose
When was Sophie’s Choice published?
1940s
1930s
1970s
1960s
1950s
1970s
Sophie’s Choice was originally published in 1979, although it did not win the National Book Award until 1980.
Example Question #302 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Who is the author of The Grapes of Wrath?
John Steinbeck
Richard Ford
John Dos Passos
Jack Kerouac
Philip Roth
John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath (1939) is the fifth major novel by John Steinbeck (1902-1968).
Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road (1957), John Dos Passos wrote A Pushcart at the Curb (1922), Richard Ford wrote Independence Day (1995), and Philip Roth wrote The Prague Orgy (1985)
All of these authors are American novelists who were active in the 20th century.
Example Question #303 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Which of the following is not another novel by the author of The Grapes of Wrath?
In Dubious Battle
The 42nd Parallel
Cannery Row
Of Mice and Men
East of Eden
The 42nd Parallel
In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), East of Eden (1952), The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and Cannery Row (1945) are all by John Steinbeck. The 42nd Parallel is a 1930 novel by John Dos Passos.
Example Question #304 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Which of the following is a novella by the author of The Grapes of Wrath?
Miracle on 34th Street
In Watermelon Sugar
The Pearl
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Billy Budd
The Pearl
While all of these titles are novellas, only The Pearl (1947) is by John Steinbeck, who also wrote The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
Miracle on 34th Street (1947) is by Valentine Davies, Billy Budd (1924) is by Herman Melville, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) is by Truman Capote, and In Watermelon Sugar (1968) is by Richard Brautigan.
Example Question #305 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Who is the author of Angle of Repose?
John Fowles
E. Annie Proulx
James Michener
Wallace Stegner
John Hawkes
Wallace Stegner
Angle of Repose (1971) is the tenth novel of American author Wallace Stegner (1909-1993).
James Michener wrote Tales of the South Pacific (1947) (he was also a noted patron of the arts and the founder of the Michener Foundation), E. Annie Proulx wrote Postcards (1992), John Hawkes wrote The Cannibal (1949), and John Fowles wrote The Collector (1963).
Example Question #65 : Contexts Of American Prose
When was Angle of Repose published?
1940s
1950s
1980s
1960s
1970s
1970s
Wallace Stegner's Angle of Repose was published in 1971 and won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Example Question #306 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
Which of the following is not another work by the author of Angle of Repose?
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
All the Little Live Things
A Confederacy of Dunces
On a Darkling Plain
The Spectator Bird
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Big Rock Candy Mountain (1943), On a Darkling Plain (1940), All the Little Live Things (1967), Angle of Repose (1971) and The Spectator Bird (1967) are by Wallace Stegner. A Confederacy of Dunces is a famous 1980 novel by John Kennedy Toole.
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
