GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Cultural and Historical Contexts
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
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Example Questions
Example Question #131 : Contexts Of Prose
Which of the following novels does not belong to the same genre as A Confederacy of Dunces?
Lazarillo de Tormes
Jude the Obscure
Nights at the Circus
The Pickwick Papers
The History of Tom Jones
Jude the Obscure
The anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), Charles Dickens’ The Pickwick Papers (1836), Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), and Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus (1984) are all famous picaresque novels. While it does contain characters who travel around, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure (1895) does not contain any other elements of the picaresque novel.
John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces was published in 1980.
Example Question #71 : Contexts Of American Prose
Who is the author of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”?
William Faulkner
Ernest Hemingway
Thomas McGuane
T.C. Boyle
Gertrude Stein
Ernest Hemingway
This is one of the most famous stories by the American expatriate author Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” was published in 1933.
Gertrude Stein wrote Tender Buttons (1914), William Faulkner wrote The Sound and the Fury (1929), Thomas McGuane wrote The Sporting Club (1969), and T.C. Boyle wrote World's End (1987).
Example Question #81 : Contexts Of American Prose
Which of the following is not a novel by the author of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”?
A Farewell to Arms
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Sun Also Rises
The Garden of Eden
The Making of Americans
The Making of Americans
The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940),“A Clean Well-Lighted Place” (1933) and The Garden of Eden (1986) are all by Ernest Hemingway. The Making of Americans is a 1925 work by Gertrude Stein.
Example Question #323 : Cultural And Historical Contexts
In which decade was “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” published?
1970s
1980s
1960s
1900s
1930s
1930s
“A Clean Well-Lighted Place” was published in 1933. Hemingway died in 1961. His first publication (in book form) came in 1923.
Example Question #71 : Contexts Of American Prose After 1925
Which of the following is not another short story by the author of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”?
“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”
“Dry September”
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”
“Hills Like White Elephants”
“Big Two-Hearted River”
“Dry September”
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1936), “Hills Like White Elephants” (1927), “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” (1936), “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” (1933), and “Big Two-Hearted River” (1925) are all works by Ernest Hemingway. “Dry September” is by William Faulkner (1931).
Example Question #82 : Contexts Of American Prose
What country is the setting of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”?
Spain
The United States
Tanzania
China
India
Spain
Hemingway's “A Clean Well-Lighted Place” (1933) takes place in an unnamed café in Spain. While Hemingway did set some stories in Africa and the United States, his reputation from the interwar years is primarily as a expatriate writer in continental Europe.
Example Question #83 : Contexts Of American Prose
Which of the following works by the same author shares the setting of “A Clean Well-Lighted Place”?
True at First Light
Across the River and Into the Trees
The Sun Also Rises
The Old Man and the Sea
A Moveable Feast
The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises (1926) is set in several cities in Spain. The Old Man and the Sea (1952) is set off the coast of Cuba, Across the River and Into the Trees (1950) is set in Italy, True at First Light (1999) is set in East Africa, A Moveable Feast (1964) is set primarily in Paris (as it is Hemingway's memoir of his expatriate life in the 1920s).
Example Question #74 : Contexts Of American Prose After 1925
During what decade was Fahrenheit 451 published?
1980s
1960s
1990s
1970s
1950s
1950s
The novel was published in 1953 amidst real threats of book burning, censorship, and McCarthyism in America.
Example Question #75 : Contexts Of American Prose After 1925
During what decade was The Bushwhacked Piano published?
1950s
1970s
1960s
1930s
1940s
1970s
This novel, McGuane’s second, was first published in 1971. You might have been able to narrow down the options by recognizing that McGuane was not born until 1939.
Example Question #76 : Contexts Of American Prose After 1925
When was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas published?
1990s
1970s
1960s
1980s
1950s
1970s
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was first published in 1971, making it a very early reflection on the countercultural events of the 1960s.
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