GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

varsity tutors app store varsity tutors android store

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept

Example Questions

Example Question #391 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

Which of the following postcolonial novels was based on a character from, and serves as a prequel to, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre?

Possible Answers:

The God of Small Things

A House for Mr. Biswas

Disgrace

Heart of Darkness

Wide Sargasso Sea

Correct answer:

Wide Sargasso Sea

Explanation:

Jean Rhys’ 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, a seminal postcolonial and feminist work, explores the Caribbean childhood of Bertha, the first wife of Jane Eyre ’s Mr. Rochester.

V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things (1997), Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899), and J.M Coetzee's Disgrace (1999) were all used as alternative answer choices.

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was first published in 1847.

Example Question #392 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

Which novel by Indian author Arundhati Roy concerns the coming-of-age and illicit love story between twins Rahel and Esthappen in India?

Possible Answers:

Twilight in Delhi

Troubles

The God of Small Things

Midnight’s Children

Cutting for Stone

Correct answer:

The God of Small Things

Explanation:

The questions refers to The God of Small Things, which won the 1997 Booker Prize. The novel follows the lives of the aforementioned twins in an intergenerational family in the second half of the 20th century.

Salman Rushdie's Midnight’s Children (1981), J.G Farrell's Troubles (1970), Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone (2009), and Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi (1940) were used as alternative answer choices.

Example Question #393 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

Which of the following is a Nobel Prize-winning South African writer?

Possible Answers:

Chinua Achebe

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

NoViolet Bulawayo

Nadine Gordimer

Wole Soyinka

Correct answer:

Nadine Gordimer

Explanation:

The correct answer is Nadine Gordimer, whose novels include The Lying Days (1953), Booker Prize-winning The Conservationist (1974), and No Time Like the Present (2012). 

Chinua Achebe was Nigerian, as is Wole Soyinka; NoViolet Bulawayo is Zimbawean (although she has been living in the United States for many years; she teaches at Stanford University); Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is Kenyan.

Example Question #394 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

Which of the following Indonesian writers wrote the popular novel Negeri 5 Menara (The Land of 5 Towers)?

Possible Answers:

Ahmad Fuadi

Ayu Utami

Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Sapardi Djoko Damono

Leila Chudori

Correct answer:

Ahmad Fuadi

Explanation:

This is Ahmad Fuadi, who is an important Indonesian entrepreneur as well as a novelist. Negeri 5 Menara (The Land of 5 Towers) was published in 2009. Pramoedya Ananta Toer wrote the Buru quartet, Ayu Utami wrote Saman (1998), Sapardi Djoko Damono wrote mainly lyric poetry, and Leila Chudori wrote The Last Night (1989).

Example Question #395 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

This Indian-American author wrote Interpreter of Maladies, a Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection, and The Namesake, a novel. Who is the author?

Possible Answers:

Salman Rushdie

Kiran Desai

Mohsin Hamid

Arundhati Roy

Jhumpa Lahiri

Correct answer:

Jhumpa Lahiri

Explanation:

The author in question is Jhumpa Lahiri. Her writing often centers around Indian or Indian-American immigrant characters and their interfamilial relationships and strife. Interpreter of Maladies was published in 1999 and won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent book is The Lowland (2013)

Kiran Desai won the 2006 Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss. Arundhati Roy won the 1997 Booker Prize for The God of Small Things. Salman Rushdie is the author of Midnight's Children (1981). Mohsin Hamid is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007).

Example Question #396 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

Which of the following authors wrote Red Sorghum, Pow!, and Big Breasts and Wide Hips?

Possible Answers:

Yu Hua

Su Tong

Ha Jin

Mo Yan

Xiaolu Guo

Correct answer:

Mo Yan

Explanation:

This is the Chinese author Mo Yan (Mo Yan is a pen name that loosely translated means "don't speak," his given name is Guan Moye), who uses magical realism and folk tales to investigate political, sexual, and cultural identities. Yan was the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Red Sorghum was published in 1986, Pow! was published in 2003, and Big Breasts and Wide Hips was published in 1997.

Ha Jin wrote the National Book Award winning In the Pond (1999). Xiaolu Guo is an author and filmmaker whose novels include UFO in her Eyes (2009) and 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth (2008). Su Tong is the author of Binu and the Great Wall of China (2009). Yu Hua is a short story writer and novelist whose works include To Live (2003) and Brothers (2009).

Example Question #91 : Identification Of Prose

Which of the following is a memoir by Chinese-American author Maxine Hong Kingston? 

Possible Answers:

The Woman Warrior

Red Sorghum

To Live

The Joy Luck Club

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Correct answer:

The Woman Warrior

Explanation:

The correct answer is The Woman Warrior (1976), a memoir that mixes autobiographical passages with Chinese folktales in order to investigate issues of immigration, gender, culture, and ethnicity.

Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997), Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club (1989), Mo Yan's Red Sorghum (1986), Yu Hua's To Live (1993) were used as alternative answer choices

Example Question #397 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English

In this ancient Greek play, a man abandoned as a child fulfills a prophecy by becoming the king of Thebes, murdering his father Laius and marrying his mother Jocasta in the process. Which play is it?

Possible Answers:

Oedipus Rex

The Frogs

Julius Caesar

The Oresteia

Lysistrata

Correct answer:

Oedipus Rex

Explanation:

The play described is Oedipus Rex, an iconic tragedy written around the 420s BCE by the Greek playwright Sophocles. The play, which belongs to a trilogy including Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, gave rise to numerous other works and to the Freudian concept of an oedipal complex.

Example Question #1 : Identification Of World Plays Before 1925

Which tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides features the story of Jason’s wife, a woman who is abandoned for a Corinthian princess and subsequently seeks a bloody revenge?

Possible Answers:

Achilles the Great

Agamemnon

The Bacchae

Medea

Orestes

Correct answer:

Medea

Explanation:

This is Euripides’ Medea, named after the heroine of the play. In the drama, Medea murders Jason’s new wife and her children and escapes to Athens to begin a new life. A controversial work at the time, Medea, like many of Euripides’ works, is remarkable for its complex and nuanced portrayal of a victim’s struggle for autonomy in an unsympathetic society.

Example Question #1 : Identification Of World Plays Before 1925

This Athenian playwright is known for comedies such as The Frogs, The Clouds, and Peace. Who is it?

Possible Answers:

Aristophanes

Sappho

Sophocles

Aeschylus

Euripides

Correct answer:

Aristophanes

Explanation:

The comic genius Aristophanes is responsible for these plays and for nearly two dozen more, some of which are now lost. The playwright was known especially for lambasting society with his scathing wit, a skill that contributed to the condemnation and death of Socrates.

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept
Learning Tools by Varsity Tutors