American Literature 1914–1945 Period Introduction Quiz

A  They believed that the United States lacked a tradition of high culture and was antagonistic to cultural expression.

B  They were forced out of the United States by a country suspicious of their leftist-leaning political views.

C  They were dissatisfied by the New Deal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt that supported competing artists and writers.

D  They were unable to financially support themselves in the United States because their writing was not commercial.

A  Poems became shorter through free verse.

B  Novels were shortened in length.

C  The short story rose to prominence.

D  Prose and poetry became indistinguishable forms.

A  emphasis on stream-of-consciousness

B  textual construction from fragments

C  extensive repetition of a text’s theme

D  highly structured rhyme schemes

A  French symbolist literature

B  nineteenth-century melodramas

C  Charles Darwin’s scientific theories

D  Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy

A  Writers’ cultural influence waned as scientists ascended to cultural prominence with their discoveries.

B  Writers adopted new scientific concepts with alacrity and extensively incorporated them in literature.

C  Writers ignored scientific developments because science was considered irrelevant to literature.

D  Scientists and writers were less able to communicate with one another as their views diverged.

A  They were concerned that mass culture would create a robotic, passive population.

B  They were distressed that mass culture was more accessible to society than other forms of culture.

C  They were worried that mass culture would reduce the ability to create high art.

D  They were anxious that mass culture would reduce the power of the individual in art.

A  It showed the dangers of publicly espousing Communist beliefs.

B  It demonstrated the artificial division between church and state.

C  It revealed the racial bias extant in the American judicial system.

D  It illustrated the progress women had made for equal rights.

A  Society is based on sacrifice whereby each person forfeits his or her personal rights for the sake of society’s benefit. All members of society gain communal rights instead of amassing personal wealth.

B  Society is divided into two classes which are antagonistic to each other because one class controls the means of production and the other class provides the labor necessary to maintain industry.

C  Society is assembled from aggressive and exclusionary individuals who enter mutually exclusive pacts to create nations in which all social, political, and cultural aspects are adjudicated by the members.

D  Society is composed of multiple castes that get increasingly smaller in population as the amount of personal wealth increases, which creates unrest in the lower classes who have no social mobility.

A  the start of World War I

B  the start of World War II

C  the Great Depression

D  the sinking of the Titanic

A  Literary characters become individuals trapped in repressive cultures.

B  Sexual elements became highly graphic and technical in modernist novels.

C  The middle class replaces the impoverished as the primary focus in literature.

D  Women were featured more prominently in novels as the protagonists.

A  engagement in political struggles

B  the use of literary traditions

C  belief in Judeo-Christian values

D  the role of popular culture in literature

A  a singularly focused belief that Christian ideology needed to be revived in contemporary literature

B  an American phenomenon that recoiled from European modes of expression and sought new artistic oeuvres

C  a European-based philosophy that privileged natural expression over aesthetic conventions

D  a loosely related collection of international movements that challenged traditional authority

A  The country had to print more money to finance the war effort.

B  The war mobilized industry and employed more workers.

C  The war reduced the United States population through casualties.

D  The country elected its first Republican president in nearly a decade.

A  to encourage immigration from underrepresented nationalities to the United States

B  to streamline the immigration application process and reduce the wait time to enter the country

C  to create a formal process of immigration that included testing for English-speaking abilities

D  to prohibit immigration from Asian countries and set quotas for other countries

A  prompte the relocation of civilians

B  encourage the development of technology

C  mobilize the country’s industries

D  stifle the economy’s growth