American Literature 1914–1945 Period Introduction Quiz

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

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

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

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

A  Poems became shorter through free verse.

B  The short story rose to prominence.

C  Novels were shortened in length.

D  Prose and poetry became indistinguishable forms.

A  emphasis on stream-of-consciousness

B  extensive repetition of a text’s theme

C  textual construction from fragments

D  highly structured rhyme schemes

A  Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy

B  nineteenth-century melodramas

C  Charles Darwin’s scientific theories

D  French symbolist literature

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A  It demonstrated the artificial division between church and state.

B  It showed the dangers of publicly espousing Communist beliefs.

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 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.

B  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.

C  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.

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 sinking of the Titanic

B  the start of World War I

C  the Great Depression

D  the start of World War II

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

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

C  Literary characters become individuals trapped in repressive cultures.

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

A  belief in Judeo-Christian values

B  the use of literary traditions

C  the role of popular culture in literature

D  engagement in political struggles

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

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

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

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

A  The war reduced the United States population through casualties.

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

C  The war mobilized industry and employed more workers.

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  encourage the development of technology

B  prompte the relocation of civilians

C  stifle the economy’s growth

D  mobilize the country’s industries