English Literature MCQs

A. Irony
B. Allegory
C. Oxymoron
D. Alliteration

A. Historic and contemporary imagery
B. Kabalistic imagery
C. Nationalist imagery
D. Everyday imagery

A. Feeling like an outcast in your own house
B. Becoming a stuttering sycophant just to survive
C. Wrapping yourself in the armor of anger and resentment
D. All of the above

A. The devastation wrought by world war i was so enormous that it put europe’s cultural and political norms and values into question.
B. The mechanized killing, which took place on a massive scale during world war i, made it necessary to reflect about the effects of technological progress.
C. World war i was the first global conflict where the distinction between combatants and civilians was erased, and this had a devastating effect on the european psyche.
D. Both a and b

A. Love sonnets from the nazi death camps
B. American g.i. poetry from german prisoner of war camps
C. Jewish dissident poetry from the gulags in siberia
D. Haiku poetry from the japanese internment camps in the us

A. To “amplify and clarify the indistinct emotions created by metaphorical symbols”
B. To “prolong the moment of contemplation”
C. To “counteract the forces of dispersal inherent in metaphorical language”
D. To “make poetry new”

A. Is it possible for romantic themes in poetry to be meaningful after the holocaust?
B. The horror of the holocaust was inexpressible; how can poetry speak of what is inexpressible?
C. Is there a relationship between poetry and rationality after the holocaust?
D. Is there a meaningful relationship between world war i poetry and world war ii poetry?

A. He was a native new yorker who did not travel much but who was keenly aware of new york’s complexity and diversity.
B. He moved to new york from alabama and the stark contrast between these places deeply influenced his writing.
C. He was born in missouri and traveled extensively throughout the united states and the world before he moved to new york city.
D. He spent most of his life in washington, dc, moving to harlem only after he gained literary fame.

A. Yeats’s poetry was autobiographical, but he understood his life through the prism of myths and symbols; symbolism was therefore present in both yeats’s life and in his poetry.
B. Yeats believed that each person was an instance of a general cultural type or symbol.
C. The young yeats wished to emphasize his identity as an english poet and draw attention away from his irish heritage.
D. Both a and b

A. The great depression
B. Hitler’s invasion of poland in 1939
C. The russian civil war
D. World war i