Clep* Study Guide Flashcards
What are the three dramatic plays Sophocles wrote?
Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone
Greek god - ruler of all the gods, father of other gods and mortal heroes.
Zeus.
The Greek god of the sun, patron of poetry, and the ideal of male beauty. Also, god of shepherds, prophecy, music, and medicine. Twin brother of Artemis.
Apollo
Who was the Greek god of wine and revelry, orgiastic religion celebrating the power and fertility of nature. He later became the patron of the theater.
Dionysius
Greek god of the sea and of earthquakes; brother of Zeus, Hades, and Hera. Roman name was Neptune.
Poseidon
Greek god who served as messenger to the other gods and was himself the God of commerce, travel, and thievery.
Hermès / Mercury
Roman god of fire and metalworking. Greek name was Hephaestus.
Vulcan
The belief in the worship of all the gods is called —?
Polytheistic
What is the definition of Pantheism?
To worship Gods of nature.
A doctrine identifying the Deity with the universe and its phenomena.
Aristotle
Greek philosopher. A pupil of Plato, the tutor of Alexander the Greek, and the author of works on logic, metaphysics, ethics, natural sciences, polities, and poetics, he profoundly influenced Western thought.
Who was Homer?
Greek epic poet. Two of the greatest works in Western literature, the lliad and the odyssey, are attributed to him.
Who was Helen of Troy and what was her significance?
The beautiful daughter of Zeus and Leda who was abducted by Paris: the Greek army sailed to Troy to get her back which resulted in the Trojan War.
An example of this creature is Medusa. What are they called and what are some of their characteristics?
Gorgon, terrifying women with snakes for hair and eyes that if looked into turned the beholder into stone.
A two-handled jar with a narrow neck used by the Ancient Greek and Romans to carry wine or oil is called a —?
Amphora
Describe the physical appearance of a centaur.
A creature having the head, arms, and trunk of a man and the body and legs of a horse.
Describe the physical appearance of a Minotaur?
A monster who was half man and bull, to whom young Athenian men and women were sacrificed in the Cretan labyrinth until Theseus killed him.
What was stoicism?
Unemotional philosophical view
Indifference to pleasure and pain
What is Epicureanism?
Philosophy advanced by Epicurus that considered happiness, or the avoidance of pain and emotional disturbance, to be the highest good and that the pursuit of pleasures can be enjoyed in moderation.
(Philosophy in which pleasure is a virtue)
What is cynicism?
An attitude of scornful or jaded negativity, especially a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of others.
(Philosophy with a negative outlook)
What is the Abbey of Theleme and who was its author?
The creator was Francois Rabelais, a French monk turned writer who wrote with a extensive vocabulary and shifting points of views.
Who was the writer of Don Quixote?
Cervantes, who was a Spanish; some say the best Spanish writer of all time. He wrote Don Quixote, a satire. One of the themes in the book is idealism vs. realism.
Who was the squire to Don Quixote?
Sancho Panza
Who wrote the Faerie Queen?
Edmund Spenser
Who was Oliver Cronwell?
English general and statesman who led the parliamentary army in the English Civil War.
(He was the first commoner to rule England and did so for 10 years. He closed the theaters and enforced morals.)
What is the Pilgrim’s progress about?
It is an allegory about heaven
Who wrote Robinson Crusoe?
Daniel Defoe wrote Robinson Crusoe. It was the first pure fiction story.
What did Niccolo Machiavelli write and what was it about?
The Prince and it was about how to deviously get what you want.
Who was Mary Wollstonecraft and what was she known for?
She was English who moved to Paris. She was an essayist and wrote “Vindication of the Rights of Women.”
What did Mary Shelley, daughter of the essayist Mary Wollstonecraft, write?
Frankenstein, which was meant to be an examination of society.
What was Honore de Balzac known for?
Writing more than 50 novels, including (The Human Comedy), which is about all aspects of human life.
Who wrote Les Miserables?
Victor Hugo
This man was an adventurer who wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte-Cristo. Who is he?
Alexander Dumas
What did Jules Verne write?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which foretells of atomic energy.
(Jules Verne is considered to be the Father of Science Fiction.)
What did Jonathan Swift write?
Gulliver’s Travels which is about a doctor who is looking for the truth. It is twelve chapters long and makes fun of society.
Who wrote Tom Sawyer then Huckleberry Finn?
Samuel Clemens (Pen name: Mark Twain)
Who wrote “Ulysses” and “Finnegan’s Wake”?
James Joyce
I also wrote in stream of consciousness style, like James Joyce, and wrote The Sound and the Fury. Who am I?
William Faulkner
Who compiled a dictionary?
Samuel Johnson
I wrote a biography on Samuel Johnson. Who am I?
James Boswell
Which author wrote The Rivals?
Richard Sheridan
Who wrote Pride and Prejudice?
Jane Austen
Author who wrote ‘A Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist.’
Charles Dickens
Who was George Sand?
Female French novelist who used Sand as her pen name. She sometimes wore men’s suits, had many famous relationships such as with Chopin.
Who actually were the Bell brothers?
They were actually the three Bronte sisters. Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne). They wrote under make names so their work would be published.
Who wrote Wuthering Heights?
Emily Bronte
Who wrote Moby Dick and what was it about?
Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick about a whaling captain’s obsession of killing a white whale.
I wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Who am I?
Leo Tolstoy
What novelettes did Joseph Conrad write?
- Heart of Darkness
* Lord Jim (In Lord Jim, Jim was corrupted by absolute power)
Who is the author of The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mary McCathy was a what?
A female American writer
This individual was American. He wrote science fiction including the hit Fahrenheit 451?
Ray Bradbury
What genre did Issac Asimov write?
Science fiction
Who was Paul Lawrence Dunbar?
An African American writer who wrote Folks from Dixie about the life of Southern Blacks.
Who was Langston Hughes?
An African American writer who was involved in the “Harlem Renaissance” in NY when black artist formed a community.
This person won the Nobel Prize for Americans in China?
Peral Bunk
This person was a feminist who wrote a treatise titled “The Second Sex.”
Simone De Beauvoir
Who was Mathew Brandy and who did he inspire?
He was an American Civil war photographer. His work inspired Stephen Crane to write The Red Badge of Courage.
What book did Stephen Crane write and what was it about?
Wrote the book The Red Badge of Courage. In this book, the main character runs away from battle and gets hurt, others mistake his wound for a war injury. He is ashamed of his cowardice and allows them to believe he was injury by fighting.
What is Humanism?
A school of thought where people believe that a human being has value no matter of their spirituality. They believe that all people are inherently good.
In France, there were three great playwrights in the Neo-classic period. Racine was —?
A tragic dramatic who wrote to please royalty.
In France, there were three great playwrights in the Neo-classic period. Moliere was —?
Satiric dramatist who wrote for the common man.
In France, there were three great playwrights in the Neo-classic period. Corneille was —?
A comedic / Tragic dramatist
Who was Henrik Ibsen?
A social reformer, wrote Peer Gynt and A Doll’s House in which the main character Nora defies her husband and leaves the marriage. Nora is compared to a doll.
Who was T.S. Eliot?
An American born citizen. He later became a subject of England. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1948. He wrote a play entitled Murder in the Cathedral, which is based on Thomas Beckett being killed in Canterbury Cathedral. He was also the author of poetry, a famous piece being The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Who wrote the play Waiting for a Godot and what were the play’s visuals?
Samuel Beckett. The play included no scenery other than a cyclorama (giant curtain on the back of the stage), a single tree with one branch and one leaf.
Who was Eugene O’Neil?
An early century playwright. He was serious and wrote heavy drama with adultery and dark gritty plots.
This individual was an American playwright who wrote Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and All my Sons. Who is he?
Arthur Miller
Who wrote Raisin In the Sun and what is it about?
Lorraine Hansberry. It is about a family in South Chicago trying to move to a white neighborhood and their struggle with segregation.
The —– is a classical performance of Japanese theater. There were no women actors; men played all parts. There was poetry, music, and dance in each production.
Noh theatre
—– is when an actor who is alone on stage vocalizes his innermost thoughts. Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” speech is good example.
Soliloquy
Aside is ——-?
When a character speaks to the audience, confidentially, separating himself from the other characters.
What is a Flat?
A flat is a frame on which a canvas or other material is stretched tight across and used for scenery.
—– is a gauze material that if you light it from the back side, you can see a silhouette for scenery.
Scrim
What is a tragic figure?
A good person brought down by a flaw in character.
What is a haiku and give an example.
A haiku is a poem that is 17 syllables long, unrhymed, with three lines in total in this order: five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables.
• Here is an example:
Wander deeply now
Find knowledge, be determined
Pass test, save money
Two lines that end in similarly sounding words is called —?
A rhyme
When words look alike but don’t rhyme, what is it called?
Eye rhyme
What is a stanza?
A group of lines in a poem
What is it called when a poem doesn’t rhyme?
Blank verse
What is a free verse?
A poem in whatever format you want
A rhyme, metered poem which is 14 lines long is called a —?
Sonnet
What is an Epic and what would be a good example?
A long, narrative poem that tells a story. A good example is Beowolf, an epic, early English poem in which Beowolf kills Grendel (a monster). He then kills a dragon and dies.
What is an Elegy?
An Elegy is to memorialize someone (in poetic form).
What is a Limerick?
A nonsense poem, with five lines. Lines 1 and 2 rhyme, 3 and 4 rhyme and line 5 rhymes with line 1.
Dante was Italian who wrote the The Human Comedy (Divine Comedy). Some of the symbolism in his work is as follows:
Terza rima = triplets Dark woods of error = worldliness Sun = revelation, illumination from God Little Hill = mount of joy Virgil = guide, rationality
Who is Ralph Waldo Emerson?
An essayist who believed in transcendentalism
Who wrote On Walden Pond and Life in the Woods?
Henry David Thoreau
Who wrote the book of poems The Canterbury Tales?
Geoffrey Chaucer. It is considered to be the outstanding work written in Middle English. He began to write it around 1386, but died in 1400 before completing it. The story is about 29 pilgrims who meet in an inn and decide to commence their pilgrimage together.
—– was an English poet. Because of rumors of him having a child with his half sister, he left England.
Lord Byron
Robert Hayden wrote the poem “Those Winter Sundays.” What was it about?
About the little things a father did for his son to show that he loved him and how the son realizes that.
What poem did Dylan Thomas write?
“Do not go gently into that good night.”
Torah is a —– scripture?
Jewish
The Koran is —– scripture?
Islam
What poem did Robert Frost write and what was it about?
“Fire and Ice” about the destructive power of human emotions and the end of the world.
According to the bible, what was man’s first disobedience?
Eating the fruit in Eden
What was ukiyo-e art?
It was a form of art that came into popularity in Japan in the 17th century. Ukiyo-e literally means pictures of the floating wood. It was called this because it consisted of moments of joy or amusements, which are termed floating moments in Japanese culture. These pieces of art are carved into blocks of wood.
Who was John Milton and what did he write?
He was a religious zealot who became blind while in jail for eight years. He tried to explained how God worked, and wrote Paradise Lost.
Speeds in music:
1) Allegro —
2) Andante —
3) Presto —
4) Minuetto —
1) Fast
2) Slow
3) Fast
4) A dance
What is an obelisk?
A tall four-sided shaft of stone
Who was Sylvia Plath?
• Lived 1932 - 1963
She wrote well-crafted poems that were very personal. She wrote The Bell Jar.
What two motion pictures did Thomas Edison create?
“The Sneeze” and “The Kiss.”
Poems have meter and there are different types. A line in a poem is named for the number of feet it contains.
• One foot is called —?
Monometer
What movie did D.W. Griffith create?
“Birth of a Nation.”
Poems have meter and there are different types. A line in a poem is named for the number of feet it contains.
• Two feet is called —?
Dimeter
Poems have meter and there are different types. A line in a poem is named for the number of feet it contains.
Three feet is called —?
Trimeter
Poems have meter and there are different types. A line in a poem is named for the number of feet it contains.
Four lines is called —?
Tetrameter
Poems have meter and there are different types. A line in a poem is named for the number of feet it contains.
• Five lines is called —?
Pentameter
Poems have meter and there are different types. A line in a poem is named for the number of feet it contains.
• Six feet is called —?
Hexameter
Poems have meter and there are different types. A line in a poem is named for the number of feet it contains.
• Seven feet is called —?
Heptameter
A prophet that could foretell the future is—?
Oracle
Which of the following is often a symbol of new life arising from death?
The phoenix
He believed that tragedy causes the proper purgation of those emotions of pity and fear which it has aroused. The author and concept referred to in the sentence above are
Aristotle . . . catharsis
The term for a short narrative used to answer a difficult moral question or to offer a moral truth.
A parable.
Aristotle considered that only these two literary genres were worthy of attention because they had a mimetic or figurative relation with the world, as opposed to a diegetic or directly representative relation.
Tragedy and epic poetry
Why was Socrates ordered to drink hemlock?
He questioned the existence and the authority of the gods.
Name three Greek authors who were historian.
Herodotus, Xenophon, Thucydides
The philosopher who proposed the existence of a world of ideas truer than the world of material appearance.
Plato
Classicism is defined as
Linearity of forms, simplicity, proportion, and symmetry
“Oedipus Rex” is a play by Sophocles in which
Jocasta marries her son
In the “Iliad”, Achilles kills Hector because
Hector had killed Achilles’s friend Patroclus
Odysseus escaped from Polyphemus the cyclops by
Deceiving him and piercing is only eye
What did Jason and the Argonauts set out to do?
Travel the Black Sea to seize the Golden Fleece
A Roman poet who
Made of Aeneas the hero who foresaw the grandeur of Rome
Horace is famous for writing poems on
Topoi such as “carpe diem” and “beat us ille”.
The lute is most similar to the modern
Guitar
Who were the troubadours of the Middle Ages?
Poet-musicians
Saint Thomas Aquinas is reputed to have said, “Beware the man of one book.” Such an expression is commonly called
An aphorism
Dante Alighieri chooses Virgil as his guide in their descent into Inferno because
Virgil represented the light of reason before the revelation of God
King Richard the Lionheart participated in
The Third Crusade
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” is a line that belongs to
Dante’s Divine Comedy
This philosopher adapted Plato’s ideas and founded Neo-Platonism
Plotinus
Saint Augustine is considered a Neo-Platonic Christian because
He envisioned the City of Men as a bad replica of the City of God
Christopher Columbus was sure that he would reach Asia because
He knew the Earth was not flat
To which period did Leonardo and Palestrina belong?
Renaissance
A Portuguese explorer who reached India.
Vasco de Gama
Of the following plays of Shakespeare, (1). The Tempest; (2) Hamlet; (3) A Midsummer Night’s Dream; (4) Macbeth; and (5) Much Ado About Nothing, which two plays are tragedies?
Hamlet and Macbeth
The work of Giotto strongly influenced painting of what period?
Early Renaissance
The Decameron was written by whom?
Giovanni Boccaccio
Which Shakespeare play was used as the basis for a libretto for a Verdi opera?
Othello
In modern times, “Machiavellian” is most likely to be applied to what type of person?
A politician who is ambitious, unscrupulous, and deceitful
Sometimes called a religion, sometimes referred to as “the religion of no religion,” sometimes identified simply as “a way of life,” its development can be traced from its origins in India in the sixth century BC to Japan in the 12 century AD by way of China and Korea, and to the US in the 20th century.
Zen Buddhism
Explain the rhyme schemes of the following:
Aabbcc
Ababab
A abc
Last words of each stanza, where the “a’s” rhyme with each other, the “b’s” rhyme with each other and the “c’s” rhyme with each other.
