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Introduction to American Literature > Final exam > Flashcards

Final exam Flashcards

1
Q

Who wrote: “Editha”?

A

Howells

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2
Q

Who wrote: “The Open Boat”?

A

Crane

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3
Q

Who wrote: “Babylon Revisited”?

A

Fitzgerald

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4
Q

Who wrote: “Dry September”?

A

Faulkner

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5
Q

Who wrote: “Sweat”?

A

Hurston

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6
Q

Who wrote: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”?

A

Hughes

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7
Q

Who wrote: “I, Too”?

A

Hughes

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8
Q

What is Literary Realism?

A
  • Portrays life as it is
  • Came as a reaction to Literary Romance in the second half of the 19th century
  • Reject elitism + idealism
  • Emphasised settings, situations and characters (poor/working class who were ignored before)
  • Attempt to describe life as it really is without idealisation with attention to detail, especially everyday life of ordinary people
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9
Q

Why is fiction the best medium for Literary Realism?

A

Poetry was considered elitist: you need to have a lot of background knowledge + be really educated to understand the references

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10
Q

Why is Whitman a transitional figure?

A
  • He rejects elitsm + celebrates working class in “I Hear America Singing”
  • Uses freeverse
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11
Q

What is Howell’s literary significance?

A
  • Encouraged new writers, new ideas and new fictional techniques
  • Advocated for realism in literature
  • Wrote literary criticism about contemporary European writers and helped to establish their reputation by translating their work
  • Supported American (different ethnic groups) writers
  • Big fan of realism
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12
Q

What is the tension between Romance and Realism in Editha?

A
  • Editha is very pro-war, sees every soldier as a hero who fought for freedom and their country
  • George sees war as imhumane and needless (heavily influenced by mother as well)
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13
Q

“And I call any war glorious that is for the liberation of people who have been struggling for years against the cruelest oppression.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Editha” by Howells
  • Editha is trying to convince George to join the war by talking about the benefits of war.
  • Editha’s idea of war is very romantised; she thinks that every soldier is fighting for freedom and for their country and will get home a hero, while in reality they fight because they have to and don’t come back home. This realistic view is shared by George and his mom.
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14
Q

“I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honor more.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Editha” by Howells
  • Editha is telling George that he should enlist because he loves his country and his honor, and not because of her.
  • In the poem, the speaker is going to war, because he has honor and without honor his love for the partner would be less meaningful
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15
Q

“I thank my God he didn’t live to do it! I thank my God they killed him first, and that he ain’t livin’ with their blood on his hands!”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Editha” by Howells
  • Mrs. Gearson is talking with Editha about her expectations when she encouraged George to enlist
  • Mrs. Gearson mentions the romantic expectation, that George would return a hero, and th realistic reality, that George got killed before he killed someone else
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16
Q

What is Literary Naturalism?

A
  • late 19th-early 20th century
  • Suggests that environment determines and governs human character and behaviour
  • Stems in part from Darwin’s theory of evolutions
  • Interest in putting person in certain situation and how it would look like
  • Usually pessimistic because of depiction of characters struggling for survival in hostile environment
  • Characterised by authorial detachment and objectivity
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17
Q

What was the main thought before and during naturalism?

A
  • Before naturalism: God/Creator is in control and decides what happens
  • Naturalism: there is no set plan, nature doesn’t care –> kind of makes sense as reaction to enlightment
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18
Q

What is Literary Modernism (1914-1945)?

A
  • Response to WW1
  • Represents way in which modernity transforms traditional society
  • Modernist writers transformed traditional literary forms
  • Fragments define modernist literature: forces reader to really think about the pieces and put it together themselves
  • Often interprets modernity as loss
  • The Lost Generation
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19
Q

What is referred to with The Lost Generation?

A
  • Came of age during WW1
  • Disorientated and aimless after surviving the horrors of a world war
  • Traditional values such as courage, patriotism and bravery are no longer relevant in the modern world
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20
Q

What is the main message of “The Open Boat”?

A
  • Nature cannot be controlled even when you try
  • Human effort is useless
  • Nature doesn’t play favourites
  • What would happen if 4 men would sit in a sinking boat without interference from a story teller
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21
Q

“… jagged with waves that seemed thrust up in points like rocks.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “The Open Boat” by Crane
  • It describes the dangerous situation the crew members were in
  • It foreshadows the catastophe they will experience later on the water
22
Q

“The correspondent saw an enormous fin speed like a shadow through the water, hurling the crystalline spray and leaving the long glowing trail.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “The Open Boat” by Crane.
  • The correspondent sees yet an other threat of nature.
  • Nature doesn’t care
23
Q

“He wished one of his companions to awaken by chance and keep him company with it.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “The Open Boat” by Crane.
  • He refers to the correspondent and his wish for companionship that would give him hope. Instead everyone is sleeping.
  • Again, nature doesn’t take someone situation into account
24
Q

“A high cold star”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “The Open Boat” by Crane
  • The crew members have lost hope and are trying to find answers in nature, but nature is indifferent and does not provide magical answers.
25
Q

“He was sorry for the soldier of the Legion who lay dying in Algiers”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “The Open Boat” by Crane.
  • The correspondent is reminiscing about a poem that he heard in his childhood.
  • He can relate to the soldier in the poem now, because he is also probably going to die alone far from home
26
Q

wind-mill/wind-tower: “This tower was a giant, standing with its back to the plight of the ants.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “The Open Boat” by Crane.
  • The wind-mill is the naturalist’s manifesto; it shows nature’s indifference to homan struggle
  • We as humans are projecting our feelings on narture
  • The ants refer to humans, and how insignificant they are in comparison with the wind-tower (=nature)
27
Q

What are the assumptions when reading “The Open Boat”?

A
  • Billie survives because he tries the hardest and is the fittest
  • Captain dies with the ship

But this is not what happens, who dies is random because nature does not care

28
Q

“… the dound of the great sea’s voices to the men on shore, and they felt that they could then be interpreters.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “The Open Boat” by Crane
  • Everyone except Billie got rescued
  • It again shows that nature does not care and life is fragile/unpredictable
  • There is also a sense of brotherhood/solidarity because they survived with each other
29
Q

What does “Babylon” oftentimes refer to?

A

Babylon represents extravagent lifestyle but also how it gets destroyed because of this abundance

30
Q

Why does “Babylon Revisited” by Fitzgerald fit well into Literary Modernism?

A
  • Charlie loses his sense of home and is aimless, which fits in well with the theme of The Lost Generation
  • All characters experience a kind of loss, some of which are reversible
  • Even though Charlie has lost a lot of money, the greater loss that he has experienced is losing Helen and Honoria –> bigger losses than money
31
Q

“If you see Mr. Schaeffer, give him this,” he said. “It’s my brother-in-law’s address. I haven’t settled on a hotel yet.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Babylon Revisited” by Fitzgerald.
  • Charlie is in a bar giving his contact information to the bartender.
  • Charlie says that he has moved on, but if he is really ready to move on, he wouldn’t have left his address behind
32
Q

“but I lost everything I wanted in the boom.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Babylon Revisited” by Fitzgerald
  • Charlie is again at the bar talking with the bartender
  • When the market was at its highest and Charlie was very rich, but he lost his family
33
Q

“He would come back some day; they couldn’t make him pay forever.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Babylon Revisted” by Fitzgerald.
  • Charlie is again at the bar talking with the bartender
  • “They” refer to Marion and Lincoln. Marion still blames Charlie for her sister Helen’s death, so he will have to pay for his sins by not being with his daughter Honoria (have no Honor)
34
Q

How do authors interpret loss differently?

A
  • Bradstreet: loss meant to be according to God’s plan, way to learn on a more spiritual level; death is not permanent
  • Wheatley: loss of freedom more metaphorically
  • Poe: loss of a lover to evoke emotion –> loss is an instrument for writing
  • Harper: writes about loss of partner/child to motivate sympethatic white Northerners
  • Howells: war is useless because people die unnecessarily
  • Crane: loss is meaningless, nature doesn’t discrimminate nor decides who dies
  • Fitzgerald: everyone loses everything, it’s a part of life
35
Q

In what way does Literary Modernism manifest in Fitzgerald and Faulkner?

A
  • Thematic: Fitzgerald
  • Structural: Faulkner
36
Q
A
37
Q

“are you going to sit there and let a black son rape a white woman on the street of Jefferson?”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Dry September” by Faulkner
  • McLendon is talking in the barber shop about the rumor and uses it as a reason to lynch Will “to protect the children and the women”
  • Which is ironic since he beats up his wife in the last fragment, which suggest that he is not really concerned with protecting the women
38
Q

“The barber had waited beside the car. He could feel himself sweating and he knew he was going to be sick at the stomach.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Dry September” by Faulkner
  • This is the moment when Will is getting kidnapped to be lynched
  • This sentence is proof of the limited perspective of the fragment
39
Q

” “Do you feel strong enough to go out?” they said, their eyes bright too, with a dark glitter.” &

“… also with that feverish, glittering quality of their eyes.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Dry September” by Faulkner
  • Minnie’s “friends” want to know what happened, but only the dirty details, while victimising Minnie
  • It’s basically also what the whole town does already
40
Q

“There is not a Negro on the square. Not one.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Dry September” by Faulkner
  • There are town’s people observing the situation, everyone knows that Will is getting lynched, but nobody is doing anything about it because they don’t want to become the next victim
41
Q

“But soon the laughing welled again and her voice rose screaming.”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “Dry September” by Faulkner
  • Minnie is going crazy maybe because the guilt of being responsible for the lynching has overtaken her, or the trauma of the incident has become too much
42
Q

Which kinds of narrations are there?

A
  • Objective: reports action but not what the character feels
  • Omniscent (all-knowing): describes inner thoughts and feelings of multiple characters
  • Limited: third-person narrator relays the thoughts of only one character (central consciousness)
43
Q

How is Fitzgerald “Babylon Revisited” a thematic manifestation of Literary Modernism?

A

Writes about loss
* Charlie loses money
* Charlies loses family members
* Charlies loses sense of self/home

44
Q

How is Faulkner’s “Dry September” a structual manifestation of Literary Modernism?

A
  • Within Literary Modernism, there is this idea that traditional forms in literature had to be changed in order to reflect reality rather than human desires
  • Fragments define modernist literature
45
Q

What are Modernist features of “Dry September”?

A
  • Fragmentations: changes perspective and narrations
  • Rejection of traditional, artificial literacy forms: it’s hard to pinpoint where the climax of the story is since it is so fragmented
  • Distrust of one narrator whose authority controls a works: it is unclear whether or not the narrator knows the truth
46
Q

Is “Babylon Revisited” by Fitzgerald a thematic or structural manifestation of Literary Modernism?

A
  • Thematic since it is about loss
  • It follows a 3rd person limited way of narration, with Charlie being the central consciousness
  • There is a exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution
47
Q

What is the Harlem Renaissance (1918-1935)?

A
  • Defined by profusion of African-American thoughts expressed through the arts: painting, music, dance, theatre and literature
  • Helped redefine how Americans and world understood African-American culture
  • Young African-Americans also enlisted to fight for freedom in Europe, but weren’t recognised as heroes when they came back, but they were very optimistic
  • Great migration: African-Americans moved from the Southern states to the North
  • Manifesto of Harlem Renaissance writers: New Generation African-Americans can show both sides, the good, the bad and the ugly
48
Q

How is “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Hughes similar to “I Hear America Singing” by Whitman?

A
  • It’s a celebration for marginalised people who have been working hard since the beginning of time
49
Q

How is Hughes in comparison with Wheatley and Harper?

A
  • Wheatley: thanks Jesus that she is brought from Africa to America
  • Harper: doesn’t mention race explicitly
50
Q

How is “I, Too” by Hughes similar to “I Hear America Singing” by Whitman?

A
  • Same aesthetic
  • Whitman: the people’s poet, says “I” but doesn’t mean the poet himself; no racial diversity, while Hughes does celebrate racial diversity
  • Celebrates average working class
51
Q

“I am the darker”

Which author + work + immediate context + significance within context in work.

A
  • This is from “I, Too” by Hughes
  • This is often associated with Cain –> see Wheatley’s poem

Introduction to American Literature (2 decks)

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