Subtest I Literary Periods

Question 1

Ancient Literature

Answer 1

Based on traditions of oral storytelling. Most concern mankind’s relationship to the gods and nature. Most secondary-school literature course explore Greek mythology. Ex: Homer’s The Odyssey, Aesop’s Fables, Virgil’s The Aeneid.

Question 2

Medieval and Renaissance Literature

Answer 2

Literary period where other languages besides Latin developed, including Old English. Ex: Beowulf, The Divine Comedy, The Decameron, and Canterbury Tales. Renaissance: The Faerie Queene, Shakespeare’s plays.

Question 3

The Neoclassical Period

Answer 3

Emphasis on reason and progress.

Question 4

The Romantic Period

Answer 4

Romantic writers examined their own feelings and emotions with unprecedented curiosity and found inspiration in nature and other things. Focus on individual imagination. Best Romantic literature is lyric poetry, but was also a time period when the novel came into its own.

Question 5

Modernism

Answer 5

Modernism arose as a feeling of disillusionment with modern culture and society, shock and a sense of waste after World War I, and a new urge to reject past forms and experiment with new ones. T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land is like other modernist literature and the most ordinary daily routines and events are described in terms of mythical quests and literary forebears. Some authors as well explored utiopian and dystopian societies.

Question 6

Postmodernism

Answer 6

A literary movement which presented a fragmented view of reality that drew on parody, pastiche, unreliable narrators, irony, black humor, and a general feeling of cultural exhaustion. Postmodern protagonists often created their own versions of reality to compete with or replace the reality of everyday experience. Ex: Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Question 7

American Literature

Answer 7

The first American literature was Native American oral myths explaining how the world was created, describing how mankind and culture emerged, and relating the adventures of mythic heroes and tricksters…..Colonialist literature about family life, survival. Western literature about the Wild West. Immigrant literature. Slave narratives..

Question 8

Young Adult Literature

Answer 8

Mainly feature adolescent characters who are trying to negotiate the problems and emotions of leaving childhood for the adult world. Often called problem novels or coming of age fiction.Focus on the protagonist’s inner struggles with coming of age. Tend to be short with a focus on the main character’s thoughts and actions in a plot that occurs over a relatively brief period of time. Authors tend to aim for immediacy, brisk action, simple, uncluttered prose, and problems that are familiar to teenagers everywhere. Ex: Jane Austen’s Emma, The Outsiders, Romeo and Juliet.