Unit 1: Authors & Context

Question 1

Who won U.S. Poet Laureate in 2017?

Answer 1

Tracy K. Smith, an African American poet whose initiatives include taking poetry to rural communities.

Question 2

What is the poet laureate?

Answer 2

The poet laureate is an eminent poet whom the Library of Congress appoints to increase national appreciation of poetry.

Question 3

Who is Juan Felipe Herrera? What was his contribution to poetry?

Answer 3

Juan Felipe Herrera, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, invited civic participation in creating poetry: La Familia (The Family) is an epic poem created from the contributions of citizens. This seven-part poetry collection depicts diverse experiences of American family life.

Question 4

Who served as the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003?

Answer 4

Billy Collins

Question 5

What is a brief description of the personal background of Lord Byron (George Gordon)? When was his work “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” published?

Answer 5

Lord Byron (George Gordon) was born in London, England, in 1788 and grew up in Scotland and on his family’s ancestral estate. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage was published in 1812.

Question 6

What is a brief description of the personal background of Nikki Giovanni? When was her work “Mothers” published?

Answer 6

Nikki Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1942. She moved to Cincinnati as a child but remained close to her grandmother, from whom she learned to appreciate African American storytelling traditions and their practice in her family. “Mothers” was published in 1972.

Question 7

What is Nikki Giovanni’s educational background? Which movement was she a part of?

Answer 7

As a student at the historically black college Fisk University, Giovanni participated in the Fisk Writers’ Workshop and was part of a renaissance in African American literature.

Question 8

What was the main influence in Nikki Giovanni’s early volumes of poetry?

Answer 8

Giovanni’s early volumes of poetry were influenced by historical events including the civil rights movement and the assassination of key civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.

Question 9

How did becoming a parent affect Nikki Giovanni’s work?

Answer 9

Giovanni’s work changed in focus after she became a parent, in 1969. This included a stronger emphasis on writing literature for children.

Question 10

Which literary movement was Lord Byron a major figure in?

Answer 10

Lord Byron was a major figure in British Romanticism; he is considered one of the best known and most popular poets from this period.

Question 11

How is Lord Byron’s interest in Calvinism apparent in his poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage?”

Answer 11

Lord Byron’s interest in Calvinism shows up in his use of Biblical allusion at the conclusion of his poem, “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.”

Question 12

How did Lord Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” affect character types in literature?

Answer 12

The character whom Byron creates in the poem became known as a “Byronic hero,” a complex and distinctive character type.

Question 13

True or False: Both “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” and “Mothers” contain autobiographical elements.

Answer 13

True

Question 14

True or False: “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” was written as Lord Byron traveled in Italy; the poem contains autobiographical elements.

Answer 14

True

Question 15

True or False: Nikki Giovanni wrote a number of autobiographical poems, including “Nikki-Rosa,” which is frequently anthologized.

Answer 15

True

Question 16

What is a brief description of the personal background of Kate Chopin?

Answer 16

Kate O’Flaherty Chopin (1850–1904) grew up in St. Louis and lived in New Orleans for much of her adult life. Her mother’s family had French ancestry and Kate was bilingual, speaking English and French. Chopin’s husband died when Chopin was just 32 years old, and Chopin and her six children moved to St. Louis a few years later.

Question 17

What is the cultural and historical context of Kate Chopin’s work? How does her work reflect this context?

Answer 17

Elements of the cultural and historical context reflected in Chopin’s work include her experience living in a slaveholding family, her experiences with French Creole culture, and her experience living in St. Louis during the Civil War. In addition, Chopin’s stories reflect her experience of being a young widow at a time when women’s roles were severely circumscribed by cultural expectations, even when those women were wealthy, as Chopin was.

Question 18

What is a dialectical notebook?

Answer 18

A dialectical notebook is a format using two columns to organize textual details in one column and reader commentary in the other column. The dialectical notebook is a useful tool for readers who will write literary analyses.

Question 19

What is some general information on the personal background of Jane Austen?

Answer 19

1. She was born in 1775, the daughter of a clergyman.
2. Two of her brothers became ministers, and two became admirals, while a fifth brother was adopted by affluent members of the extended family.
3. Austen was very close to her only sister, Cassandra, and, while both had suitors, neither married.
4. Austen’s novels are set in the areas of England where she lived: Hampshire, Bath, and Dorset.

Question 20

What is Jane Austen’s place in the canon? What elements of her work has she been recognized for?

Answer 20

While opinions vary about whether some works of literature belong in the canon, Jane Austen’s place in the canon has been well-established for a long time. Even among her contemporaries, she was recognized for her realistic portrayals of her society and for the ways she presented the moral dilemmas of everyday life. Her vivid characterization, witty dialogue, and use of irony were among the signature elements of her fiction.

Question 21

Who was Jane Austen focused on representing in her novels?

Answer 21

Austen represents middle-class and upper-class people in England during the early nineteenth century, the period during which she lived.

Question 22

How did Jane Austen’s novels break new ground?

Answer 22

Austen broke new ground with her novels’ focus on “the ordinary morality of life,” realistically presenting the everyday concerns and dilemmas of people of a particular class and at a particular time. She also acknowledged the thoughts and feelings of her heroines and presented lively, realistic dialogue.

Question 23

What element of Austen’s novels is not especially complex, despite the length of the texts?

Answer 23

Her plots are not especially complex. They tell the story of two people falling in love and the external and internal factors that complicate the union.

Question 24

What historical evidence exists to demonstrate the realism of Austen’s characters?

Answer 24

Readers of Austen’s novels wrote to her to say that they recognized patterns of speech of people they knew in their own villages. Whether or not Austen was actually modeling her characters on those individuals, this historical evidence suggests that the patterns of speech were strikingly familiar to her contemporaries. As such, they must have accurately represented speech patterns at the time.