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Survey of Americna literary History - Exam question­s

3.248 / ~9 sternsternsternsternstern Leo M. . 2013
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Survey of American literary history – Exam Questions



  1. Name three characteristics of Christopher Columbus’ writing.

  • Main characters in his writing: nature, place

  • Very subjective impressions

  • Compares familiar things to unfamiliar things

  • Has great awareness for need of justification

  • Impressions were positive

  • Every little thing was written down


    1. What is noteworthy of the rhetorical style of Cabeza de Vaca’s Relacion (Schilderung)?

  • His story shows opposite of colonialism-idea: civilized people came to uncivilized people and they rescued him but he can’t write that, because that mean, they don’t need colonialism


  • He claimed two sides:

  • He had no chance to tell the uncivilized people sth, because they didn’t want to hear

  • He claimed a harmonious life between settlers and natives is possible


  • He wanted to manipulate his story, because he wanted to hit the road

  • He wrote one text for king and queen to make them happy and between the lines he wrote the truth


    1. Please offer a definition of a captivity narrative and one example in early American literature.

  • Captivity narratives are stories of people captured by "uncivilized" enemies. The narratives often include a theme of redemption by faith in the face of the threats and temptations of an alien way of life.


  • Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” by Mary Rowlandson

  • The History of Maria Kittle” by Ann Eliza Bleecker


    1. Please name two tenets (Grundsätze) of the Puritan faith that are exhibited in William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation.

  • God brought people to America

  • When people died on Mayflower or got ill, they didn’t trust in this project and this was God’s punishment.

  • Pilgrims had way to show new model of community because of their experiences.

  • Colonization of America = failed utopia

  • People must bear each other’s burden, no private identity




    1. What is a platonic world view and how does it relate to the Salem Witch trials?

    PLATONIC WORLD VIEW is a Puritan world view in which spiritual and earthly spheres overlap. This means that what happens on Earth has an impact on the spiritual world and vice versa. For Puritans that meant that what Gods do in spiritual world people feel on Earth, and everything bad that happens (storms, health, economy) comes from the spiritual world. According to that, their law worked out of fear that devil might occur, so if everyone agreed on something – that was the truth – a scientific proof. Here America became dystopia from utopia and Salem Witch trials show that change.


    1. Please offer a definition of the “Great Awakening” and name an author who purported (behaupten) this idea.

  • The title Great Awakening is usually applied to the many revivals among Protestants which occurred in the American colonies between 1725 and 1776. Experiences of ecstatic joy and release, converts "awakened" to Christ and knew him experientially. It was spread by wandering preachers who advocated personal responsibility in the interpretation of the Bible, but scholars locate the origin with the preaching of Jonathan Edwards.


  • Jonathan Ewards, Cotton Mather, John Winthrop


    (JONATHAN EDWARDS was one of the primary figures of the Great Awakening – an idea that unless people changed their personal behavior radically, the society will die out, it will be destroyed. This also had economic effects – people started working, because they thought if they were rich they would be good for the society (beginning of capitalism in America).)


    1. In the 1630 sermon “A model of Christian Charity”, John Winthrop speaks of a “City upon a hill” – please explain the significance of this term.

    John Winthrop used the phrase "City upon a Hill" to describe the new settlement, with the eyes of all people upon them. And with those words, he laid a foundation for a new world. These new settlers certainly represented a new destiny for this land. America is “God’s Country” and the rest of the world looks for guidance by America, he claimed. (American Exceptionalism)



    1. How is Thomas Paine’s take on religion different from John Winthrop’s?

  • Thomas Paine believed in God, but not in the bible. He believed that there is no need for a mediator between God and mankind (church). The relationship with god is personal, he claimed. “My own mind is my own church”.

  • John Winthrop instead was a strong believer in God, bible and church. America was the City of God, he said. Winthrop was very puritan. For him community and church had absolute priority.


    (Paine says that the religion is a personal thing, which marks the beginning of religious freedom, whereas by Winthrop community has absolute priority and there is no individuality in religion.)


    1. What is the relationship between the Salem Witch trials and Arthur Miller’s contemporary play The Crucible?

    Arthur Miller described in his play The Crucible the 1950/60 politics of America by using the content of the Salem Witch trials. The McCarthy era was a culture of fear which can be traced out to other historical events like the one in Salem. Everyone who was “un-American” was persecuted, like communists and gay people. Related to the Witch trials where everyone who was different was persecuted.



    1. Please name two political texts (speeches, declarations) that were influenced by the American Declaration of Independence.

  • I have a dream” – Martin Luther King

  • What to the slave is the 4th of July?” – Frederick Douglass



    1. Which political sentiment (Meinungen) did the loyalist’s ballads of the late 18th century express?

    They had a very clear sense, that the British government was incorruptible. The true British hearts you never can alarm they don’t even care what you do, they’re so strong; poor fools that want to have their own country.



    1. Please name three features that describe the literary tone of the Declaration of Independence.

  • highly elevated discourse, almost majestic

  • complex, but not obscure

  • confident tone (they knew what they wanted)



    1. In his “Letters from an American Farmer”, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur poses an important question about American identity – which question is that?

    What is an American?” (Leaving behind old prejudices/ideas and adopting new ones. Everyone who comes to America can contribute something to it, and make it a greater country.)



    1. What is the significance of Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette in relation to the young American nation?

    The Coquette was important for the young American nation because it was teaching the women how to behave and 60% of the population was under 17 years old. Most novels came from Britain and those were love stories that young women read. Foster thought that women have to be educated (not to read those books and act upon them as Elisa did), because they will raise the next generation –the future of America.




    1. Which elements make up the Emersonian triangle?

    The Emersonian triangle is made up by the elements: God, Human and Nature.

    These 3 components are not equal but they have a very defined relationship amongst each other.



    1. Name two authors that were influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature and name their idea of nature.

  • Henry David Thoreau: Thoreau believes that the highest law is not that created by men, but that which is ordained by nature. Any deviation from the patterns established in the natural world will only distract man from his true nature. His ideal person is self-sufficient, build own house, cook own food etc. Then you’re fit for society. As an experiment Thoreau’s text offers and alternative society. What he sees in Nature is what he also sees in human.


  • Walt Whitman: Nature shows as a template how to live a meaningful life. Whitman alludes that as much as we may alienate ourselves from the natural world, we cannot escape our connection to it; we were born of dust, he reminds the reader, and to dust we will return, becoming one with nature. Nature is Whitman’s religion; more than any man-made institution, the laws by which man can and should live are plainly visible in the natural world



    1. Name three aspects of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s observations about nature (these are also sub-chapter titles of his Nature)

  • Commodity (Rohstoff)

  • Beauty

  • Language

  • Spirit



    1. What, according to Ralph Waldo Emerson, is and “over-soul”?

    He claimed that the universe is guided by some form of over-soul. Something that is omnipresent and influential at all time. A “deism”. That God is there but not in the Christian bible way.



    1. Please describe Henry David Thoreau’s idea of an ideal government as portrayed in his “Resistance to Civil Government”.

    The government is best which governs the least”. He claimed that there should be a government that allows the individual (every person – black and white) the maximum freedom. Under a government that doesn’t accept individual freedom, everyone is in jail. Civil disobedience (Ungehorsam) as an important contribution to the government is what he asks of the Americans.





    1. In what way does the Whitman catalogue support the idea of democracy?

    Whitman writes poems that adopt a democratic style of literature or of a text. He packs many ideas that all stand on the same level, as if he was describing the same thing from different angles.



    1. Please name three early short story authors.

  • Washington Irving

  • Edgar Allen Poe

  • Herman Melville



    1. Please explain the rise of the American short story in the 19th century.

    The rise began, because there was no copyright-agreement between Europe and America. Every book that was published in Europe could be very cheaply published in the states. Cheap reprints of European books rushed the American market. People spent a lot of money on newspapers. In the entertainment-section of these newspapers usually short stories appeared. The American short story became so popular because it was the only way to circulate literature in America. Those short stories were the texts that reached the everyday reader in America.



    1. What is Fanny Fern’s “Hints to young wives” about?

    This piece demonstrates the intimacy in which Fern speaks to her reader. Fern’s style is simple. She uses common diction and short sentences to mimic conversational tone. “Hints to Young Wives” is about a woman desperately trying to warn young wives about their sneaky husbands. For example: When her husband asked her to sew his coat, she did, although she had a terrible headache. Then she found out that he was having an affair. If she wasn’t a good housewife, she wouldn’t have found out this.



    1. Please name two important emancipatory movements on the mid-19th century.

  • Suffrage Movement

  • Abolitionism Movement



    1. What does Frederick Douglas state about the significance of the 4th July for the African American population?

    He stated that the inclusion within the educational systems for African American was a more pressing need. For Douglass 4th of July was a moment of hypocrisy. He reminds the Americans that they are forgetting a few things that happened in the past. He asked “When do slaves celebrate the 4th of July?” If the 4th of July is for some people happiness and for others bitterness, so the country isn’t united.




    1. Please name two virtues (Tugenden in Bezug auf Häuslichkeit) comprised in the cult of domesticity.

  • Chastity

  • Piety



    1. Please name three contact zones in the mid-19th century.

  • gold rush

  • immigration

  • civil war

    ???



    1. How does Mark Twain’s use of the vernacular (Mundart) appear in his “Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog”?

    It appears through the character of Simon Weeler from South West, who uses a not very refined language, slang and words and phrases are vernacular.



    1. Who was the first African American woman to speak about the lives of black women?

    Gertrude Bonin



    1. How are Gertrude Bonin’s and Mary Antin’s description of the American school system different from each other?

    Antin describes immigration to America and the school experience as a very positive experience and in her description becoming Americanized is the overall goal. Bonin describes how children had to suffer to become Americanized, because they had to forget the Native American culture. Even after they were more or less Americans, for white people they still looked like Native Americans.



    1. What is Henry James’ idea about the difference between Europe and America and how does this play out in his “Daisy Miller”?

    For Henry James the European culture and the American culture are very similar but have great differences, too. In the story we get the sense that it was perfectly ok to behave the way she did in NY but NOT in Europe. Cultural Clashes – The relationship between Winterborn and Daisy is a contact zone, too. In all of these contact zones we have a very clear American national culture in contact with either a different (European) culture or with one of the cultures within the Nation state.



    1. What is the “agit-prop” theatre?

    Agit-prop is short for 'agitated propoganda'. It's a type of theatre used to 'agitate' the public into action about a certain political or social issue. For instance, in protest against waterboarding (torture used by the US), activists dressed up as prisoners and renacted (safely) waterboarding in front of political venues.

    1. What is the function of Gertrude Stein’s use of extensive repetition in The Making of Americans?

    For Stein the repetition was a question of historical accuracy. To use specific words and repeat them over and over again makes the reader aware of the implied historical importance that language carries.



    1. In which way does Robert Frost’s “The road not taken” offer a reflection of modernism?

    Frost says that there is no logical explanation to make the best choice and the situation will also never be the same again. Symbolic meaning of the fork that he gave was his observation of life - people always have to choose between one thing or another and never know which is the right one. It is the same as in modernist understanding of life - it can only go either “this” way or “that” way.



    1. Explain the concept of a “double consciousness” and locate it within the writing of its author.

    Double consciousness” means that with slavery as an institution the soul of black folks – which is the title of W.E.DeBois’s text – has been compromised and the result is the following: when black people look at themselves, they always see what white society sees in them. He says that black population was basically brainwashed and their confidence and strength was taken away. A white person would never be able to understand this double identity that he sees in black folks. An American – A negro – two thoughts – two worrying ideas in one dark body.



    1. What is the main idea towards civil resistance in Up from Slavery and how does it influence Martin Luther King?

    Washington’s intention was to increase through values black roles in the United States shortly after slavery. The first and most important theme is the value of education.


    A second important theme is the dignity of work. Booker firmly believed that no education was complete without learning a trade. He believed that there was tremendous value in work and that his race would never rise up without being able to work a trade in their communities.


    That influenced MLK. He believed that once the colour-line becomes distinct – black and white will be in same positions (colour-blindness)



    1. What are the two main rhetorical motives in “I have a dream”?

  • to be memorable. There should be something in the speech that people – not matter of their educational status – can take away from it (e.g. Obama’s “yes we can”).  I have a dream. A simple almost songlike statement that he repeats throughout his speech. It’s about mobilizing people.


  • Anaphora: repetition at the beginning of the sentence, he uses this specific stylistic theme: anaphoric reference


  • Clear political demand: we cannot be satisfied

    1. Name two authors of the civil rights era who wrote about sexuality.

  • James Baldwin

  • Joyce Caroll Oats



    1. What does Norman Mailer’s adoption of New Journalism mean?






    1. Name the title of Roland Barthes influential essay and explain what it postulates.

    Death of the Author” postulates that that the author does not have authority over how we read and understand his/her text, we should treat the text as something that stands on its own. He says that to look at the authors intention is a fallacy in the reading process. Barthes stopped that there has to be a link between the author and the text.



    1. In what way is the Moebius Strip relevant for our understanding of John Barth’s short story “Lost in the Funhouse”?

    Moebius Strip represents an idea of infinite repetition, which can be seen in “Lost in the Funhouse”. The book is a short story cycle that plays with the idea of infinite repetition. “Once upon a time there was a story that began with once upon a time there was a story that began with…” In the case of John Barth, the idea of being lost in the funhouse connects to the moebius strip. It’s a text that seeks to confuse you. It’s a metaphor for the reading process and the process of literary creation.



    1. What does the term “intentional fallacy” mean?

    Intentional fallacy is a literary term that asserts that the meaning intended by the author of a literary work is not the only, and perhaps not the most important, meaning of the piece.



    1. Name one meta-fictional element in David Forster Wallace’s “The devil is a busy man”

    It’s written in form of a monologue as if there was an imaginary questionnaire. He claims “If the world knows what you do (generous), that it is no longer an act that is selfless. If you would know what he/she did, you would judge him/her.”



    1. What is the “ethnic pentagon”?

    The “ethnic pentagon” means the idea that all of America can be classified according to the ethnic pentagon. There were 5 categories: White, black, Native and Alaskan American, Hispanic, Asian-Pacific Island.



    1. What does N. Scott Momaday imply by his use of the term “blood memory”?

    Blood memory" means the blurring of the distinction between racial identity (blood) and narrative (memory). The memory is in the blood. But he writes it at a time when Native Americans had to prove their legal status as being Native American by providing their blood quantum. (Family tree analysis)



    1. In what way does Toni Morrison’s “Recitative” play with the reader?

    The story explores how the relationship between the two main characters is shaped by their racial difference. Morrison does not, however, disclose which character is white and which is black. He wants to present the idea that blackness and whiteness are social concepts.



    1. What does the pool party in Gish Jen’s “In the American Society” symbolize? Please offer one concrete example from the text.

    It symbolizes the integration of immigrants into American society and shows that this Salad bowl system is not only a “we all love each other” system. Ralph’s family is invited to a party and they are also guests as all the other people, but nevertheless some elements of racism occur at the party. For example when his daughters have to serve other guests although there were no servants. Difficulties with assimilation are symbolized when Ralph throws his jacket in the pool and tells his daughters to go back and get it, saying that they swim much better than he does, meaning that he fails to integrate into American society and his daughters swim fluently in the American society.



    1. What is the significance of the use of Spanish and English in Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands”?

    She doesn’t want to be classified as American or as Mexican, because she was born on the borderland, where these two cultures meet. The poem is written in Spanish (4 lines) and in English (4 lines), which represent her identity and are equally important. That way of writing represents her identity, since it becomes the input of her literary production. She doesn’t claim America and she doesn’t claim Mexico. She claims the space in between.



    1. Aurora Levins Morales expresses a notion of inter-American identity. Which author of the 19th century expresses a similar idea?

    Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua



    1. Name three American fiction authors who wrote about 9/11.

  • John Updike (Terrorist)

  • Ken Kalfus (A Disorder Peculiar to the Country)

  • Don DeLillo (Falling Man)





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