GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Cultural and Historical Contexts
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #87 : Contexts Of American Prose After 1925
During what decade was The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter published?
1930s
1910s
1920s
1950s
1940s
1940s
The novel, McCullers’ first, was set in the 1930s and published in 1940.
Example Question #98 : Contexts Of American Prose
Which of the following is another work by the author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter?
Parker’s Back
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
The Lame Shall Enter First
A Good Man Is Hard To Find
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
The Ballad of the Sad Café is a 1951 collection containing a novella, poems, plays, and several short stories. (The rest of these titles belong to short stories by Southern writer Flannery O’Connor.)
Example Question #101 : Contexts Of American Prose
The title of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter comes from a poem by which Scottish poet?
Fiona Macleod
Robert Burns
Mary Astell
W.B. Yeats
Dylan Thomas
Fiona Macleod
Carson McCullers’ title is taken directly from Fiona Macleod’s 1896 poem “The Lonely Hunter.” This answer gives you a helpful clue to narrow down the answer choices: The poet must be Scottish. Dylan Thomas was Welsh, W.B. Yeats was Irish, and Mary Astell was English.
Example Question #581 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
Who is the author of The Moviegoer?
Truman Capote
John Updike
Robert Penn Warren
Nicholson Baker
Walker Percy
Walker Percy
The Moviegoer (1961) is a National Book Award-winning novel by the Louisiana author Walker Percy (1916-1990).
Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood (1965), Nicholson Baker wrote The Anthologist (2009), Robert Penn Warren wrote All the King's Men (1946), and John Updike wrote Rabbit, Run (1960).
Example Question #582 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
Which of the following is not another novel by the author of The Moviegoer?
Love in the Ruins
The Neon Bible
The Thanatos Syndrome
The Last Gentleman
Lost in the Cosmos
The Neon Bible
Love in the Ruins (1971), The Thanatos Syndrome (1987), The Last Gentleman (1966), and Lost in the Cosmos (1983) are all novels by Walker Percy. The Neon Bible (1989) is the little-known first novel of John Kennedy Toole.
Example Question #583 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
In what region of the United States is The Moviegoer set?
the South
the West
the Midwest
Alaska
the Northeast
the South
Like many of Percy’s other novels, The Moviegoer (1961) is set in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Example Question #584 : Gre Subject Test: Literature In English
Who is the author of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter?
John Updike
Eudora Welty
Carson McCullers
Ayn Rand
John Irving
Carson McCullers
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) is the first novel by American author Carson McCullers (1917-1967).
Example Question #1 : Contexts Of World Prose
Which of the following is not another work by the author of The English Patient?
Divisadero
Oryx and Crake
In the Skin of a Lion
Coming Through Slaughter
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems
Oryx and Crake
Ondaatje wrote Coming Through Slaughter (1976), In the Skin of a Lion (1987), Divisadero (2007), and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid: Left-Handed Poems (1970). He did not write Oryx and Crake, a 2003 novel by Margaret Atwood.
Example Question #2 : Contexts Of World Prose
What country is the author of Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage from?
Denmark
Ireland
Scotland
New Zealand
Canada
Canada
Alice Munro is a Nobel Prize-winning Canadian writer.
Example Question #2 : Contexts Of World Prose
Who is the author of The Handmaid’s Tale?
Margaret Atwood
Ursula K. Le Guin
Alice Munro
Pat Barker
Angela Carter
Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale is Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel.
Alice Munro (also Canadian) wrote Lives of Girls and Women (1971), Ursula K. LeGuin wrote The Dispossessed (1974), Pat Barker wrote The Regeneration Trilogy (1991, 1993, 1995), and Angela Carter wrote The Passion of New Eve (1977).
All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
