Identification of World Prose After 1925

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AP English Literature and Composition › Identification of World Prose After 1925

Questions 1 - 10
1

This Indian-American author wrote Interpreter of Maladies, a Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection, and The Namesake, a novel. Who is the author?

Jhumpa Lahiri

Kiran Desai

Arundhati Roy

Salman Rushdie

Mohsin Hamid

Explanation

The author in question is Jhumpa Lahiri. Her writing often centers around Indian or Indian-American immigrant characters and their interfamilial relationships and strife. Interpreter of Maladies was published in 1999 and won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent book is The Lowland (2013)

Kiran Desai won the 2006 Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss. Arundhati Roy won the 1997 Booker Prize for The God of Small Things. Salman Rushdie is the author of Midnight's Children (1981). Mohsin Hamid is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007).

2

Which of these novels was written by Nobel Prize-winning Trinidadian author V.S. Naipul?

A House for Mr. Biswas

Wide Sargasso Sea

A Small Place

Breath, Eyes, Memory

Love in the Time of Cholera

Explanation

Published in 1961, A House for Mr. Biswas is one of Naipul’s most famous works and is set in his native Trinidad. Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)is by Jean Rhys; A Small Place (1988) is by Jamaica Kincaid; Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) is by Edwidge Danticat; and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)is by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

3

Which of the following Indonesian writers wrote the popular novel Negeri 5 Menara (The Land of 5 Towers)?

Ahmad Fuadi

Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Ayu Utami

Sapardi Djoko Damono

Leila Chudori

Explanation

This is Ahmad Fuadi, who is an important Indonesian entrepreneur as well as a novelist. Negeri 5 Menara (The Land of 5 Towers) was published in 2009. Pramoedya Ananta Toer wrote the Buru quartet, Ayu Utami wrote Saman (1998), Sapardi Djoko Damono wrote mainly lyric poetry, and Leila Chudori wrote The Last Night (1989).

4

Which of the following postcolonial novels was based on a character from, and serves as a prequel to, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre?

Wide Sargasso Sea

A House for Mr. Biswas

The God of Small Things

Heart of Darkness

Disgrace

Explanation

Jean Rhys’ 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, a seminal postcolonial and feminist work, explores the Caribbean childhood of Bertha, the first wife of Jane Eyre ’s Mr. Rochester.

V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things (1997), Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899), and J.M Coetzee's Disgrace (1999) were all used as alternative answer choices.

Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was first published in 1847.

5

Which of the following is a novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe?

Things Fall Apart

A House for Mr. Biswas

Disgrace

The Conservationist

Half of a Yellow Sun

Explanation

This is Achebe’s 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. The title is taken from the famous W.B. Yeats poem The Second Coming (1919). The plot of Things Fall Apart follows the life (and downfall) of Okonkwo, a local hero and wrestling champion in a small fictional Nigerian community, as his community is slowly hedgmonized by colonial missionary and commercial influence.

V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), J.M Coetzee's Disgrace (1999), Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist (1974), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) were used as alternative answer choices.

6

Which of the following is the title of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her childhood in Iran during Islamic Revolution?

Persepolis

Ghost World

From Hell

Akira

Maus

Explanation

While all of these titles are graphic novels, only Persepolis was written by Satrapi. The book is an autobiographical graphic novel and portrays the Iran-Iraq War, Islam, gender roles, and cultural identities in Iran.

Daniel Clowes' Ghost World (1997), Alan Moore's From Hell (1989), Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (1982), and Art Spiegelman's Maus (1991) were used as alternative answer choices.

7

Which of the following is a novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?

Americanah

Guerillas

The Lowland

The Sheltering Sky

White Teeth

Explanation

This is Adichie’s 2013 novel Americanah, which concerns the life of a young Nigerian woman who immigrates to the United States in order to pursue higher education. The novel investigates race and culture in the United States as well as class, shame, love, and colonialism in Nigeria.

V.S Naipaul's Guerillas (1975), Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland (2013), Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky (1949), and Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) were used as alternative answer choices.

8

Which of the following is a memoir by Chinese-American author Maxine Hong Kingston?

The Woman Warrior

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

The Joy Luck Club

Red Sorghum

To Live

Explanation

The correct answer is The Woman Warrior (1976), a memoir that mixes autobiographical passages with Chinese folktales in order to investigate issues of immigration, gender, culture, and ethnicity.

Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (1997), Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club (1989), Mo Yan's Red Sorghum(1986), Yu Hua's To Live(1993) were used as alternative answer choices

9

Which of the following authors wrote Red Sorghum, Pow!, and Big Breasts and Wide Hips?

Mo Yan

Ha Jin

Xiaolu Guo

Su Tong

Yu Hua

Explanation

This is the Chinese author Mo Yan (Mo Yan is a pen name that loosely translated means "don't speak," his given name is Guan Moye), who uses magical realism and folk tales to investigate political, sexual, and cultural identities. Yan was the recipient of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Red Sorghum was published in 1986, Pow! was published in 2003, and Big Breasts and Wide Hips was published in 1997.

Ha Jin wrote the National Book Award winning In the Pond (1999). Xiaolu Guo is an author and filmmaker whose novels include UFO in her Eyes (2009) and 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth (2008). Su Tong is the author of Binu and the Great Wall of China (2009). Yu Hua is a short story writer and novelist whose works include To Live (2003) and Brothers (2009).

10

Which of the following is NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel?

We Need New Names

Cutting for Stone

Arrow of God

Half of a Yellow Sun

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

Explanation

This is We Need New Names, published in 2013 and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The novel tells the coming-of-age story of a young Zimbabwean immigrant living in the Midwestern United States. Cutting for Stone (2009) is by Abraham Verghese, Arrow of God (1964)is by Chinua Achebe, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006)is by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) is by Ayi Kwei Armah.

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