Test 2. On American literature

I. Choose the right answer:

1) Most of the first immigrants came to America from north-western Europe. Gradually during the 17^th century their settlements formed three regions. Name them:

a) ………………………………….(now comprises the following states: Man, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rod-Island, Connecticut)

b) …………………………..(now comprises the following states: Virginia, Maryland, Carolina, Georgia)

c) ………………………….. (now comprises the following states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware)

2) There was no unity between these colonies. Divergence in traditions, for instance, between the northern puritans and the southern planters gradually grew into the open opposition, the result of which was – The Civil War (….-….).

a) 1786-1789

b) 1861-1865

c) 1856-1858

d) 1737-1741

3) In the 17^th century they were the colonies of New England that had the priorities of the social and spiritual unity, as for the other colonies the unifying concept appeared there considerably later. For its basis they took the ideology of ………...

a) Capitalism

b) Marxism

c) Puritanism

d) Catholicism

4) Utilitarian approach to literary art (in the 17^th century) determined the development of ………....genres in the literature of New England.

a) Publicist

b) Secular

c) Theological

d) Anthropological

5) During the 1800’s, religious interests gradually gave way to political concerns. Dozens of revolutionary ………….. and poems were written and circulated. Some rank as important works of literature.

a) Novels

b) Plays

c) Novellas

d) Pamphlets

6) …………… gained fame as the most influential abolitionist writer. Her sensational novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (1851-1852) sold millions of copies and is still widely read. President Abraham Lincoln believed that “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” helped cause the Civil War, which started in 1861. He is reported to have remarked that Mrs …….. was “the lady who wrote the book that made this great war”.

a) Harriet Beecher Stowe

b) Emily Dickinson

c) Susan Sontag

d) Joyce Carol Oates

7) The writers of ………….. depicted life as a struggle between vice and virtue. But when they looked for the triumph of virtue in real life, they could not find it. Thus, the most characteristic feature of this movement is the great gap between reality and the ideal – the dream of the poet, artist or writer.

a) Realism

b) Naturalism

c) Romanticism

d) Modernism

8) B. Franklin’s witty proverbs made “………………”- one of his most popular publications. The central character can be considered as a symbol of ideal national model of life. In this work the author shows that any man, disregarding his origins, can achieve higher status due to his industry, his personal cultivation.

a) Poor Richard’s Almanac

b) Rosy Crucifixion

c) Autobiography

d) Federalist

9) …………………… wrote “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” and “O Captain! My Captain!” – poems on the death of Abraham Lincoln.

a) Samuel Taylor Coleridge

b) Herman Melville,

c) Walt Whitman

d) E.A. Poe

10) ……………. (1809-1849) – one of America’s greatest and highly influential poets, short-story writers, literary critics; a forerunner of symbolism, impressionism, detective fiction, horror fiction and the grotesque in modern literature.

a) James Fenimore Cooper

b) Edgar Alan Poe

c) Herman Melville

d) Nathaniel Hawthorn

11) W. Irving’s first work (1809): “A History of New York from the beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty”. He wrote this book under the name of ……………, an eccentric man who became one of the author’s most popular characters.

a) Donald Knickerbocker

b) Diedrich Niggerbocker

c) John Knickerbrook

d) Diedrich Knickerbocker

12) ……………. was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture and philosophy that emerged in the early-to mid-nineteenth century. It emphasized intuition (feelings) more than observation and experience. They believed that the knowledge people get from their own instincts transcends (goes beyond) knowledge that results from logic and deduction.

a) Transcendentalism

b) Neo-Romanticism

c) Modernism

d) Imagism

13) Toward the end of the 1800’s, Americans seemed to rediscover European culture. Hundreds of American tourists flocked to Europe for “grand tours”. Mark Twain poked fun at them in “……………………..”.

a) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

b) The Raven

c) The Ambassadors

d) The Innocents Abroad

14) “………………….” by John Steinbeck stands out as one of the most powerful novel of social protest.

a) The Day of the Locust

b) The Grapes of Wrath

c) Cannery Row

d) To a God Unknown

15) “…………………” – a term invented by Gertrude Stein and used by Ernest Hemingway – had fought in World War I and no longer believed that Law and Government represented all justice and right.

a) Hippie Generation

b) Beat Generation

c) Lost Generation

d) Bleak Generation

16) The ……………., as they were called, condemned middle-class American life as morally bankrupt. They praised individualism as the highest human goal.

a) Beatniks

b) Dreads

c) Nerds

d) Quacks

17) The author of a …………. novel uses fictional techniques and a documentary style to tell about actual events and people.

a) Detective

b) Nonfiction

c) Magic

d) Surreal

18) ……………, a new approach in American fiction, developed during the 1960's. It combined comedy with serious subject matter. Authors inserted moments of hilarity into novels and stories that deal basically with depressing, painful, or violent subjects.

a) Magic Realism

b) Harlem Renaissance

c) Women Speak Out

d) Black Humour

19) The most vigorous movement in modern drama in both Europe and the United States has been called the……………………….These playwrights create basically nonrealistic works that stress the absurdity and lack of meaning that they see in modern life.

a) Harlem Renaissance

b) Theater of the Absurd

c) Women Speak Out

d) Black Humour

20) In «………………………..» (1951) J.D. Salinger dealt sensitively with the problems of a teen-ager growing up in New York City.

a) The Center

b) The Catcher in the Rye

c) То Kill a Mockingbird

d) In Cold Blood

2. Do the matching:

1) Vladimir Nabokov a) “The Call of the Wild”

2) Ken Kesey b) “Tropic of Cancer”

3) Kurt Vonnegut c) “An American Tragedy”

4) Jack Kerouac d) “Pale Fire”

5) Edward Albee e) “The Scarlet Letter”

6) Herman Melville f) “On the Road”

7) Nathaniel Hawthorn g) “Moby Dick”

8) Theodore Dreiser h) “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”

9) Jack London i)“Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

10) Henry Miller j) “Slaughterhouse-Five”

5. ПРИМЕРНАЯ ТЕМАТИКА РЕФЕРАТОВ

7 семестр

«Беовульф». Спрессованность разных исторических эпох как показатель устойчивости и незыблемости героического мира.

Рыцарский роман как учредитель и критик кодекса рыцарской чести.

Дж. Чосер «Кентерберийские рассказы». Паломничество как культурно-историческое явление и как литературный жанр.

Жанр сонета. История развития. Своеобразие шекспировского сонета.

Актуальность произведений У.Шекспира сегодня (на материале одной из пьес по выбору студента).

Развитие шекспировских тем и сюжетов в мировой литературе.

Система сравнений и противопоставлений в «Потерянном рае» Мильтона.

Душа народа в поэзии Роберта Бернса.

Тема нравственного прозрения, поиска моральных ориентиров в творчестве Джейн Остин.

Героическая тема в творчестве П. В. Шелли и Дж. Г. Байрона.

Сатира и юмор в романе Д. Свифта «Путешествие Гулливера».

Типология персонажей Ч. Диккенса.

У. М. Теккерей – крупнейший сатирик Англии.

«Сага о Форсайтах» -правдивая картина жизни буржуазной Англии 19 века.

Женские образы в романах английских писателей периода реализма.

Скрытая символика в романе Айрис Мердок «Черный Принц».

Центральные темы исторических романов В. Скотта.

Традиции и новаторство драматургии Б. Шоу.

Герберт Уэллс – мастер социально-философской фантастики.

Система мировоззрения запечатленная Дж. Толкиеном при воспроизведении полюсов добра и зла в произведении “Властелин Колец”.

Неоромантизм в Англии. Тема Двойничества и своеобразие ее жанрового воплащения в творчестве Р. Стивенсона и Р. Киплинга.

Трагические истории жизни в романах Т. Гарди.

Эротика как средство литературного влияния на читателей по романам Д. Лоуренса.

Два мира реальный и мифологический в романе У. Голдинга «Повелитель Мух».

«Улисс» - как парадигма Модернизма.

Поток сознания в романах В. Вульф.

Особенности пейзажистики рассказов К. Мэнсфилд.

Абсурд и нонсенс в произведениях английских писателей для детей конца XIX – начала XX века и их последующее литературное развитие.

Жанр романа-антиутопии в творчестве О. Хаксли и Дж. Оруэлла.

Своеобразие поэзии Т.С. Элиота. Элиот – литературный критик.

Драматическая острота коллизий в произведениях Г. Грина.

Романы А. Мердок как произведения философско-психологического жанра.

Историческое значение «пасхального» восстания в романе А. Мердок «Алое и зеленое».

Экзистенциализм и философия игры в творчестве Джона Фаулза.

Особенности детективной беллетристики А. Кристи.

ПРИМЕРНАЯ ТЕМАТИКА РЕФЕРАТОВ

8 семестр

1. Gothic and Romantic elements in W. Irving’s stories.
2. The role of American revolution in W. Irving’s stories. The analysis of “Rip Van Winkle”.
3. American transcendentalism.
4. Political ideals on W. Whitman’s poetry.
5. “The depth of our common nature” in the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
6. The pessimism and tragedy in Melville’s “Pierre”.
7. “Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain as a grail of the fundamental equality and universal aspirations of people of all races.
8. Brutal violence in the novels of Jack London.
9. Muckrakers’ works attacking dishonesty in politics and business.
10. Thomas Wolfe’s studies of American morals and values.
11. Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust”- an exposition of the shallowness of American society.
12. Anti-fascist motives in the novel “Ship of Fools” by Katherine Porter.
13. Henry Miller’s banned novels.
14. The war as the setting in “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway.
15. The dissipation of the individual in “The Snow of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway.
16. “On the Road” as an autobiographical novel by Jack Kerouac.
17. Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl, and Other Poems” as a violent protest against social injustice.
18. “Them” by Joyce Carol Oates as the exploration of the violent lives of a woman and her son and daughter.
19. “Sexual Politics” by Kate Millett.
20. The blending of realism and black folklore in the novels of Toni Morrison.
21. The artistry of postwar Jewish authors.
22. William Saroyan’s works showing his belief in people’s basic innocence.
23. Kurt Vonnegut as the most popular writer of black humour.
24. Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22”.
25. Kurt Vonnegut. The reflection of the madness in society in his “Cat’s Cradle”

and “Slaughterhouse – Five”.

1. John Barth’s comic symbolism in “Giles Goat-Boy”.
2. A mental hospital as a symbol of the modern world in Ken Kesey’ “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.
3. Donald Barthelme’s fairy-tale “Snow White”.
4. The combination of fantasy and reality in “Mumbo Jumbo” and “Flight to Canada” by Ishmael Reed.
5. Racial theme in the “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.
6. Norman Mailer’s “The Executioner’s Song” - an absorbing study of a criminal’s life and execution for murder.
7. “The Painted Bird” by Jerzy Kosinski showing the brutality and terror of World War II.
8. Thomas Pynchon’s experimental fiction.
9. Symbolism and ritual in the works of Sam Shepard.
10. The conflict of the individual in the works of post modernistic writers.
11. Allegories and myths in the works of post modernistic writers.
12. Nonfictional Style in the works of the post modernistic writers.
13. The beat movement.
14. The authors of the ‘theatre of absurd’.
15. A savagely realistic study of marriage in the work of Edward Albee “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”.
16. New playwrights of the post modernistic period.
17. The reflection of Magic Realism in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s "One Hundred Years of Solitude", etc.
18. The pictures of horror in the works of Stephen King.