A. It established an authoritative and unquestionable canon of African American poetry.
B. It inspired Harlem Renaissance writers to establish a tradition of African American poetry.
C. It presented African American writers to a previously indifferent white audience.
D. It provided literary criticism on African American poetry.
Related Mcqs:
- According to Langston Hughes’s essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” (his answer to George Schuyler’s essay “Negro Art Hokum”), what is the “mountain” that stands in the way of “any true Negro art in America” ?
A. It is the racial discrimination endemic in the white community.
B. It is the racial segregation in the South.
C. It is a widespread “urge toward whiteness” among African Americans.
D. It is a widespread “urge to incorporate and neutralize other cultures” among white Americans. - Samuel Johnson’s Rasselas most fundamentally emphasizes which theme from Johnson’s other works or other 18thcentury works ?
A. The need for linguistic correctness as exemplified in his Dictionary
B. The promise of universal knowledge as epitomized by the Encyclopédie
C. The ultimate impossibility of achieving happiness, as espoused in his poem “The Vanity of Human Wishes”
D. The need for self-sufficiency as detailed in novels like Robinson Crusoe - According to W.E.B. Dubois in his Atlantic Monthly essay, “The Strivings of the Negro People,” what are some of the personal consequences for an African- American living in a racist society at the beginning of the 20th century ?
A. Feeling like an outcast in your own house
B. Becoming a stuttering sycophant just to survive
C. Wrapping yourself in the armor of anger and resentment
D. All of the above - Although Charles Johnson’s Oxherding Tales is based on his Buddhist beliefs, he meant the novel to be a reworking of an American genre, the slave narrative. In what way is the novel, despite its philosophical underpinnings, an exemplar of the slave narrative ?
A. Its character’s movement from slavery to freedom.
B. Its emphasis on Christian ideals.
C. The novel’s sensationalist scenes of violence.
D. Its didactic (teaching) tone of voice. - Which of the following statements best characterizes Langston Hughes’s poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” ?
A. Hughes uses a universal speaker for an exploration of a profound racial divide between blacks and whites.
B. The poem is an analytical exploration of racial differences in the United States.
C. Similar to Hart Crane and Whitman, Hughes uses a personal and universal “I” to address issues of history, race, and identity.
D. The poem is an indictment of racial prejudice in Harlem. - Which of the following statements best characterizes Langston Hughes’s poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” ?
A. It is a meditation on the alienation of the modern person from nature.
B. It is a meditation on the cultural isolation of African Americans in New England.
C. It is a meditation on the communal and historical aspects of individual identity.
D. It is a meditation on the poet’s personal experience of assimilation. - Which of the following statements best characterizes the difference between World War II poetry and Futurist poetry ?
A. The Futurists apotheosized technology, whereas World War II poets often focused on technology’s destructive powers.
B. The Futurists praised speed, whereas World War II poets often evoked images of nature to describe the human condition.
C. The Futurists privileged the part over the whole, whereas World War II poets did not deal with the problem of modernity and alienation.
D. The Futurists focused on advancements in technology and industry, whereas World War II poets ignored advancements in technology, especially in modern warfare. - Which of the following descriptors does NOT apply to the features of French Symbolist poetry that influenced other modernist poetry ?
A. French Symbolist poetry is full of exaggerated metaphors.
B. French Symbolist poetry has narrative clarity.
C. French Symbolist poetry is shocking.
D. French Symbolist poetry is formally experimental. - Professor Hammer argues that in a certain sense Wallace Stevens’s poetry is always meta-poetry. What does this mean ?
A. Stevens’s poetry is primarily, though not explicitly, concerned with metaphysics.
B. Stevens’s poetry investigates its own rules.
C. Stevens’s poetry always addresses several different audiences.
D. Stevens’s poetry highlights an objective voice. - Which of the following best characterizes the contrast between Gertrude Stein’s poetry and Imagist poetry ?
A. Stein experimented only with the sound qualities of language, whereas the Imagists focused on visual imagery.
B. Stein experimented with language that skirted the edges of sense, whereas the Imagists sought precision and clarity of expression.
C. Stein sought to combine classical poetic form with contemporary content, whereas the Imagists used traditional poetic subject matter but experimented with form.
D. Stein sought precision and clarity in her poems, whereas the Imagists sought experimental forms that enhanced visual imagery.
