GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Contexts of American Plays After 1925
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English
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Example Questions
Example Question #25 : Contexts Of American Plays
To what genre does Long Day’s Journey Into Night belong?
Surrealism
Absurdism
Postmodernism
Realism
Post-structuralism
Realism
Inspired by the works of realist playwrights such as Anton Chekhov and Henrik Ibsen, Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a highly realist work of drama. The work, as it is realist, cannot also be surrealist. Postmodernism and post-structuralism are near synonyms, and are anachronous to O'Neil's play.
Example Question #25 : Contexts Of American Plays
Who wrote Our Town?
Thornton Wilder
Sam Shepard
August Wilson
August Strindberg
Lorraine Hansberry
Thornton Wilder
Our Town (1938) is by the American playwright Thornton Wilder (1897-1975). It is one of his earlier works. August Strindberg wrote A Dream Play (1901). Sam Shepard wrote The Right Stuff (1983). August Wilson wrote The Coldest Day of the Year (1989). Lorraine Hansberry wrote The Drinking Gourd (1960). Aside from Strindberg, all of these playwrights are American.
Example Question #21 : Contexts Of American Plays After 1925
The narrator of Our Town famously breaks what over the course of the play?
The props
His own arm
The fourth wall
A table
A theater seat
The fourth wall
In Our Town (1938), the setting is the theater itself and the narrator, a stage manager, is both aware of and allowed to interact with the audience. This technique is commonly known as “breaking the fourth wall” (meaning the invisible barrier between the actors and the audience).
Example Question #22 : Contexts Of American Plays After 1925
What other Pulitzer Prize-winning play did the author of Our Town write?
The Skin of Our Teeth
The Crucible
The Lion in Winter
Mourning Becomes Electra
Glengarry Glen Ross
The Skin of Our Teeth
Wilder’s 1942 play The Skin of Our Teeth also won the Pulitzer Prize. None of these other plays were written by him. The Crucible (1953) is by Arthur Miller. Glengarry Glen Ross (1983) is by David Mamet. The Lion in Winter (1966) is by James Goldman. Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) is by Eugene O'Neil.
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