GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification of World Prose

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for GRE Subject Test: Literature in English

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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Example Questions

Example Question #21 : Identification Of World Prose

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

Possible Answers:

Ha Jin

Mo Yan

Xiaolu Guo

Su Tong

Yu Hua

Correct answer:

Mo Yan

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).

Example Question #22 : Identification Of World Prose

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

Possible Answers:

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

The Joy Luck Club

The Woman Warrior

Red Sorghum

To Live

Correct answer:

The Woman Warrior

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

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

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