GRE Subject Test: Literature in English : Identification of World Plays After 1925

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

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All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept

Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

This Nobel Prize-winning Caribbean poet, author of Omeros and Sea Grapes, also wrote such plays as Dream on Monkey Mountain and The Capeman. Who is it?

Possible Answers:

Wole Solinka

Stanley French

Aimé Césaire

Derek Walcott

Ama Ata Aidoo

Correct answer:

Derek Walcott

Explanation:

This is the St. Lucian poet Derek Walcott, winner of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature. Walcott often incorporates themes of post-colonialism and national identity as well as mythical and European elements into his writing. 

Example Question #2 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

This Caribbean writer’s best known play is A Tempest, based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest and written with a postcolonial slant. Who is he?

Possible Answers:

Aimé Césaire

Fernando Arrabal

Mario Vargas Llosa

Stanley French

Ama Ata Aidoo

Correct answer:

Aimé Césaire

Explanation:

This is Aimé Césaire, a French-educated native of Martinique and an incipient member of the négritude ideology. His work is often preoccupied with power, colonial rule, and racial identity.

Example Question #3 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

One of Peru’s most important writers, this poet and playwright used works such as There Is No Happy Island and A Certain Tic Tac to highlight urban crime, poverty, lingering colonial influences, and conditions on the streets of Lima. Who is he?

Possible Answers:

Fernando Arrabal

Julio Cortázar

Aimé Césaire

Sebastián Salazar Bondy

Mario Vargas Llosa

Correct answer:

Sebastián Salazar Bondy

Explanation:

This is Sebastián Salazar Bondy, whose other notable works include Something That Wants to Die, There’s No Gasoline in Heaven, and Flora Tristán.

Example Question #4 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

This French playwright and champion of the Theatre of the Absurd movement was known for dramas including The Maids, The Balcony, and The Blacks.

Possible Answers:

Aimé Césaire

Jean Genet

Eugène Ionesco

Samuel Beckett

Harald Pinter

Correct answer:

Jean Genet

Explanation:

This is Jean Genet, whose work often features social misfits or people on the outskirts of a community. His work, which is heavily steeped in absurdism, investigates morality as well as the constructs of racial and social identities.

Example Question #5 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

Which avant-garde Romanian writer was a significant figure in the Theatre of the Absurd?

Possible Answers:

Jean Genet

Eugène Ionesco

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Aimé Césaire

Constantin Brâncuși

Correct answer:

Eugène Ionesco

Explanation:

This is Eugène Ionesco, whose works include The Rhinoceros, The Bald Soprano, and Exit the King. Ionesco plays often emphasize the pointlessness of human existence and utilize disorienting elements such as non-sequiturs, dreamlike storytelling, and jarring verbal feats.

Example Question #6 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

What is the name of the Ghanaian writer who wrote the play The Dilemma of a Ghost?

Possible Answers:

Stanley French

Ama Ata Aidoo

Aimé Césaire

Wole Solinka

Derek Walcott

Correct answer:

Ama Ata Aidoo

Explanation:

This is Ama Ata Aidoo, a poet, playwright, and novelist. She often incorporates elements of African legend, cultural identity, gender studies, and feminism into her work.

Example Question #7 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

This Nigerian poet and dramatist, the first African Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, is known for plays such as The Lion and the Jewel, Kongi’s Harvest, and Death and the King’s Horsemen.

Possible Answers:

Wole Solinka

Ama Ata Aidoo

Derek Walcott

Stanley French

Aimé Césaire

Correct answer:

Wole Solinka

Explanation:

The playwright in question is Wole Solinka. His work often concerns colonialism and contemporary African politics, government, and corruption. His plays have been said to be influenced by traditional Yoruba drama and theatre of the absurd.

Example Question #8 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

The German playwright and poet Bertolt Brecht wrote which of the following important anti-war plays?

Possible Answers:

The Bird

The Caretaker

The Rhinoceros

Waiting for Godot

Mother Courage and Her Children

Correct answer:

Mother Courage and Her Children

Explanation:

Brecht’s works, among which are Mother Courage and Her Children and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, often encouraged audience participation and deep critical thinking. He is often considered a founder of Epic Theatre, although he chose to qualify or reject that classification. Mother Courage and Her Children is one of many of his plays written in response to the rise of Nazism.

Example Question #9 : Identification Of World Plays After 1925

What Peruvian writer and Nobel laureate wrote the plays La Chunga; Pretty Eyes, Ugly Pictures; and The Madman of the Balconies?

Possible Answers:

Mario Vargas Llosa

Sebastián Salazar Bondy

Julio Cortázar

Alejandro Jodorowsky

Fernando Arrabal

Correct answer:

Mario Vargas Llosa

Explanation:

This is Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the most influential Latin American writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His work (which includes novels and essays as well as drama) is often political and anti-nationalistic and is deeply invested in portraying power struggles between rulers and the poor or disenfranchised.

All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources

1 Diagnostic Test 158 Practice Tests Question of the Day Flashcards Learn by Concept
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