All GRE Subject Test: Literature in English Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #201 : Identification
Which of these novels was written by Nobel Prize-winning Trinidadian author V.S. Naipul?
A House for Mr. Biswas
Love in the Time of Cholera
Breath, Eyes, Memory
A Small Place
Wide Sargasso Sea
A House for Mr. Biswas
Published in 1961, A House for Mr. Biswas is one of Naipul’s most famous works and is set in his native Trinidad. Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is by Jean Rhys; A Small Place (1988) is by Jamaica Kincaid; Breath, Eyes, Memory (1994) is by Edwidge Danticat; and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) is by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Example Question #1 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which of the following is a novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe?
A House for Mr. Biswas
Disgrace
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Conservationist
Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart
This is Achebe’s 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. The title is taken from the famous W.B. Yeats poem The Second Coming (1919). The plot of Things Fall Apart follows the life (and downfall) of Okonkwo, a local hero and wrestling champion in a small fictional Nigerian community, as his community is slowly hedgmonized by colonial missionary and commercial influence.
V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), J.M Coetzee's Disgrace (1999), Nadine Gordimer's The Conservationist (1974), and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) were used as alternative answer choices.
Example Question #3 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which of the following is a novel by the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie?
The Lowland
Americanah
The Sheltering Sky
Guerillas
White Teeth
Americanah
This is Adichie’s 2013 novel Americanah, which concerns the life of a young Nigerian woman who immigrates to the United States in order to pursue higher education. The novel investigates race and culture in the United States as well as class, shame, love, and colonialism in Nigeria.
V.S Naipaul's Guerillas (1975), Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland (2013), Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky (1949), and Zadie Smith's White Teeth (2000) were used as alternative answer choices.
Example Question #4 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which of the following is NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel?
Arrow of God
Cutting for Stone
We Need New Names
Half of a Yellow Sun
The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
We Need New Names
This is We Need New Names, published in 2013 and shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The novel tells the coming-of-age story of a young Zimbabwean immigrant living in the Midwestern United States. Cutting for Stone (2009) is by Abraham Verghese, Arrow of God (1964) is by Chinua Achebe, Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) is by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) is by Ayi Kwei Armah.
Example Question #2 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which of the following is the title of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel about her childhood in Iran during Islamic Revolution?
Persepolis
Akira
From Hell
Maus
Ghost World
Persepolis
While all of these titles are graphic novels, only Persepolis was written by Satrapi. The book is an autobiographical graphic novel and portrays the Iran-Iraq War, Islam, gender roles, and cultural identities in Iran.
Daniel Clowes' Ghost World (1997), Alan Moore's From Hell (1989), Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira (1982), and Art Spiegelman's Maus (1991) were used as alternative answer choices.
Example Question #3 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which of the following postcolonial novels was based on a character from, and serves as a prequel to, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre?
The God of Small Things
Wide Sargasso Sea
A House for Mr. Biswas
Heart of Darkness
Disgrace
Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys’ 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea, a seminal postcolonial and feminist work, explores the Caribbean childhood of Bertha, the first wife of Jane Eyre ’s Mr. Rochester.
V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr. Biswas (1961), Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things (1997), Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1899), and J.M Coetzee's Disgrace (1999) were all used as alternative answer choices.
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre was first published in 1847.
Example Question #4 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which novel by Indian author Arundhati Roy concerns the coming-of-age and illicit love story between twins Rahel and Esthappen in India?
The God of Small Things
Cutting for Stone
Troubles
Midnight’s Children
Twilight in Delhi
The God of Small Things
The questions refers to The God of Small Things, which won the 1997 Booker Prize. The novel follows the lives of the aforementioned twins in an intergenerational family in the second half of the 20th century.
Salman Rushdie's Midnight’s Children (1981), J.G Farrell's Troubles (1970), Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone (2009), and Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi (1940) were used as alternative answer choices.
Example Question #5 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which of the following is a Nobel Prize-winning South African writer?
NoViolet Bulawayo
Wole Soyinka
Nadine Gordimer
Chinua Achebe
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
Nadine Gordimer
The correct answer is Nadine Gordimer, whose novels include The Lying Days (1953), Booker Prize-winning The Conservationist (1974), and No Time Like the Present (2012).
Chinua Achebe was Nigerian, as is Wole Soyinka; NoViolet Bulawayo is Zimbawean (although she has been living in the United States for many years; she teaches at Stanford University); Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is Kenyan.
Example Question #9 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
Which of the following Indonesian writers wrote the popular novel Negeri 5 Menara (The Land of 5 Towers)?
Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Ahmad Fuadi
Leila Chudori
Ayu Utami
Sapardi Djoko Damono
Ahmad Fuadi
This is Ahmad Fuadi, who is an important Indonesian entrepreneur as well as a novelist. Negeri 5 Menara (The Land of 5 Towers) was published in 2009. Pramoedya Ananta Toer wrote the Buru quartet, Ayu Utami wrote Saman (1998), Sapardi Djoko Damono wrote mainly lyric poetry, and Leila Chudori wrote The Last Night (1989).
Example Question #6 : Identification Of World Prose After 1925
This Indian-American author wrote Interpreter of Maladies, a Pulitzer Prize-winning short story collection, and The Namesake, a novel. Who is the author?
Jhumpa Lahiri
Salman Rushdie
Kiran Desai
Mohsin Hamid
Arundhati Roy
Jhumpa Lahiri
The author in question is Jhumpa Lahiri. Her writing often centers around Indian or Indian-American immigrant characters and their interfamilial relationships and strife. Interpreter of Maladies was published in 1999 and won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize. Her most recent book is The Lowland (2013)
Kiran Desai won the 2006 Booker Prize for The Inheritance of Loss. Arundhati Roy won the 1997 Booker Prize for The God of Small Things. Salman Rushdie is the author of Midnight's Children (1981). Mohsin Hamid is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2007).