Dominant American Values
How are decisions made in a Democracy?
Majority rules
What is the Great American Novel?
Possible answer: A novel that "paint[s] the American soul" and captures "the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence"
Name a poetic device. (Note: this is a multi-point opportunity. I will continue to take answers from groups until we have exhausted the list.)
Alliteration, allusion, assonance, enjambment, hyperbole, imagery, metaphor, motif, paradox, personification, simile, and symbol
What is Transcendentalism?
A form of Romanticism that sought to go beyond ordinary life through spiritual experiences in nature.
What concept or theme was most Gothic Fiction centered around?
Name a Dominant American Value that Henry David Thoreau would not support.
Progress, Achievement and Success, Activity and Work, Efficiency and Practicality, External Conformity, etc.
True or False: The Great American Novel could be written by a person who was not born in the United States.
True; the author could have been born somewhere else and eventually adopted the U. S. as their country later on in life.
Who are the two most influential figures in early American poetry?
Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman
Where did Thoreau live on Walden Pond?
A log cabin
What was the most common structure for American Gothic authors?
Short stories
Which of the following is not one of the Dominant American Values we have discussed in class?
A. Moral Orientation
B. Progress
C. Style
D. Material Comfort
C. Style
While some had come close, DeForest made what important claim about the Great American Novel?
It had not been written yet
Emily Dickinson was well-known for her usage of what punctuation mark?
Emdash
Transcendentalism was heavily influenced by what British literary movement?
Romanticism
Name our three Gothic Fiction authors.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Which Dominant American Value describes a sense of loyalty to our country?
Nationalism-Patriotism
Name a popular candidate for the title of "the Great American Novel".
Possible answers: The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom's Cabin, etc.
Which poet depicted the singing of Lady Day (Billie Holiday)?
Frank O'Hara
Ralph Waldo Emerson is known for his usage of what literary device?
Imagery
Name one of the four characteristics of Gothic Fiction. (Note: this is a multi-point opportunity. I will continue to take answers from groups until we have exhausted the list.)
Use of haunting, eerie settings and strange, chilling events; Romantic interest in intuition, imagination, and hidden truths; Reaction against the optimism of the Transcendentalists; Exploration of evil and the irrational depths of the human mind
What is the definition of the Dominant American Value Material Comfort?
Americans enjoy passive gratification–drink this, chew that, take a vacation. We enjoy happy endings in movies. We enjoy consumption, and our heroes before 1920 were more from social, commercial, and cultural worlds of production. After the 1920s the heroes came more from the leisure-time activities of sports and entertainment. Yet Americans also enjoy culture and engage in do-it-yourself hobbies and vacations.
Who coined the phrase "the Great American Novel"?
John William DeForest
What does an ekphrastic poem depict?
A painting
Why did Thoreau go to the woods?
He sought to "live deliberately"; he wanted to slow down and be intentional about the way he lived his life.
What impact did Nathaniel Hawthorne's ancestors have on his writing?
He felt guilty over the lives they destroyed; his works were centered around themes of guilt and sin and they did not have happy endings.