American Literature 1914-1945

Which of the following phrases best characterizes Marxist theory of society?

Society is divided into two classes which are antagonistic to each other because one class controls the means of production and the other class provides the labor necessary to maintain industry.

Which of the following WAS NOT an influence on the development of modernism?

nineteenth-century melodramas

Which of the following is a principal writing convention of modernist literature?

textual construction from fragments

Why did the most high-minded American modernists become expatriates?

They believed that the United States lacked a tradition of high culture and was antagonistic to cultural expression.

Which of the following was NOT an effect of Modernist aesthetics on literature?

Prose and poetry became indistinguishable forms.

How did Freudian psychology influence modernist literature in the United States?

Literary characters become individuals trapped in repressive cultures.

What was the purpose of the immigration legislation that the U.S. Congress passed in 1924?

to prohibit immigration from Asian countries and set quotas for other countries

Why did many intellectuals fear the rise of mass popular culture in the modernist era?

They were concerned that mass culture would create a robotic, passive population.

Which of the following WAS NOT an issue dividing schools of modernist writers?

belief in Judeo-Christian values

How did World War II help end the Great Depression in the United States?

The war mobilized industry and employed more workers.

What was the effect of new scientific discoveries on literature in the modernist era?

Scientists and writers were less able to communicate with one another as their views diverged.

Which of the following descriptions most closely characterizes the literary and cultural movement known as modernism?

a loosely related collection of international movements that challenged traditional authority

Which of the following events was a catalyst for the Great Migration in the modernist era?

the start of World War I

What was the importance of the Scottsboro case of the 1930s for American literature and intellectual thought?

It revealed the racial bias extant in the American judicial system.

Which of the following did World War I and the U.S. Civil War NOT do for the United States?

stifle the economy's growth