American Literature Exam Questions Essay

12. Discuss the characteristic features of the experimental prose in 1960-2000 on chosen examples.Experimental publications refers to written works often novels or magazines that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.Naked Lunch is a novel by William S. Burroughs, a complete American edition(1962). The defend is structured as a series of loosely-connected vignettes. Burroughs himself stated that the chapters ar intended to be read in any order. The reader follows the narration of junkie William Lee. The direction in which the novel is written the reader to see plainly part of the pictureas much as he wants to see. It often happens that something mentioned in the rule book reappears much later producing thus a series of intratextual relationships and echoes. This idea, relating to different perspectives within a larger picture, is itself a theme which runs throughout this book. The novels cock of taboo fantasies, peculiar creatures and eccentric personalities all serve to unmask mechanisms and processes of control, and have led to much controversy. By decentralizing the plot Burroughs produces a series of interconnected literal caricatures, satires, and parodies throughout the novel.A Pynchon-influenced generation of writers in the 1990s, such as David Foster Wallace, who would combine some of the experimental form-play of the 60s writers with a more emotionally-deflating irony, and a greater tendency towards accessibility and humor. Infinite Jest is a 1996 lengthy and complex work takes place in a semi-parodic future fluctuation of North America. The novel touches on the topics of tennis, substance addiction and recovery programs, depression, child abuse, family relationships, advertising and popular entertainment, film theory, and Quebec separatism. There are frequent references to endnotes throughout the novel. In an interview with Charlie Rose, Wallace characterized their use as a method of disrupting the linearity of the text while maintaining some sense of narrative cohesion. Acronyms are anformer(a) signature blind in Wallaces work and are used frequently within the novel. Wallaces writing voice is a postmodern mixture of high- and low-brow linguistic traits. He juxtaposes, often withina single sentence, colloquialisms and polysyllabic, obscure, or esoteric words.13. On the example of a chosen text by Henry James, enumerate veritable(prenominal) features of psychological reliableism.A psychological novel, also called psychological realism, is a work of prose metaphor which places more than the usual amount of emphasis on interior characterization, and on the motives, circumstances, and internal action which springs from, and develops, external action. The psychological novel can be called a novel of the inner man, so to say. In some cases, the stream of sentience technique, as well as interior monologues, may be employed to better illustrate the inner workings of the human mind at work. Flashbacks may also be featured.The Portrait of a Lady is a novel by Henry James (1881). This is the story of a spirited young American woman, Isabel Archer, who affronts her destiny and finds it overwhelming. She inherits a large amount of money and subsequently becomes the victim of Machiavellian scheming by two American expatriates. It also treats in a profound way the themes of personal freedom, responsibility, betrayal, and sexuality. In this novel James had pushed the analysis of human consciousness and motivation to new levels, particularly in such passages as the famous Chapter 42, where Isabel meditates deep into the night about her marriage and the trap she seems to have fallen into. James made an in-depth account of Isabels deepest terrors in his preface to the bare-ass York Edition of the novel.14. Characterize the genre of curse on the chosen example of American popular literature of 20th and 21st century.The trait of the genre of horror is thatit provokes a response , emotional, psychological or physical within each individual which causes someone to react with fear. in order for that response to be elicited at that place are different techniques used, such as unreal figures (phantoms, mummies, etc.), or more real situations and figures(serial killers, rapists, kidnappers). The main ingredient within horror is that the reader can subsume to it somehow and that theres always something unexpected on its way. The whole horror genre is build up upon peoples fear of the terra incognita and anxieties.Salems Lot is a 1975 horror fictionalisation novel written by Stephen King. Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in the townshipsfolk of Jerusalems Lot has returned home because of his wifes death. Ben plans to write a book about the Marsten House, an abandoned mansion that gave him nightmares after a bad experience with it as a child. He unexpectedly finds out that the Marsten House is about to be inhabited by the vampire Kurt Barlow. Over t he production line of the book, the town is slowly taken over by vampires, reducing it to a ghost town by day as they sleep.Finally, Ben and the other man play along in destroying the master vampire Barlow, but, lucky to escape with their lives, are forced to leave the town to the crop of newly created vampires. An epilogue has the two returning to the town a year later, intending to renew the battle. Ben, knowing that there are too many hiding places for the towns vampires, sets some underbrush on incinerate in an attempt to destroy as many homes as possible thus making the vampires easier to hunt.The Shining is a 1977 horror novel by American author Stephen King. Jack Torrance is trying to rebuild his life accepts a job as a winter caretaker at the large, isolated Overlook Hotel in atomic number 27 where he goes with wife Wendy, and son Danny. Dannys clairvoyance (jasnowidztwo) makes him sensitive to supernatural forces. The hotel has a personality in its own right, and acts a s a psychic lens. Danny has premonitions of the hotels danger to his family and begins seeing ghosts and frightening visions from the hotels knightly, but puts up with them in the hope that they are not dangerous in the present.The hotel has difficulty throwing Danny, so it begins to possess Jack. Wendy discovers that they are completely isolated at the Overlook, as Jack has sabotaged the hotels snowmobile and smashed the CB radio in the office. She and Jack battle. Hallorann, working at a winter resort in Florida, hears Dannys psychic call for help and rushes back to the Overlook. The hotel causes Jack to kill himself with the roquemallet. Finally the boiler explodes, destroying the Overlook. The novel ends with Danny and Wendy summering at a resort in Maine where Hallorann, the head chef, is comforting Danny over the loss of his father.15. Characterize the genre of sci-fi and/or cyberpunk on the chosen examples of American popular literature of 20th and 21st century.Science fict ion is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically established or scientifically postulated laws of nature. Science fiction is largely based on writing rationally about alternative possibilities. The settings for science fiction are often contrary to known reality, but the majority of science fiction relies on a considerable degree of suspension of disbelief provided by potential scientific explanations to various fictional elements. These may includea setting in the future, in alternative timelines, or in an historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archaeological record a setting in outer space, on other worlds, or involving aliens stories that involve technology or scientific principles that contradict known laws of nature stories that involve discovery or application of new scientific principles, such as time travel or new technology, such as nanotechn ology, faster-than-light travel or robots, or of new and different political or social systemsEXAMPLESDune is a science fiction novel written by Frank Herbert, published in 1965. Dune is frequently cited as the worlds best-selling science fiction novel. mark in the far future among a feudal interstellar empire where planetary fiefdoms (lenna) are controlled by noble houses that owe an allegiance (lojalno, hod) to the lofty House Corrino, Dune tells the story of young Paul Atreides (the heir apparent to Duke Leto Atreides and the scion of House Atreides) as he and his family accept control of the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice melange, the most important and valuable substance in the universe. The story explores the complex andmulti-layered interactions of politics, religion, ecology, technology, and human emotion, as the forces of the Empire confront each other for control of Arrakis and its spice.Enders Game (1985) is a science fiction novel by American autho r Orson Scott Card. set in Earths future, presents an endangered humankind that have barely survived two conflicts with the Formics (an insectoid alien race also known as the Buggers). in preparation for an anticipated third invasion, an planetary fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders. The worlds most talented children, including the novels protagonist Ender Wiggin, are taken at a very young age to a training center known as the Battle School. There, teachers train them in the humanities of war through increasingly difficult games including ones undertaken in zero gravity in the Battle Room where Enders tactical genius is revealed.Enders nett exam consists of a scenario where bugger ships outnumber Enders fleet a thousand to one near a planetary mass. Ender orders the use of a supererogatory weapon, the Molecular Disruption Device, against the planet itself, destroying the simulated planet and all ships in orbit. Soon he finds out that all the simula tions were real battles taking place with real fleets, and that he had killed all the queens on their home planet. He is not allowed to return to Earth because his special skills are too dangerous. Ender is made Governor of the prototypal human colony on a Bugger world, and they leave together on the first colony ship.