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Quiz about Events Facts Conceptsfrom World Literature

Events, Facts, Concepts..from World Literature Quiz

In the history of literature one does not only come across 'names of authors' and 'works', but also anecdotes, literary schools, new terminology etc. The quiz is about such items and does not limit itself to literature in English.

A multiple-choice quiz by flem-ish. Estimated time: 6 mins.

Author
flem-ish

Time
6 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
50,005

Updated
Dec 03 21

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Difficult

Avg Score
4 / 10

Plays
1390

One at a Time - Single Page - Timed Game

Question 1 of 10

1. A novel that depicts a negative 'utopia' is sometimes called a 'DYSTOPIAN novel'. Which of these authors used an anagram for 'Nowhere' to describe his dystopian world? Hint

Aldous Huxley

Thomas More

George Orwell

Samuel Butler

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Question 2 of 10

2. 'JOURNALS' were very popular in some periods of history. They appealed to the need for 'veracious' stories. Yet some were not exactly what the term 'Journal' suggests. Which of these authors wrote a 'Journal' that related events dating back to when he was five years old? Hint

Fielding: Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon 1755

Daniel Defoe :A Journal of the Plague Year, 1722

Swift: Journal to Stella 1766-1768

George and Weedon Grossmith: Diary of a Nobody, 1894

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Question 3 of 10

3. DUMB SHOWS were a kind of pantomimes. Sometimes they were used as a subpart of a play. In which of these Shakespearean plays does there occur such a 'dumb show'? Hint

Hamlet

The Tempest

King Lear

MacBeth

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Question 4 of 10

4. SCANDALS in Literature do happen. Sometimes they look quite ridiculous to later generations. Which Irish play caused a riot because there was a reference in it to a woman's shift (chemise)? Hint

Cathleen ni Houlihan - Yeats

Juno and the Paycock - O'Casey

On Baile's Strand - Yeats

Playboy of the Western World - Synge

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Question 5 of 10

5. EPISTOLARY NOVELS were very popular in the 18th century. Which of these came first in the history of literature? Hint

'Pamela' by Samuel Richardson

'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' by Choderlos de Laclos

'La Nouvelle Heloise' (The New Heloise) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

'Humphrey Clinker' by Tobias Smollett

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Question 6 of 10

6. The FRENCH ACADEMY is still today considered as a high authority in the world of French literature and language. Who was its founder? Hint

Cardinal Richelieu

Napoleon Bonaparte

Louis XIV

Jean Racine

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Question 7 of 10

7. FAIRY TALES. As an oral tradition they are very old of course. The written versions are much more recent. Which of these publications came first ? Hint

'Household Tales' by the brothers Grimm

'Tales of Mother Goose' by Charles Perrault

'Fairy Tales' by Hans Christian Andersen

'The Happy Prince' by Oscar Wilde

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Question 8 of 10

8. DEMONIC PACTS were a popular theme in European Literature. In which of these does a man sell, not his soul, but his shadow to the devil? Hint

Chamisso (Peter Schlemil 1803)

Doktor Faustus (Thomas Mann 1947)

Goethe Urfaust (1775)

Tragical History of Dr Faustus (Christopher Marlowe 1588-93)

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Question 9 of 10

9. What is the exact structure of a Japanese HAIKU? Hint

3 lines of a.4 b.6 c.4 syllables

3 lines of a.6 b.8 c.6 syllables

3 lines of a.3 b.5 c.3 syllables

3 lines of a.5 b.7 c.5 syllables

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Question 10 of 10

10. Which of these four characters from the 'Commedia dell' Arte' is the eternal loser in matters of love ? Hint

Pedrolino (in France: Pierrot)

Pulcinella (Polichinelle;Punch)

Arlequino (Harlequin)

Pantalone (Pantaloon)

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. A novel that depicts a negative 'utopia' is sometimes called a 'DYSTOPIAN novel'. Which of these authors used an anagram for 'Nowhere' to describe his dystopian world?

Answer: Samuel Butler

Thomas More's 'Utopia' is not a dystopia at all. The word means nowhere-place. Brave New World and '1984' are dystopias indeed. But it is Butler who changed 'no-wh-ere' into 'ere-wh-on', using the "wh" as if it were just one letter.

Answer: Daniel Defoe :A Journal of the Plague Year, 1722

Defoe was born in 1660, died April 24, 1731. 1665 was the Plague Year. 1666 was the year of the Great Fire in London.

3. DUMB SHOWS were a kind of pantomimes. Sometimes they were used as a subpart of a play. In which of these Shakespearean plays does there occur such a 'dumb show'?

Answer: Hamlet

The 'play in the play' in Hamlet has a dumb show as introductory part.

4. SCANDALS in Literature do happen. Sometimes they look quite ridiculous to later generations. Which Irish play caused a riot because there was a reference in it to a woman's shift (chemise)?

Answer: Playboy of the Western World - Synge

Synge's play dates back to 1907, Yeats' Cathleen to 1902, 'On Baile's Strand' to 1905. O'Casey's 'Juno and the Paycock' to 1924. Near the end of Act III there are the lines spoken by the Playboy: 'It's Pegeen I'm seeking only, and what would I care if you brought me a drift of chosen females, standing in their shifts itself, maybe, from this place to the eastern world.' The scandal is discussed in an introduction by T.R.

Henn to the Methuen edition of 1961. SBN 416 62990 3

5. EPISTOLARY NOVELS were very popular in the 18th century. Which of these came first in the history of literature?

Answer: 'Pamela' by Samuel Richardson

'Pamela' (1739), followed by Clarissa Harlowe in 1744, at least the first draft of Clinker (1771). Rousseau's novel dates back to 1761 and Choderlos de Laclos' to 1782.

6. The FRENCH ACADEMY is still today considered as a high authority in the world of French literature and language. Who was its founder?

Answer: Cardinal Richelieu

7. FAIRY TALES. As an oral tradition they are very old of course. The written versions are much more recent. Which of these publications came first ?

Answer: 'Tales of Mother Goose' by Charles Perrault

Perrault published his collection already in 1697. It contained such stories as Cinderella, Little Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. The other collections all date back to the nineteenth century: Grimm 1812-1814-1822 {;} Andersen 1835 and Wilde 1888.

8. DEMONIC PACTS were a popular theme in European Literature. In which of these does a man sell, not his soul, but his shadow to the devil?

Answer: Chamisso (Peter Schlemil 1803)

9. What is the exact structure of a Japanese HAIKU?

Answer: 3 lines of a.5 b.7 c.5 syllables

The original name of the haiku is hokku.

10. Which of these four characters from the 'Commedia dell' Arte' is the eternal loser in matters of love ?

Answer: Pedrolino (in France: Pierrot)

Arlequino is a wily and covetous comic servant. He is on amorous terms with Columbina, the lady's maid. Pantalone is a cunning, rapacious but often deceived Venetian merchant. Pulcinella, hook-nosed and humpbacked, is a brutal, vindictive and deceitful chap. Pedrolino, a simple-minded and honest servant, wears a white jacket with a neckruff, his face is whitened with powder.

The other characters wear masks.

Source: Author flem-ish

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