Parte I.
Short questions
1. Name 3 works of Edgar Allan Poe.
o The Fall of the House of Usher
o The Tell-Tale Heart
o The Raven
2. Name the three parts of the Declaration of Independence.
o Preamble
o List of Grievances
o Declaration of Independence (Conclusion)
3. First editor of The Dial
o Margaret Fuller
4. Who wrote The Contract?
o Ralph Waldo Emerson (as part of the transcendentalist critique of social
contracts; if they mean the 18th-century political work, then Jean-
Jacques Rousseau)
5. <The author to her book= collection…
o From The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (by Anne Bradstreet)
6. Regionalism, T or F?
o True
(It was a literary movement focusing on specific geographic settings and
speech, customs, and history.)
7. Melodrama, T or F?
o True
(Melodrama was a popular genre in 19th-century literature and theatre,
often with exaggerated characters and sensational plots.)
8. Self-reliance meaning
o The idea of depending on oneself, both spiritually and intellectually.
Coined by Emerson, it encourages individualism, nonconformity, and
trust in one’s intuition.
9. International Copyright Act
o Passed in 1891, it allowed foreign authors to obtain copyright
protection in the U.S., marking a major shift in American literary and
publishing practices.
Parte II. Theory questions
1. Storytelling and oral transmission of The Origin of Stories (Seneca legend)
The Origin of Stories is a Seneca legend that exemplifies the power of oral tradition in
Native American culture. The story revolves around a boy who discovers a mysterious
rock that tells stories. As he listens, he gains the knowledge and ability to tell these
stories himself, sharing them with his people.
Key points:
• Oral tradition was the primary method of preserving history, culture, and
morals in Indigenous communities. These stories were not written but passed
down through generations by word of mouth.
• Storytelling in Native American cultures served multiple purposes: education,
entertainment, spiritual guidance, and cultural continuity.
• In this legend, storytelling is portrayed as a gift, almost sacred, emphasizing the
importance of the storyteller as a cultural transmitter.
• The rock symbolizes nature as a source of wisdom, reflecting the animistic
worldview of the Seneca and other Iroquoian peoples.
• This oral narrative was later transcribed by ethnographers, but its original
mode was live storytelling—dynamic, performative, and often adapted to the
audience.
2. Setting in The Fall of the House of Usher
The setting in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher is central to the story’s
mood, themes, and psychological impact.
Key points:
• The story is set in a gothic mansion surrounded by a bleak, decaying landscape,
which immediately establishes a mood of gloom and dread.
• Poe uses pathetic fallacy: the decaying house reflects the mental deterioration
of Roderick Usher and the decline of the Usher family line.
• The mansion is both a physical setting and a symbol. The fissure in the house
foreshadows the eventual collapse of both the building and the family.
• The setting intensifies the story’s themes of isolation, madness, and the
supernatural. It creates an oppressive atmosphere that blurs the line between
reality and hallucination.
• The interior of the house—dark hallways, strange paintings, sounds—further
mirrors the claustrophobic and paranoid state of its inhabitants.
