Dr. Norman Prinsky

Humn. 2002: World Humanities II - Augusta State University

Quiz on Virginia Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel"

1. Virginia Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel" exemplifies the language and literature of: (a) England (b) France (c) Germany (d) Italy (e) Norway

3. Technically, the literary genre of Virginia Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel" is: (a) short story (b) prose poem (c) novel (d) trilogy

4. All the following, adapted from comments of Douglas and Lawall in their NAWM introduction to Virginia Woolf, generally apply to Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel" specifically except which one: (a) emphasis on the sensuous as much as rational (b) not strictly linear, as with Proust and Joyce (c) stream of consciousness technique (d) de-emphasis on how culture affects perception

5. As implied by the specific NAWM introduction comments about "An Unwritten Novel," the structure or movement of this work could be characterized as: (a) linear (b) oscillating (c) triangular (d) cubist

6. As pointed out in Douglas and Lawall's introduction to Woolf in NAWM and in Prinsky's article on Woolf in Critical Survey of Short Fiction, a distinctive trait of Woolf was her marvelous: (a) prose style (b) body (c) seriousness (d) knowledge of the social sciences

7. Woolf's short story exemplifies her typical literary emphasis, in accord with some modern literature, on: (a) simplicity (b) freedom from figurative language (c) real people's profane speech (d) free association

8. A key emphasis in Woolf's short story that links Woolf with the Romantics is her emphasis on the importance of: (a) philosophy (b) imagination (c) Darwin's theory of evolution (d) breath-taking scenery

9. Relative to the immediately preceding question, the brilliant author of the brilliant article on Virginia Woolf's fiction in Critical Survey of Short Fiction (well, maybe not brilliant; maybe intelligent) links "An Unwritten Novel" on this point with all the following Woolf stories except which one: (a) "Moments of Being: 'Slater's Pins Have No Points'" (b) "The Lady in the Looking Glass: A Reflection" (c) "The Shooting Party" (d) "Together and Apart"

10. Key symbols or motifs in the short story are all the following except which one: (a) window (b) twitch (c) bra (d) stain (e) egg

11. How facts can become impediments to vision or obscuring elements is suggested in the story by the symbol (e.g., pars. 2-3) of a: (a) newspaper (b) railway car (c) pocket book (d) reservoir

12. The narrator’s actions immediately after she tentatively says “Sisters-in-law” to the other passenger (pars. 7-8) symbolically and strongly suggests the importance to the would-be literary author of: (a) extensive reading (b) empathy (c) foreign travel (d) objectivity (e) knowledge of current events

13. Probably the narrator derives, not altogether consciously (par. 9), the forename of the other railway passenger from the other passenger’s: (a) statuesque figure (b) clerical job (c) hulking sister-in-law (d) favorite recreation

14. Probably the narrator derives the surname (par. 9) of the story's chief character (other than the narrator) from: (a) her own husband's military background (b) a newspaper article (c) the chief character's son (d) the winter landscape

15. The egg the chief character eats comes to represent all the following except which one: (a) intrusion of reality on imagining (b) the chief character's fertility (c) exterior vs. interior (d) the puzzles of reality and real people (e) the frailty of the artist's commitment

16. Women's concerns are demonstrated, in part, in the short story by the narrator's portrayal of the chief character as pathetic in terms of: (a) intellect (b) marriage (c) lack of domestic skills, like sewing (d) mental illness

17. The chief character is more than once symbolically associated with: (a) roses (b) pansies (c) violets (d) daisies

18. The symbolism of the invented occupation for James Moggeridge seems to be: (a) pragmatism (b) sexuality (c) romanticism (d) aristocracy

19. Tragicomically, the narrator invents, to compensate for the failure of the chief character's romance, a: (a) Thames barge trip (b) croquet outing (c) dog (d) sister

20. The glove and its details that the narrator invents for the chief character to be concerned with at the end of the narrator's fantasy symbolizes all the following except which one: (a) gaps in the chief character's invented life (b) gaps the narrator tries to fill with invention (c) the narrator's weaving of a work of art (d) the aristocracy of the chief character

21. Though she objects to Realists such as Arnold Bennett and John Galsworthy, as explained in the NAWM introduction, Woolf in this story shares the irony of the Realists through the notion, emphasized at the story's end, of: (a) misinterpretation (b) miscegenation (c) misdemeanor (d) misogyny

22. As implied by the imagery at the end of the story, and linking (through contrast) with the chief character's association with President Kruger earlier, art for the narrator is a kind of: (a) politics (b) religion (c) business (d) chore

23. Several descriptions and references to color in this work seem influenced by what movement in the visual arts: (a) Impressionism (b) Expressionism (c) Cubism (d) Surrealism

24. In connection with Virginia Woolf, as discussed and played in class, are the important play and the rousing jazz organ pieces by: (a) Edward Albee and Jimmy Smith (b) Arthur Miller and Shirley Scott (c) Tennessee Williams and Clare Fischer (d) Wendy Wasserstein and Don Patterson

25. In connection with Virginia Woolf's "An Unwritten Novel," an appropriate Rock song, as played in class, is: (a) "Not Fade Away" by the Rolling Stones (b) "One Thing Leads to Another" by The Fixx (c) "Take It Easy" by the Eagles (d) "Reelin’ in the Years" by Steely Dan (e) "Break on Through" by The Doors

Additional Questions (Number in Parentheses Indicates Where the Question Will Eventually Be Merged; Use the Old-Style Numbering Outside the Parentheses [E.g., “26 (10a) Should be number 26 on your Scantron])

26 (10a). A key symbol or motif referred to in question 10, which is also a key, recurrent symbol or motif in Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” is: (a) window (b) twitch (c) bra (d) stain (e) egg

27 (11a). When the narrator says she prayed at first “both ways” -- that the remaining male passenger might leave or might stay (par. 4) -- the implication is, in wishing at first for the male passenger to stay, that: (a) the narrator displays British love of privacy (b) the remaining male passenger has been an annoying chatterbox (c) the narrator fears being alone with the strong aura from the other female passenger (d) the narrator wishes she could discuss with the male passenger important political happenings

28 (11b). The narrator’s description of the remaining female passenger’s “bitterness . . . of tone . . . like lemon on cold steel” (par. 5) contains the figure of speech: (a) metaphor (b) simile (c) personification (d) understatement (e) hyperbole

29 (11c). The figure of speech referred to in the immediately preceding question helps activate imagery from which of the following senses except which one: (a) visual (b) auditory (c) gustatory (d) tactile (e) all of the foregoing

30 (11d). What evokes from the narrator’s imagination the forename of the other female passenger’s sister-in-law (par. 9) is the female passenger’s words: (a) “staying away” (par. 5) (b) “that’s the drawback of it” (par. 5) (c) “nonsense, she would say” (par. 5) (d) “oh, that cow!” (par. 6)

31 (11e). What the other female passenger does with her glove in the railway car (par. 7) leads the narrator to imagine and think about her fellow passenger’s: (a) defining inner flaw (b) extremely neat appearance (c) upperclass sartorial tastes (d) grasping greed for money

32 (12a). Probably the “spot” and “speck” that attract the remaining female passengers’ notice (par. 8) symbolize all the following except which one: (a) the impossibility of absolutely clear vision (b) the physical minutiae inextricable in real life (c) defects that can’t be eradicated from persons (d) the slovenliness of modern British society

33 (12b). The avian imagery applied to the narrator and the other passenger in their uncomfortableness (pars. 5 and 8) suggests all of the following except which one: (a) powerlessness (b) vulnerability (c) British anti-hunting sentiment (d) female domestic role

34 (12c). The description of the landscape by the narrator (last sentence, par. 8) could be said to be: (a) Impressionistic and painterly (b) Cubist and sculptural (c) Expressionist and political (d) Dada and collage

35 (13a) Probably the narrator derives or imagines the other female passenger’s forename (par. 9) through: (a) view through the train window (b) contrast with the imagined sister-in-law (and sister-in-law’s name) (c) the supposed former occupation of the other female passenger (d) the rising popularity of cartoons (especially Disney) in British cinema

36 (14a). The figure of speech describing the roofs of Eastbourne visible from Minnie’s room when visiting (par. 10) is: (a) metaphor (b) paradox (c) simile (d) understatement

37 (14b). The figure of speech referred to in the immediately preceding question has implications in it of all of the following except which one: (a) Minnie’s lowly condition (b) Minnie’s potential transformation into something beautiful (c) Minnie’s partial dependence on, living off of, her brother and sister-in-law (d) Minnie’s former involvement in the arts

38 (14c). What Minnie does in relation to the bedroom mirror (par. 10) suggests her: (a) low self esteem (b) growing self knowledge (c) narcissism (d) longing for childhood

39 (14d). The narrator derives the idea that Minnie would be thinking about God (par. 10) because of what aspect of her window view: (a) low view, restricted from looking up (b) location across from a church (c) height and view of the sky (d) recalling the bedroom view from her innocent childhood home

40 (14e). The figure of speech used by the narrator to describe Minnie’s concept of God (par. 10) is: (a) allusion (b) anaphora (c) anastrophe (d) antonomasia (e) apophasis

41 (14f). The figure of speech referred to in the immediately preceding question helps convey (the narrator’s supposition of) Minnie’s concept of God (par. 10) as: (a) punishing (b) dominant (c) restrictive (d) male chauvinistic (e) all of the foregoing

42 (14g). The narrator’s imagining that Minnie would be thinking about God leads the narrator to imagine an action of Minnie’s (pars. 11-12) involving: (a) redemption (b) sin (c) proselytizing (d) charity

43. As revealed by who comes to meet the other female passenger (par. 30), the narrator is quite wrong when imagining possible misdeeds of Minnie (pars. 11-12) to rule out any involvement in: (a) elder parent care (b) sexual intercourse (c) inadvertent shoplifting (d) baby brother care

44. The underlying principle of how one point is connected another in this literary work could be seen to be most closely parallel with which kind of twentieth-century art music: (a) Impressionism (b) Neoclassicism (c) Expressionism (c) Twelve Tone (d) Aleatory (e) Electronic