Gothic Novels (18th Century)

The Gothic novels of the 18th century were a combination of horror and romance. Almost universally, they contain some apparently supernatural plot elements, usually associated somehow with Catholicism, that later turn out to have natural explanations, a technique known as the gothic explique.

These novels were often criticized (and parodied) for their melodramatic tone.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following authors and works with the Gothic novel:

Horace Walpole (father of the form)
-The Castle of Otranto: Manfred, Conrad, Isabella

Anne Radcliffe (cited most often in the 19th century)
-The Mysteries of Udolpho: Montoni, Emily
-The Italian: VincentinoVivaldi, Ellena Rosalba

M.G. Lewis (events actually were supernatural)
-The Monk: Ambrosio, Mathilda

Jane Austen (parodying Radcliffe)
-Northanger Abbey: Catherine Morland, the Allens, Henry Tilney, John Thorpe

Reader-Response Criticism

Reader-Response Criticism and the related Reception Theory focus on the ways readers create meaning from a text. They are fundamentally opposed to the other linguistic criticisms, which exclude the reader's experience from literary analysis.

Associate the following ideas and people with Reader Response Criticism:

-reader's experience = central literary event
-books have an "implied reader" or "ideal reader," discernible through the book's implicit assumptions about how the reader will read
-aesthetic impact (breaking the "horizon of expectations")

Note that Reception Theory and Reader-Response Criticism makes heavy use of terms and ideas from a variety of other critical fields.

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Deconstruction

Deconstruction is the most prominent example of the post-structuralist criticisms, which both use and critique structuralism.

Deconstruction focuses on the displacements and gaps in the meaning structures generated by structuralism, which structuralists dismiss as exceptions. In other words, every text includes irreconcilable differences in meaning, and is therefore essentially meaningless--which is why people hate Deconstruction so much.

Associate the following terms and people with Deconstruction:

-erasure, trace, bracketing, differance, slippage, dissemination, logocentrism, indeterminacy, decentering
-(Structuralism) mimesis, alterity, marginality, desire, lack
-Jacques Derrida

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Structuralist Criticism

Structuralism operates from the assumption that meaning is not inherent in any word, sign, type, etc, but rather that meaning is produced by the structure of relationships among terms.

In literary criticism, the focus is on the "grammar of literature," or the set patterns of plot and character that recur across time and genre.

The classic example compares Romeo & Juliet and West Side Story:

(boy +LOVE girl)(boy's group -LOVE girl's group)

Associate the following terms and people with Structuralism:

-Ferdinand de Saussure & Semiotics
-sign, signifier, signified, relative difference
-binary oppositions, spatial metaphors, equations

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

New Criticism

New Criticism, an outgrowth of Formalism, was the dominant mode of criticism in the English-speaking world from about 1920 to 1960. It is still widely practiced at an undergraduate level today.

New Criticism focuses on features of the text to the total exclusion of authorial intention or socioeconomic influence. Ambiguity is a major criterion for evaluation; close reading is the main method.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following terms and people with New Criticism:

-intentional fallacy, affective fallacy, the heresy of paraphrase, close reading
-T.S. Eliot, Robert Penn Warren, Cleanth Brooks, I.A. Richards, John Crowe Ransom, F.R. Leavis

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Formalist Criticism

Formalism, especially as practiced by the Russians, was a predecessor to Structuralism and New Criticism in that it focused primarily on the features of the text itself.

The goal was to find objectively discernible features that made a work of literature Literature.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following terms and people with Formalism:

-defamiliarization; devices
-Viktor Shklovsky

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Identity Criticisms

Identity Criticisms, like Marxism, are sociological criticisms in that they see literature as primarily the product of social forces. However, instead of focusing on class struggle, they allow for various forms of identity beyond that of the social class.

There are three main types. Each is a vibrant field of critical debate, but on the GRE Literature exam, you'll rarely be asked to do more than identify a caricature almost certain to include the buzzwords below.

1. Feminist Criticism
-phallocratic hegemony, patriarchy
2. Black Criticism
-Euro-American patriarchy
3. Post-Colonial Criticism
-subaltern; marginalization of the other
-Edward Said, Orientalism

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Linguistic Criticisms

Linguistic Criticisms focus on the language of the text itself, with "language" referring also to internal structures, signs, styles, etc.

There are five main types:

1. Formalism
2. New Criticism
3. Structuralism & Semiotics
4. Post-Structuralism & Deconstructionism
5. Reader-Response Criticism

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Psychological Criticisms

Psychological Criticisms treat literature as the expression of universal attributes of human consciousness. They can focus either on aspects of the work itself, or on the work as the psychological expression of the author.

There are two main types:

1. Freudian/Psychoanalytic Criticism
-Oedipal complex, libido, id, ego, superego, subconscious, repression, resistance
-Harold Bloom: strong-poet theory (authors subconsciously react to predecessors)

2. Archetype/Myth Criticism
-"collective unconscious" revealed through archetypes
-some overlap with Formalism & Structuralism
-Jung; James G. Frazier, The Golden Bough; Joseph Campbell; Northrop Frye

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Marxist Criticism

Marxist Criticism treats literature as the product of social and economic pressures. Marxists believe that literature tends to reflect the ideology of the socioeconomic class in (or sometimes for) which it was produced.

Associate the following terms with traditional Marxism:
1. Base & superstructure
2. Class; proletariat; means of production
3. Bourgeois
4. (Capitalist) imperialism
5. Dialectical materialism

Major writers include:
Karl Marx; Friedrich Engels; Georg Lukacs; Walter Benjamin; Raymond Williams; Frederic Jameson.

Marxism influenced the later New Historicism & Sociological Criticism as well as Identity Criticism in that they all treat literature as primarily the product of external, historical forces.

For more information, I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction.

Literary Criticism

The GRE Literature exam will assume that you know the basics of several prominent schools of 20th-century literary criticism. They can be divided roughly into three major groups, as follows (with more information if you follow each of the links):

Marxist Criticism

1. Identity Criticism
2. Historicism & Sociological Criticism
   

Linguistic Criticism

1. Formalism
2. New Criticism
3. Structuralism
4. Post-Structuralism & Deconstructionism
5. Reader-Response Criticism

Psychological Criticism

1. Freudian Psychoanalysis
2. Archetype/Myth Criticism

If you didn't get a lot of theory as an undergrad, it's worth adding at least one short theory survey to your reading list for the GRE Literature exam. I recommend Culler's Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. It's short, but enough to get you through the exam.

If you have the time, though, every aspiring grad student in literature should read A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. It's a little more thorough.

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most popular English novelists of all time. Her work is known for its realism and its subtle irony. Some have called her the founder of both the modern romance novel and the modern romantic comedy.

Any of Jane Austen's work is likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam. Read the Wikipedia entry for each of the following works at least once and familiarize yourself with the main characters.

1. Sense and Sensibility (1811)
-Elinor & Marianne Dashwood; Lucy Steele; John Willoughby; Colonel Brandon
2. Pride and Prejudice (1813)
-Elizabeth & Jane Bennett, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Charles Bingham, George Wickham
3. Mansfield Park (1814)
-The Bertrams; Fanny Price; Mrs. Norris
4. Emma (1815)
-Emma Woodhouse, Mr. Knightley, Miss Bates, Frank Churchill, Harriet Smith, Jane Fairfax
5. Northanger Abbey (1817, posthumous)--her first completed novel
-Catherine Morland, Henry Tilney, John Thorpe, Isabella Thorpe; parody of the Gothic novel
6. Persuasion (1817, posthumous)
-Sir Walter, Elizabeth, Anne Elliot, Frederick Wentworth, Kellynch Hall (estate)

For the GRE Literature exam, it's worth reading any Jane Austen novel you haven't yet read, though don't read more than 2. In declining order of importance: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park.

If you're pressed for time, or if you've already read them and want to review, there are also pretty faithful film versions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937)

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist. She was from aristocratic New England stock; she lived and worked in France between the wars. Her work often depicts the suffocating society of the New England wealthy.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works and characters with Edith Wharton. In each case, a summary knowledge will suffice.

1. The House of Mirth (1905)
-Lily Bart, NYC socialite seeking husband; title from Ecclesiastes 7:4
2. Ethan Frome (1911)
-1900s New England; Zenobia (Zeena), romance with Mattie Silver. Told through townspeople's eyes.
3. The Age of Innocence (1920; Pulitzer winner)
-1870s NYC. Newland Archer engaged to May Welland; May's cousin Ellen Olenska intrudes.

Edith Wharton is not worth adding to your GRE reading list unless you find yourself with some extra time and you haven't read any of her work. In that case, I recommend the Oxford World's Classics edition of The House of Mirth.

David Copperfield (1850)

David Copperfield (1850) is one of a handful of novels by Charles Dickens likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam. It was originally published as a serial.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following characters with David Copperfield. You will also want to read a short plot summary (above link).

1. David "Trotwood" Copperfield
-Protagonist; followed from childhood through maturity
2. Edward Murdstone
-Young David's cruel stepfather; sends David to Salem House (a private school) under Mr. Creakle.
-Sends David to work in a blacking factory when his mother dies.
-Shows some hints of repentance when David is an adult.
3. James Steerforth
-David's close friend; popular, a romantic
-Seduces and abandons Emily
-Drowns at Yarmouth with Ham Peggotty, who tries to save him.

The plot is quite long and complicated, so if you haven't read David Copperfield, you should consider adding it to your GRE reading list if you have the time. (But beware--it's a very long book.) I recommend the Penguin Classics edition.

Saul Bellow (1915-2005)

Saul Bellow (1915-2005) was a Nobel-Prize-winning American novelist, born in Canada to parents of Russian Jewish descent.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Saul Bellow. In each case, a summary knowledge will suffice.

1. Herzog
2. Seize the Day
3. Henderson the Rain King
4. The Adventures of Augie March

(He has some important later works, but they're too recent for the GRE folks.)

It's probably not worth adding Bellow to your GRE reading list.

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a Victorian-era decadent poet. He was friends with Dante Gabriel Rosetti, the founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

There's a distant chance Swinburne's work might appear on the GRE Literature exam, but it's more likely you'll simply be expected to know the following facts:

1. His work was extremely controversial in his day.
2. Works often include sadomasochism, lesbianism, anti-religious outrage, and an implied death-wish.

His work is not work adding to your GRE Literature reading list.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was the preeminent British novelist of the 19th century. He's immensely popular: none of his published books has ever gone out of print. He's also a GRE Literature heavyweight: there is an enormous amount of Dickens material that could show up on the exam.

Associate the following facts and ideas with Dickens:

1. Vivid, often exaggerated characterization; borderline onomatopoeic names
2. Published almost exclusively in serials; cliffhanger endings
3. Many works preoccupied with poverty and attempted upward social mobility
4. A wide range of comic and serious tones

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Dickens:

1. Oliver Twist (1837-9)
2. The Pickwick Papers (1837)
3. Nicholas Nickelby (1838-9)
4. David Copperfield (1850)
5. Bleak House (1852-3)
6. Hard Times (1854)
7. Great Expectations (1860-1)

Don't fall into the trap of spending too much time on Dickens--the page to points ratio isn't good. Consider adding one Dickens novel to your list, no more. (See the links above for recommendations.)

Hard Times (1854)

Hard Times (1854) is one of a handful of novels by Charles Dickens likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam. It was originally serialized in Dickens' periodical Household Words.

-A state of the nation novel; serious in tone
-Set in fictional Northern city of Coketown (not in London, like Dickens' other works)
-Divided into three parts: "Sowing," "Reaping," and "Garnering"

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following characters with Hard Times.

1. Thomas Gradgrind
-Utilitarian (satirized as such); educator/school founder; brutally practical
2. Josiah Bounderby
-Gradgrind's bombastic assistant; marries Louisa
3. Louisa "Loo" Gradgrind Bounderby
-Unemotional, distant eldest child troubled by "unmanageable thoughts"
4. Stephen Blackpool
-Indigent worker; fired, accused of crime, dies falling into pit

Hard Times may be worth adding to your GRE Literature reading list. I recommend the Enriched Classics Edition.

Bleak House (1852-3)

Bleak House (1852-3) is one of a handful of novels by Charles Dickens likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam. It was originally published as a serial.

The novel centers on the fictional legal case Jarndyce and Jarndyce, and serves as a critique of the slow, antiquated British system of chancery law. Jarndyce and Jarndyce is commonly used in allusion as an example of a long, tortuous legal dispute.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following characters with Bleak House.

1. Ester Summerson
-Orphan; stands, possibly, to inherit money in Jarndyce and Jarndyce.
2. Caddy Jellyby
-Ester's friend and confidant

The novel has a large cast. For more detail, check out this list of characters.

I would not recommend adding Bleak House to your GRE reading list.

Nicholas Nickelby (1838-9)

Nicholas Nickelby (1838-9) is one of a handful of novels by Charles Dickens that could appear on the GRE Literature exam. The novel was originally published as a serial. The tone is largely comic.

The following mnemonic rhyme, penned by my dear wife, was quite enough for the GRE Literature exam:

Nicholas Nickelby's father died.
His uncle Ralph did him deride.
There's not much more to his career
Except his acquaintance with Wackford Squeers.

For more detail, you can check out this character list.

I wouldn't recommend reading the book in its entirety for the GRE.

The Pickwick Papers (1837)

The Pickwick Papers (1837) is one of a handful of novels by Charles Dickens likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam. It is an episodic comic novel originally published as a serial. It follows the travels of a group of well-to-do old gentlemen through the English countryside.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following characters with The Pickwick Papers.

1. Mr. Samuel Pickwick, protagonist and founder of the Pickwick Club.
2. Mr. Nathaniel Winkle, member
3. Mr. Augustus Snodgrass, member
4. Mr. Tracy Tupman, member
5. Alfred Jingle, troublemaker

If you have already read the other Dickens books outlined on this site, you might consider adding The Pickwick Papers to your GRE reading list. I suggest the Oxford World's Classics Edition.

Oliver Twist (1837-1839)

Oliver Twist (1837-1839) is one of a handful of novels by Charles Dickens likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam. It was originally published as a serial, and is widely considered to be the first novel in English wholly centered on a child protagonist. The work is largely concerned with the state of the working poor and child labor in England at the time.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following characters with Oliver Twist.

Oliver Twist
-orphan; protagonist (see below)
Noah Claypole
-apprentice; bully; drives Oliver from his employment
Fagin
-Infamous Jewish criminal; Dodger's handler
Bill Sikes
-the Dodger's brute
The Artful Dodger (Jack Dawkins)
-boy criminal mastermind
Mr. Brownlow

Otherwise, read the Wikipedia plot summary and know the following main points:

-Oliver is born in a workhouse; mother dies in childbirth.
-Oliver falls in with the Artful Dodger before finding more respectable employment.
-Oliver turns out to be Mr. Brownlow's niece's son, and comes into an inheritance.
-Oliver's sheming half-brother dies in an American prison.

Oliver Twist may be worth adding to your GRE Literature reading list. I recommend the Dover Thrift Edition.

Don't be lured into watching the movie instead: the plot is quite different.

Great Expectations (1860-1861)

Great Expectations (1860-1861) is one of a number of novels by Charles Dickens likely to appear on the exam. It was originally published as a serial in two-chapter installments; the story takes place from 1812-1840.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following characters with Great Expectations.

1. Pip
-orphan, protagonist; trained blacksmith; tries to rise above station to marry Estella
2. Joe Gargery
-Pip's brother-in-law, father figure; poor but honest life, modest expectations
3. Miss Havisham
-Wealthy spinster; manipulates Pip for her spiteful plans, while Pip thinks she's his benefactor
4. Estella Havisham
-Miss Havisham's adopted daughter; represents a life of wealth and culture; ability to love ruined by Miss Havisham; warns Pip, but he doesn't believe her

If you haven't read it already, Great Expectations could be worth adding to your test prep reading list. I recommend Penguin Classics, though the Dover Thrift will do in a pinch.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), aka Dr. Johnson, was an English essayist, critic, poet, and novelist. He is probably most famous for the glowing biography written by James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, or for compiling the first modern English dictionary. He was destitute and unrecognized well into his forties, at which time he achieved a certain literary celebrity.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Samuel Johnson. In each case a summary knowledge will suffice.

1. "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (poem)
2. The Lives of the English Poets (literary biography)
3. The Rambler (journal)
-in which Johnson published essays frequently
4. Dictionary of the English Language
5. Rasselas (novel)

Johnson's work is probably not work reading in full for the GRE Literature exam.

Gulliver's Travels (1726)

Gulliver's Travels (1726) is a satiric novel by Jonathan Swift. The work is also a parody of the travel narratives popular at the time. The target of the satire is both humanity in general, and the specific social injustices of Swift's time.

Gulliver's Travels is complicated enough, and common enough on the GRE Literature exam, to merit its own entry. Read a summary and know the following key words from the novel:

1. Liliput
-A land where everyone is 6" tall
2. Brobdignag
-A land where everyone is enormously tall
3. Laputa
-A flying island
4. Struldburgs
-Unhappy immortals who wish they could die
5. Houyhnhnms
-Intelligent, clean-living, right-thinking horses
6. Yahoos
-Idiotic, dirty, violent creatures (humans)

Gulliver's Travels might be worth adding to your exam prep reading list. I recommend the Penguin Classics Edition.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was a Irish-born English satirist. His work is very likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Jonathan Swift.

1. Gulliver's Travels
-Worth knowing Liliput, Brobdignag, Laputa, Struldburgs, Houyhnhnms, and Yahoos
2. "A Modest Proposal"
-Swift ironically suggests that poor Irish infants might be sold to the rich as food.
3. A Tale of a Tub
-Religious satire: Peter (Catholicism) vs Jack (Calvinism & Dissenting Protestants) vs Martin (Luther, but also, confusingly, Anglicanism)

Gulliver's Travels might be worth adding to your exam prep reading list. I recommend the Penguin Classics Edition.

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist. His Moby-Dick and Billy Budd are considered by many to be the greatest ever American fiction.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Herman Melville. In each case, a summary knowledge coupled with a familiarity with the style of writing will suffice.

1. Moby-Dick
-Characters: Ishmael, Ahab, Queequeg, Dashoo, Tashtego, Starbuck; the Pequod
2. Billy Budd
-Titular character is a handsome sailor stock-hero falsely accused of mutiny by Claggart, then convicted by court martial and hung by Captain Vere; last words are "Long live Captain Vere."
3. "Bartleby the Scrivener"
-A novelette; Bartleby increasingly refuses to do any work around the office, saying "I'd prefer not to."

While Moby-Dick may be a bit too much to tackle for test prep, Billy Budd, and there's a half-decent movie version, too.

Marcel Proust (1871-1922)

Marcel Proust (1871-1922) was a French novelist, essayist, and critic. He's a titan of French and world literatures, but don't get sucked in--you're studying for an English literature test.

For the GRE Literature exam, it's enough to know some general facts:

A la Rechere du Temps Perdu
(or, In Search of Lost Time; Remembrance of Things Past)
-A sprawling, largely unplotted fictionalized autobiography.
-Memories often flow from present sensory details.
-The opening discusses memories sparked by the flavor of a madeleine.

Proust doesn't show up often enough on the exam to make him worth reading for test prep, but he's a such a huge influence on so much 20th-century literature, it's worth dabbling on your own if you have time. You can start here.

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891)

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) was a French Decadent poet and a notorious libertine.

For the GRE Literature exam, it's enough to know that:

-He was a prodigy: stopped writing poetry at 21.
-Victor Hugo famously called him "an infant Shakespeare."

His work is unlikely to appear on the exam, but a biographical question might.

Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was a Welsh essayist and minor poet. It's also notable that he knew Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley personally.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Charles Lamb.

1. Essays of Elia
-Conversational personal essays; Elia = Charles himself
2. Tales from Shakespeare
-Adaptations for children, written with his sister, Mary Lamb

John Skelton (1460?-1529)

John Skelton (1460?-1529) was one of the first major poets to write in Early Modern English.

For the GRE Literature exam, all you need to know is that he lent his name to "skeltonic" or "skeltonical" verse, which is a term for rhymed couplets of irregular meter used for comic effect.

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864)

Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864) was an English poet best known for his short love lyrics, his Latin epigrams, and his prose collection Imaginary Conversations.

For the GRE Literature exam, it is enough to associate Landor with:

1. Imaginary Conversations
-Fictional conversations among historical figures.