Literature Quiz | Japanese and World Works and Authors, Basic Set 1
Problem 1
Who wrote "The Tale of Genji", completed in the mid-Heian period?
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"The Tale of Genji" was written by Murasaki Shikibu. Sei Shōnagon is known as the author of "The Pillow Book". Izumi Shikibu and Akazome Emon were women poets of the same era but did not write the Genji.
Problem 2
Who wrote "Don Quixote", the novel in which a country gentleman who has read too many chivalric romances sets out as a knight errant?
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"Don Quixote" is by the Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes. The other three are also celebrated European authors, but none wrote this Spanish novel satirizing chivalric romance.
Problem 3
In Shakespeare's "Hamlet", a prince is pressed to avenge his father on his uncle Claudius, who killed him and took the throne. Which form or genre best describes the work?
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"Hamlet" is a play written for performance and belongs to the genre of revenge tragedy, turning on vengeance for a murdered father. It is not a novel told in letters, nor a pastoral on rural life, nor a record of travel.
Problem 4
Which work does the National Diet Library describe as "the oldest surviving work of narrative literature, completed in the early Heian period, around the beginning of the 10th century"?
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The work in question is "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", whose author and exact date are unknown. The "Kojiki" is an older historical and literary text but falls outside the category of narrative literature asked about here. "The Tale of the Heike" and "Essays in Idleness" are medieval works.
Problem 5
Bashō composed "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" from a journey of 1689, weaving hokku into prose about the road. Which literary form best describes it?
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"The Narrow Road to the Deep North" is haikai travel writing, composed of prose and hokku drawn from the experience of a journey. It is neither a collection of verses alone nor a diary mechanically transcribing an itinerary: the journey is shaped into literature.
Problem 6
Which novel by Natsume Sōseki opens with this short line? "I always called him Sensei."
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This is the opening of "Kokoro". "Sensei" is the figure the narrator "I" meets in Kamakura, and the work discloses their relationship and Sensei's past by degrees. Only the single short line needed for identification is quoted, from a copyright-expired text checked against the Aozora Bunko edition and its source information.
Problem 7
In Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", Victor's confession sits inside the record of the Arctic explorer Walton, and within it the creature in turn recounts its own experience. What is this structure, in which an outer story encloses an inner narration, called?
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A structure embedding one narration within another is called a frame narrative. In "Frankenstein", the narrations of Walton, Victor and the creature nest inside one another, giving the reader a means of considering the same events from different positions.
Problem 8
Which historical novel by Charles Dickens opens "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" and is set in London and Paris during the French Revolution?
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The work is "A Tale of Two Cities". After its famous opening of paired opposites, the story unfolds across London and Paris before and during the Revolution. Only the first twelve words are quoted, from the copyright-expired English original.
Problem 9
Which poetry anthology matches this exhibition label? "The oldest surviving anthology of poetry, brought into something close to its present form around the end of the Nara period. It collects poems not only by aristocrats of the capital but by people of the eastern provinces, frontier guards and others, across a wide range of regions and social positions."
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The anthology is the "Man'yōshū". Its inclusion of poems by people of widely different regions and social standing is one of its characteristics, making it an important source on the language, life and feeling of the Nara period. The "Kokin Wakashū" and "Shin Kokin Wakashū" are later imperial anthologies, and the "Ogura Hyakunin Isshu" selects one poem each from a hundred poets.
Problem 10
In compiling a catalogue for an exhibition of medieval European literature, which combination of author, work, form and structure is correct?
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"The Divine Comedy" is a narrative poem in Italian by Dante Alighieri, describing a journey through the Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso. Each other option gets the author, the form or the itinerary wrong. Milton is known for "Paradise Lost", Chaucer for "The Canterbury Tales" and Cervantes for "Don Quixote".