ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

LITERATURE QUESTIONS

MODERN POETRY AND POETICS

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Which of the following statements best characterizes the role played by Gertrude Stein in American modernism?
A
Stein was a crucially important figure in the Paris émigré community.
B
Stein was primarily a muse for modernist poets.
C
Stein was a proponent of low modernism.
D
Stein was an opponent of vanguard trends.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -An art lover in its true sense, Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector. Her well known books, The Making of Americans (1925) and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933) earned her prominence. People who knew her describe her a blend of literary and artistic hues.

Detailed explanation-2: -From the time she moved to France in 1903 until her death in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1946, American writer Gertrude Stein was a central figure in the Parisian art world. An advocate of the avant garde, Stein helped shape an artistic movement that demanded a novel form of expression and a conscious break with the past.

Detailed explanation-3: -Not only was Stein truly modern in her ideas and her writing, but she was also ahead of her time in her personal life. She didn’t allow the prejudices against women in the early 1900s to hold her back, declaring herself a ‘genius’ and commanding the respect of the men who attended her salons.

Detailed explanation-4: -Among her works that were most thoroughly influenced by Cubism is Tender Buttons (1914), which carries fragmentation and abstraction to an extreme. Her first published book, Three Lives (1909), the stories of three working-class women, has been called a minor masterpiece.

There is 1 question to complete.