25 Important MCQs on Gay Literature
1. Who is the author of "Giovanni's Room," a classic novel exploring same-sex desire?
a) James Baldwin
b) E.M. Forster
c) Allen Ginsberg
d) Gore Vidal
Answer: a) James Baldwin
Explanation: Baldwin’s novel is a foundational text in gay literature.
2. E.M. Forster’s posthumously published novel with a gay protagonist is:
a) A Room with a View
b) Maurice
c) Howards End
d) The Longest Journey
Answer: b) Maurice
Explanation: "Maurice" was withheld during Forster's lifetime due to its gay content.
3. Which of the following was a founding member of the Mattachine Society?
a) James Baldwin
b) Harry Hay
c) Walt Whitman
d) Oscar Wilde
Answer: b) Harry Hay
Explanation: The Mattachine Society was one of the earliest gay rights organizations in the U.S.
4. The poetry collection "Leaves of Grass," with homoerotic undertones, was written by:
a) Allen Ginsberg
b) Audre Lorde
c) Walt Whitman
d) Hart Crane
Answer: c) Walt Whitman
Explanation: Whitman’s poems express a deep affection for male comradeship.
5. Who wrote the novel "The City and the Pillar," one of the first openly gay novels in America?
a) Truman Capote
b) Gore Vidal
c) Tennessee Williams
d) Larry Kramer
Answer: b) Gore Vidal
Explanation: Published in 1948, it shocked conservative America.
6. Which American playwright is known for portraying gay characters in plays like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"?
a) Tony Kushner
b) Tennessee Williams
c) Edward Albee
d) Neil Simon
Answer: b) Tennessee Williams
Explanation: Many of Williams' characters reflect his own struggles with sexuality.
7. The AIDS crisis prominently features in which of these plays?
a) Angels in America
b) The Importance of Being Earnest
c) The Glass Menagerie
d) Bent
Answer: a) Angels in America
Explanation: Tony Kushner's play is a landmark gay epic.
8. "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name" is a biomythography by:
a) Alice Walker
b) Audre Lorde
c) Cherrie Moraga
d) Leslie Feinberg
Answer: b) Audre Lorde
Explanation: This work blends autobiography and mythology, exploring Black lesbian identity.
9. The protagonist of Jean Genet’s "Our Lady of the Flowers" is:
a) Divine
b) Maurice
c) Oscar
d) Giovanni
Answer: a) Divine
Explanation: Divine is a drag queen and central figure in Genet’s surreal novel.
10. The novel "Stone Butch Blues" was written by:
a) Audre Lorde
b) Sarah Schulman
c) Leslie Feinberg
d) Judith Butler
Answer: c) Leslie Feinberg
Explanation: This novel explores transgender and lesbian identity.
11. "Fun Home" is a graphic memoir by:
a) Alison Bechdel
b) Jeanette Winterson
c) Roxane Gay
d) Carmen Maria Machado
Answer: a) Alison Bechdel
Explanation: Bechdel’s memoir deals with her coming out and her gay father.
12. Who coined the Bechdel Test?
a) Adrienne Rich
b) Judith Butler
c) Alison Bechdel
d) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Answer: c) Alison Bechdel
Explanation: It measures gender representation in media, initially drawn in a comic strip.
13. The concept of "compulsory heterosexuality" was introduced by:
a) Eve Sedgwick
b) Judith Butler
c) Adrienne Rich
d) Gloria Anzaldúa
Answer: c) Adrienne Rich
Explanation: Rich critiqued how society enforces heterosexual norms.
14. "Gender Trouble," which introduced the idea of gender performativity, was written by:
a) Eve Sedgwick
b) Judith Butler
c) Susan Sontag
d) Michel Foucault
Answer: b) Judith Butler
Explanation: This work reshaped feminist and queer theory.
15. Which of these authors identifies as a nonbinary lesbian and writes on queer trauma?
a) Audre Lorde
b) Leslie Feinberg
c) Carmen Maria Machado
d) Sarah Schulman
Answer: c) Carmen Maria Machado
Explanation: Her work blends horror and queer memoir.
16. "The Well of Loneliness" was banned for its depiction of:
a) Homosexuality
b) Communism
c) Racial integration
d) Feminism
Answer: a) Homosexuality
Explanation: Radclyffe Hall's novel faced obscenity trials.
17. Who is the author of "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit"?
a) Sarah Waters
b) Jeanette Winterson
c) Ali Smith
d) Emma Donoghue
Answer: b) Jeanette Winterson
Explanation: A semi-autobiographical novel about growing up gay in a religious household.
18. "Tales of the City," a serialized gay novel, was written by:
a) David Leavitt
b) Armistead Maupin
c) Larry Kramer
d) Michael Cunningham
Answer: b) Armistead Maupin
Explanation: It documents San Francisco’s queer culture.
19. Which of the following theorists is most associated with queer theory?
a) Terry Eagleton
b) Homi Bhabha
c) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
d) Elaine Showalter
Answer: c) Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick
Explanation: She is considered one of the founders of queer theory.
20. "How to Survive a Plague" chronicles:
a) The lives of gay migrants
b) Early AIDS activism
c) Queer cinema
Answer: b) Early AIDS activism
Explanation: A historical account of the ACT UP movement.
21. The character Prior Walter appears in:
a) The Boys in the Band
b) Angels in America
c) Rent
d) Torch Song Trilogy
Answer: b) Angels in America
Explanation: Prior is a central figure in Kushner’s epic.
22. Who wrote the gay love poem sequence "Twenty-One Love Poems"?
a) Adrienne Rich
b) Sharon Olds
c) Carol Ann Duffy
d) Eileen Myles
Answer: a) Adrienne Rich
Explanation: A groundbreaking sequence on lesbian desire.
23. Which author of "The Hours" reimagines Virginia Woolf’s legacy through a gay lens?
a) Alan Hollinghurst
b) Michael Cunningham
c) Edmund White
d) Andre Aciman
Answer: b) Michael Cunningham
Explanation: His novel won the Pulitzer Prize.
24. The concept of "homosocial desire" is developed in:
a) Gender Trouble
b) Between Men
c) Epistemology of the Closet
d) The History of Sexuality
Answer: b) Between Men
Explanation: Sedgwick explores male bonding and suppressed desire.
25. Which of these is a central theme in Queer of Color Critique?
a) Monogamy
b) Intersectionality
c) Psychoanalysis
d) Modernism
Answer: b) Intersectionality
Explanation: It examines how race, class, and sexuality intersect in queer lives.
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