PT126.S2.P3.Q16 > Analytics

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With their recognition of Maxine Hong Kingston as a major literary figure, some critics have suggested that her works have been produced almost . ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ █ █████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███

Critics' perspective · Kingston's work doesn't seem to be based on prior Chinese American influences

Author's perspective · Critics overlook influence of "talk-story" on Kingston's work

Talk-story is a traditional Chinese form of oral narrative

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History of talk-story · Ancient form of storytelling in China, rarely written, brought to U.S. by Chinese immigrants

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Relevance to Kingston · Her literary work includes written adaptations of talk-story

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Kingston's method · Builds narratives using key elements and themes drawn from memory

Contrast this with written storytelling traditions, in which telling a story right means getting the order of words right; Kingston seems more focused on getting the broader "shape" of the story right, rather than on the specific wording

Kingston's perspective · on writing down traditionally oral stories

Writing them down doesn't halt the oral tradition; stories can continue to change over time

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Example of Kingston's work · "China Men" book

Book includes many characteristics of talk-story and can be considered a written form of talk-story

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Spotlight

16.

It can be inferred from ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██████████ ████████ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ██████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██

Question Type

Meaning in context (of word, phrase, or idea)

Structure

The author uses this phrase while talking about how Kingston’s talk-story style of storytelling differs from typical print-oriented storytelling. Whereas print-oriented storytelling is focused on telling the right words in the right order, Kingston’s approach is focused on exploring certain themes, which she pulls from “personally remembered stories.” So it sounds like Kingston is pulling her material according to oral traditions, where people remember stories told by others. Kingston takes people’s recollections of those stories and reconstructs them to explore certain themes.

a literary genre ██ ████████████ ████████████

“Personally remembered stories” aren’t a genre of literature; they’re the source from which Kingston draws her stories.

12%

a thematically organized ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ████

The “personally remembered stories” that Kingston’s pulling from aren’t already thematically organized, as far as we can tell. They’re just stories that people recall, and Kingston, in line with the traditions of oral storytelling, pulls her material from those existing stories. What does she do with that material? She sifts through it and reconstructs certain elements of it according to the themes Kingston wants to explore. So the “personally remembered stories” aren’t themselves thematically organized; rather, Kingston draws certain themes out of them through her writing.

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partially idiosyncratic memories ██ ██████████

This is the best description available. P3, which contains the referenced phrase, tells us that Kingston’s work is in line with oral traditions of storytelling, where the storyteller draws on people’s recollections and retellings of various stories. So when the author says Kingston draws on “personally remembered stories,” it sounds like Kingston is using idiosyncratic (i.e., individual and noteworthy) memories as the source of her material.

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the retention in ██████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████

Anti-supported. One style of storytelling emphasizes the precise sequences of words that make up that story. But Kingston’s approach is presented as different from that style of storytelling. Instead, Kingston draws on “personally remembered stories” in order to look for certain “essential elements” and themes. So the “personally remembered stories” Kingston’s interested in don’t depend on people being able to recall precise sequences of words.

easily identifiable thematic ██████ ██ ██████████

By “personally remembered stories,” the author means stories that individual people can personally recall. So he’s referring to the stories themselves (not just the “thematic issues” in those stories), and those stories exist in people’s memories (not as literature).

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PrepTest 126 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 16

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PrepTest 126 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 16

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