Question 14 • GA-Literature and Composition II (Fakunle)
Read the introduction to Dan DeLuca's argument.Bob Dylan is the songwriter who opened up the doors of possibility to all who followed. He was the mysterious bard with a guitar who sent out a clarion call—first as the acoustic Voice of His Generation, then as the plugged-in rocker who remained a master of the unexpected for five decades—that the words pop singers sang were worthy of being taken seriously."Dylan was a revolutionary,” Bruce Springsteen said in his 1988 speech inducting Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "The way that Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind.” Early masterpieces such as "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and "Visions Of Johanna” and "Like A Rolling Stone” fueled a debate: Are rock lyrics poetry?The answer must be yes, because on Thursday, Dylan was awarded the highest honor for a writer: the Nobel Prize in literature. The Swedish Academy, in making him the first American winner since novelist Toni Morrison in 1993, cited him for "having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”
Answer
A
“The way that Elvis freed your body, Bob freed your mind.”
B
“He was the mysterious bard with a guitar.”
C
“He was . . . a master of the unexpected for five decades.”
D
“The Swedish Academy . . . cited him for ‘having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.’”
Explanation
The Swedish Academy’s citation directly supports DeLuca’s claim that Dylan’s lyrics deserve to be taken seriously as literature: it recognizes the “new poetic expressions” he created within American song. Choice D is therefore the strongest evidence. The other choices praise Dylan’s influence or describe his image and career, but do not directly establish the literary merit of his songwriting.
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