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CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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  • Match each statement with the correct term.
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This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.






2. A novel written in the form of letters exchanged by characters in the story - such as Samuel Richardson's Clarissa or Alice Walker's The Color Purple. This form was especially popular in the 1700s.






3. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.






4. A novel in which the author's aim is to tell a story that illuminates and draws attention to contemporary social problems with the goal of inciting change for the better. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin - which exposed the horrors of Africa






5. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.






6. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.






7. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.






8. A novel that focuses on the social customs of a certain class of people - often with a sharp eye for irony. Jane Austen's novels are prime examples of this genre.






9. A short poetic expression of grief. It differs from an elegy in that it often is embedded within a larger work - is less highly structured - and is meant to be sung.






10. A novel - such as Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea - that the author uses as a platform for discussing ideas. Character and plot are of secondary importance.






11. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.






12. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.






13. A work that imitates the style of a previous author - work - or literary genre. Alternatively - the term may refer to a work that contains a hodgepodge of elements or fragments from different sources or influences. It differs from parody in that its






14. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.






15. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.






16. A novel that tells a nonfictional - autobiographical story but uses novelistic techniques - such as fictionalized dialogue or anecdotes - to add color - immediacy - or thematic unity.






17. Originally - a realistic novel detailing a scoundrel's exploits. The term grew to refer more generally to any novel with a loosely structured - episodic plot that revolves around the adventures of a central character.






18. Any composition not written in verse.






19. A work that exposes to ridicule the shortcomings of individuals - institutions - or society - often to make a political point. Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is one of the most well known examples in English.






20. A concise expression of insight or wisdom: 'The vanity of others offends our taste only when it offends our vanity' (Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil).






21. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.






22. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.






23. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






24. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.






25. A German term - meaning 'formation novel -' for a novel about a child or adolescent's development into maturity - with special focus on the protagonist's quest for identity. James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a notable example.






26. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.






27. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.






28. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.






29. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.






30. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.






31. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.






32. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'






33. An autobiographical work. Rather than focus exclusively on the author's life - it pays significant attention to the author's involvement in historical events and the characterization of individuals other than the author.






34. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.






35. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.






36. A narrative in which literal meaning corresponds clearly and directly to symbolic meaning. For example - the literal story in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress






37. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.






38. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.






39. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.






40. Disturbing or absurd material presented in a humorous manner - usually with the intention to confront uncomfortable truths. Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is a notable example.






41. A genre of fiction that presents an imagined future society that purports to be perfect and utopian but that the author presents to the reader as horrifyingly inhuman.






42. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.






43. A full-length fictional work that is novelistic in nature but written in verse rather than prose. Examples include Aleksandr Pushkin's Eugene Onegin and Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate.






44. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.






45. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.






46. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.






47. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






48. A lengthy narrative that describes the deeds of a heroic figure - often of national or cultural importance - in elevated language. Strictly - the term applies only to verse narratives like Beowulf or Virgil's Aeneid - but it is used to describe prose






49. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.






50. A formal poem that laments the death of a friend or public figure - or - occasionally - a meditation on death itself. In Greek and Latin poetry - the term applies to a specific type of meter (alternating hexameters and pentameters) regardless of cont