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CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • 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 story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.






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






3. 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.






4. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.






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






6. Works that express a preference for the natural over the artificial in human culture - and a belief that the life of primitive cultures is preferable to modern lifestyles.






7. A speech - often in verse - by a lone character. The most famous example being the 'To be or not to be' speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet.






8. A humorous imitation of a serious work of literature. The humor often arises from the incongruity between the imitation and the work being imitated. For example - Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock uses the high diction of epic poetry to talk abou






9. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






10. 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.






11. 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).






12. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.






13. 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






14. A poem that contains words that a fictional or historical character speaks to a particular audience. Alfred - Lord Tennyson's 'Ulysses' is a famous example.






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






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






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






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






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






20. 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.






21. The brief narration of a single event or incident.






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






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






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






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






26. 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.






27. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.






28. A story about the origins of a culture's beliefs and practices - or of supernatural phenomena - usually derived from oral tradition and set in an imagined supernatural past.






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






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






31. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.






32. 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.






33. A short play based on a biblical story.






34. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






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






38. 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






39. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.






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






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






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






43. 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.






44. 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.






45. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






49. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






50. 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.