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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. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






7. 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.






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






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






10. 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.






11. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






12. 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.






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






14. 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.






15. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.






16. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






22. 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.






23. Any composition not written in verse.






24. 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






25. 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






26. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






27. 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






28. A story meant to be performed in a theater before an audience. Most are written in dialogue form and are divided into several acts. Many include stage directions and instructions for sets and costumes.






29. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.






30. A work of prose fiction that is much shorter than a novel (rarely more than forty pages) and focused more tightly on a single event.






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






32. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.






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






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






35. A narrative work that reports true events.






36. 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).






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






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






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






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






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






42. 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.






43. 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.






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






45. 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.






46. A short play based on a biblical story.






47. 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.






48. 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






49. 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






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