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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Subjects
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clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
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. Any composition not written in verse.
Prose
Play
Pastoral
Epic
2. 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.
Dirge
Metafiction
Morality play
Black comedy
3. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Historical novel
Epic
Noh drama
Comedy
4. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Comedy
Picaresque novel
Allegory
Black comedy
5. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Autobiography
Didactic literature
Drama
Short-short story
6. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Noir
Ballad
Dirge
One-act play
7. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Chivalric romance
Essay
Morality play
Autobiography
8. 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
Allegory
Dramatic monologue
Aphorism
Novella
9. 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
Tragicomedy
Historical novel
Ballad
Pastiche
10. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Biography
Elegy
Pastoral
Ode
11. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Primitivist literature
Biography
Bildungsroman
Pastiche
12. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Dystopic literature
Epigram
Aphorism
Farce
13. 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.
One-act play
Satire
Problem play
Soliloquy
14. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Play
Epigram
Epistolary novel
Didactic literature
15. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Eclogue
Metafiction
Ballad
Noir
16. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Ballad
Chivalric romance
Metafiction
Play
17. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Myth
One-act play
Noh drama
Eclogue
18. A short play based on a biblical story.
Mystery play
Tragedy
Fiction
Pastoral
19. 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.
Confessional poetry
Dystopic literature
Lyric
Ballad
20. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Legend
Parable
Miracle play
Tragedy
21. 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
Epic
Mystery play
Burlesque
Autobiography
22. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Historical novel
Tragicomedy
Mystery play
Epic theater
23. 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.
Verse novel
Prose
Allegory
Dirge
24. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Miracle play
Tragedy
Confessional poetry
Noir
25. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Biography
Ode
Confessional poetry
Epic
26. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Romance
Dirge
Nonfiction
Parable
27. 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.
Novel
Short story
Social protest novel
Epic
28. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Novel
Didactic literature
Miracle play
One-act play
29. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Myth
Morality play
Prose poem
Noir
30. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Dramatic monologue
Social protest novel
Novel
Short story
31. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Novel of ideas
Novella
Propaganda
Didactic literature
32. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Autobiographical novel
Farce
Morality play
Fiction
33. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Mystery play
Biography
Confessional poetry
Pastiche
34. 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.
Primitivist literature
Myth
Epistolary novel
Noir
35. 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
Pastoral
Elegy
Soliloquy
Didactic literature
36. 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.
Prose
Dystopic literature
Dramatic monologue
Play
37. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Primitivist literature
Satire
Farce
Miracle play
38. 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
Epistolary novel
Problem play
Fable
Epic
39. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Epic theater
Soliloquy
Confessional poetry
Noh drama
40. A narrative work that reports true events.
Soliloquy
Nonfiction
Epic
Noir
41. 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.
Novel of ideas
Dirge
Tragedy
Essay
42. 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.
Verse novel
Prose poem
Social protest novel
Epistolary novel
43. 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.
Play
Problem play
Mystery play
Fiction
44. 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.
Lyric
One-act play
Nonfiction
Bildungsroman
45. 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).
Epic theater
Aphorism
Noir
Primitivist literature
46. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Confessional poetry
Legend
Anecdote
Dramatic monologue
47. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Farce
Eclogue
Soliloquy
Anecdote
48. 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.
Autobiography
Mystery play
Didactic literature
Novel of manners
49. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Myth
Parody
Allegory
Fiction
50. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Eclogue
Epic theater
Problem play
Epistolary novel