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






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






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






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






5. 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.






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






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






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






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






10. 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.






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






12. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






15. 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.






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






17. 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.






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






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






20. 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






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






22. 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.






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






24. A narrative work that reports true events.






25. 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






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






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






29. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






30. 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.






31. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






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






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






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






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






38. 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






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






40. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






41. 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.






42. 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.






43. 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.






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






45. 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.






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






47. 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






48. 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.






49. 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.






50. 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.