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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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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. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Epic
Epigram
One-act play
Tragedy
2. 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
Black comedy
Burlesque
Confessional poetry
Epic
3. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Drama
Epic
Autobiography
Romance
4. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Propaganda
Farce
Epistolary novel
Fable
5. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Novella
Noh drama
Memoir
Tragicomedy
6. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Dystopic literature
Pastoral
Anecdote
Tragicomedy
7. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Dramatic monologue
Picaresque novel
Drama
Essay
8. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Tragicomedy
Biography
Morality play
Elegy
9. A narrative work that reports true events.
Fiction
Noh drama
Black comedy
Nonfiction
10. 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
Short-short story
Allegory
Dramatic monologue
Pastiche
11. 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.
Chivalric romance
Allegory
Memoir
Mystery play
12. 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.
Picaresque novel
Memoir
Tragedy
Confessional poetry
13. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Noir
Pastoral
Satire
Noh drama
14. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Short story
Memoir
Pastoral
Aphorism
15. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Epic theater
Prose
Legend
Propaganda
16. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Autobiographical novel
Morality play
Ballad
Chivalric romance
17. 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
Bildungsroman
Miracle play
Propaganda
18. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Morality play
Ode
Fable
Didactic literature
19. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Pastoral
Memoir
Essay
Problem play
20. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Epistolary novel
Prose
Autobiography
One-act play
21. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Prose poem
Myth
Anecdote
Primitivist literature
22. 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.
Parable
Verse novel
Novel of ideas
Didactic literature
23. 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
Novel of ideas
Epic
Burlesque
Epistolary novel
24. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Historical novel
Fable
Tragedy
Morality play
25. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Lyric
Ode
Novel of manners
Memoir
26. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Morality play
Primitivist literature
Novel of manners
Chivalric romance
27. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Historical novel
Pastoral
Metafiction
Soliloquy
28. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Epistolary novel
Fiction
Propaganda
Parody
29. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Epistolary novel
Novel of ideas
Autobiography
Novel
30. 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.
Anecdote
Play
Science fiction
Satire
31. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Ballad
Pastoral
Tragicomedy
Propaganda
32. 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.
Lyric
Ballad
Burlesque
Soliloquy
33. 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.
Bildungsroman
Parody
Prose poem
Dramatic monologue
34. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Problem play
Autobiography
Allegory
Epigram
35. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Memoir
Essay
Science fiction
Novel of manners
36. 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.
Noh drama
Autobiography
Miracle play
Dystopic literature
37. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
One-act play
Morality play
Chivalric romance
Tragedy
38. 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.
Epic
Novel of manners
Epic theater
Biography
39. 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.
Pastiche
Myth
Bildungsroman
Nonfiction
40. 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
Autobiographical novel
Social protest novel
Problem play
Ode
41. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Parable
Soliloquy
Epigram
Allegory
42. 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).
Noir
Autobiographical novel
Novel of manners
Aphorism
43. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Biography
Primitivist literature
Epic
Fiction
44. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Fable
Pastiche
Parable
Eclogue
45. 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.
Satire
Short-short story
Romance
Anecdote
46. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Tragedy
Pastiche
Novel
Ode
47. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Soliloquy
Problem play
Fable
Didactic literature
48. 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.
Tragicomedy
Social protest novel
Short story
Confessional poetry
49. Any composition not written in verse.
Novella
Eclogue
Prose
Novel of manners
50. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Picaresque novel
Novella
Biography
Miracle play
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