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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 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.






2. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






6. 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






7. 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.






8. 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).






9. 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.






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






11. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






12. 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.






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






14. 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.






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






16. 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.






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






18. 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.






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






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






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






22. 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.






23. Any composition not written in verse.






24. 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.






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






26. A short play based on a biblical story.






27. 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






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






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






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






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






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






33. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






34. 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






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






37. 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.






38. 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.






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






40. 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.






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






42. 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.






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






44. 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.






45. 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.






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






47. 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






48. 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






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






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