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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 lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.






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






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






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






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






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






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






8. 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.






9. 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.






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






11. 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






12. 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.






13. 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.






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






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






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






17. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






20. 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.






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






22. 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






23. 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.






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






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






26. 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.






27. 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.






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






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






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 play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.






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






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






34. 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.






35. 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.






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






37. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






40. 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).






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






42. 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.






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.






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






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






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






47. 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






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






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






50. 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