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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 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.






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






3. 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






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






5. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






8. 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.






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






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






11. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






18. 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.






19. 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.






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






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






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 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






24. 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.






25. 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






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






27. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.






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






29. 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.






30. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.






31. 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.






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






33. 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.






34. 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.






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






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.






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






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






39. 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.






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






41. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






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).






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






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






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






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






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