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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Subjects
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clep
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literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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study here
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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 novel that tells a nonfictional - autobiographical story but uses novelistic techniques - such as fictionalized dialogue or anecdotes - to add color - immediacy - or thematic unity.
Novella
Autobiographical novel
Tragedy
Aphorism
2. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Chivalric romance
Miracle play
Prose
Didactic literature
3. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Verse novel
Lyric
Burlesque
Epic
4. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Prose poem
Parable
Verse novel
5. 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
Pastiche
Novel of ideas
Aphorism
Noir
6. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Eclogue
Burlesque
Bildungsroman
Legend
7. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Novella
Ode
Epistolary novel
Parody
8. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Chivalric romance
Novel of ideas
Parable
Epic theater
9. 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.
Problem play
Fiction
Chivalric romance
Myth
10. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Bildungsroman
Farce
Novella
Eclogue
11. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Tragedy
Dystopic literature
One-act play
Autobiography
12. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Novel
Social protest novel
Propaganda
Legend
13. 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
Epic
Epic theater
Epigram
Eclogue
14. 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.
Epic
Memoir
Epistolary novel
Chivalric romance
15. 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.
Parody
Anecdote
Short story
Biography
16. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Mystery play
Play
Myth
Noh drama
17. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Verse novel
Science fiction
Biography
Noh drama
18. 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.
Lyric
Science fiction
Memoir
Dystopic literature
19. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Noh drama
Problem play
Novel
Anecdote
20. Any composition not written in verse.
Essay
Metafiction
Prose
Prose poem
21. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Autobiography
Lyric
Parody
Epic theater
22. 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.
Legend
Biography
Essay
Soliloquy
23. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Bildungsroman
Epigram
Prose poem
Propaganda
24. 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.
Novel of manners
Autobiography
Ode
Legend
25. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Drama
Novel of ideas
Romance
Satire
26. 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
Social protest novel
Metafiction
Burlesque
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.
Prose poem
Soliloquy
Parable
Novel of ideas
28. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Biography
Novel of ideas
Dramatic monologue
Fiction
29. 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.
Novella
Epistolary novel
Confessional poetry
Picaresque novel
30. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Short-short story
Aphorism
Ballad
Epic
31. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Dramatic monologue
Morality play
Didactic literature
Novel
32. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Biography
Eclogue
Confessional poetry
Pastiche
33. 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.
Primitivist literature
Nonfiction
Picaresque novel
Problem play
34. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Prose
Pastiche
Ode
Fable
35. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Epic theater
Primitivist literature
Bildungsroman
Epigram
36. 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
Mystery play
Historical novel
Satire
37. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Social protest novel
Tragedy
Bildungsroman
Essay
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.
Soliloquy
Historical novel
Short-short story
Bildungsroman
39. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Play
Myth
Novel
40. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Ballad
Historical novel
Fiction
Prose
41. 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.
Mystery play
Science fiction
Verse novel
Elegy
42. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Play
Novel of ideas
Pastoral
Novella
43. 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.
Farce
Confessional poetry
Primitivist literature
Picaresque novel
44. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Essay
Miracle play
Myth
Eclogue
45. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Aphorism
Dramatic monologue
Legend
Autobiographical novel
46. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Verse novel
Aphorism
Satire
47. 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
Autobiographical novel
Mystery play
Elegy
Dystopic literature
48. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Morality play
Epistolary novel
Confessional poetry
Epic
49. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Social protest novel
Propaganda
Memoir
Epigram
50. 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.
Science fiction
Epigram
Black comedy
Primitivist literature