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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Literary Techniques
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 22 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
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. Latin for 'in the middle of things.' The term refers to the technique of starting a narrative in the middle of the action. For example - John Milton's Paradise Lost - which concerns the war among the angels in Heaven - opens after the fallen angels a
Invocation
Epiphany
In medias rest
Wit
2. The use of a statement that - by its context - implies its opposite. For example - in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - Antony repeats - 'Brutus is an honorable man -' while clearly implying that Brutus is dishonorable.
Irony
Verbal irony
Dramatic irony
Melodrama
3. An author's persistent reminding of his or her presence in the work. By drawing attention to the artifice of the work - the author ensures that the reader or audience will maintain critical detachment and not simply accept the writing at face value.
Romantic irony
Invocation
Irony
Poetic diction
4. The use of sentimentality - gushing emotion - or sensational action or plot twists to provoke audience or reader response.
Cosmic irony
Anagnorisis
Melodrama
Poetic license
5. Similarities between elements in a narrative (such as two characters or two plot lines). For instance - in Shakespeare's King Lear - both Lear and Gloucester suffer at the hands of their own children because they are blind to which of their children
Dramatic irony
Verbal irony
Epiphany
Parallelism
6. The use of specific types of words - phrases - or literary structures that are not common in contemporary speech or prose.
Melodrama
Verbal irony
Poetic diction
Foreshadowing
7. A wide-ranging technique of detachment that draws awareness to the discrepancy between words and their meanings - between expectation and fulfillment - or - most generally - between what is and what seems to be.
Poetic license
Anagnorisis
Cosmic irony
Irony
8. A sudden - powerful - and often spiritual or life changing realization that a character reaches in an otherwise ordinary or everyday moment.
In medias rest
Wit
Epiphany
Invocation
9. A sudden and unexpected drop from the lofty to the trivial or excessively sentimental. It is sometimes used intentionally - to create humor - but just as often is derided as miscalculation or poor judgment on a writer's part. An example from Alexande
Cosmic irony
Bathos
Anagnorisis
Poetic license
10. The liberty that authors sometimes take with ordinary rules of syntax and grammar - employing unusual vocabulary - metrical devices - or figures of speech or committing factual errors in order to strengthen a passage of writing.
Irony
Poetic license
Parallelism
Foreshadowing
11. A technique in which one understanding of a situation stands in sharp contrast to another - usually more prevalent - understanding of the same situation.
Cosmic irony
Irony
Bathos
Situational irony
12. A description or characterization that exaggerates or distorts a character's prominent features - usually to elicit mockery.
Epiphany
Foreshadowing
In medias rest
Caricature
13. Greek for 'God from a machine.' The phrase originally referred to a technique in ancient tragedy in which a mechanical god was lowered onto the stage to intervene and solve the play's problems or bring the play to a satisfactory conclusion. Now - the
Anagnorisis
Deus ex machina
Wit
Poetic license
14. From the Greek word for 'feeling -' the quality in a work of literature that evokes high emotion - most commonly sorrow - pity - or compassion.
Pathos
Bathos
Poetic license
Melodrama
15. A moment of recognition or discovery - primarily used in reference to Greek tragedy. For example - in Euripides' The Bacchae - Agave experiences it when she discovers that she has murdered her own son - Pentheus.
Deus ex machina
Verbal irony
Anagnorisis
Poetic diction
16. A prayer for inspiration to a god or muse usually placed at the beginning of an epic. Homer's Iliad and Odyssey both open with this.
In medias rest
Allusion
Pathos
Invocation
17. A record of a character's thoughts - unmediated by a narrator.
Foreshadowing
Verbal irony
Interior monologue
Caricature
18. An author's deliberate use of hints or suggestions to give a preview of events or themes that do not develop until later in the narrative.
Allusion
Foreshadowing
Bathos
Romantic irony
19. The perception of fate or the universe as malicious or indifferent to human suffering - which creates a painful contrast between our purposeful activity and its ultimate meaninglessness.
Invocation
Bathos
Poetic diction
Cosmic irony
20. An implicit reference within a literary work to a historical or literary person - place - or event.
Parallelism
Verbal irony
Poetic license
Allusion
21. A form of wordplay that displays cleverness or ingenuity with language.
Anagnorisis
Wit
Allusion
In medias rest
22. A technique in which the author lets the audience or reader in on a character's situation while the character himself remains in the dark. One example is in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex - when Oedipus vows to discover his father's murderer - not knowing -
Dramatic irony
Parallelism
Situational irony
Anagnorisis