Test your basic knowledge |

CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 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. 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.






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






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






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






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






6. 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






7. 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






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






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






10. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






13. 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.






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






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






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 narrative work that reports true events.






18. 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






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






21. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






23. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






29. 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.






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






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






32. 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.






33. 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.






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






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






36. 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.






37. 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.






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






39. 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.






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






41. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






42. 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.






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






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






45. 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.






46. 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).






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






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






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






50. 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.