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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Study First
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 play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Novel
One-act play
Propaganda
Chivalric romance
2. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Autobiography
Soliloquy
Short story
Chivalric romance
3. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Propaganda
Problem play
Dystopic literature
Elegy
4. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Lyric
Soliloquy
Satire
Eclogue
5. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Farce
Dramatic monologue
Essay
Epic
6. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Parable
Tragedy
Dystopic literature
Autobiographical novel
7. 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.
Play
Legend
Science fiction
Tragedy
8. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Ballad
Romance
Epic
Didactic literature
9. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
One-act play
Noh drama
Dramatic monologue
10. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Primitivist literature
Science fiction
Short-short story
Farce
11. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Legend
Essay
Noh drama
Allegory
12. 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.
Epic theater
Problem play
Anecdote
Black comedy
13. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Science fiction
Drama
Historical novel
Essay
14. 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.
Historical novel
One-act play
Myth
Romance
15. 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
Science fiction
Novel of manners
Pastiche
Lyric
16. 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.
Bildungsroman
Verse novel
Primitivist literature
Nonfiction
17. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Verse novel
Tragicomedy
Fable
Myth
18. 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.
Picaresque novel
Social protest novel
Tragedy
Novel of manners
19. 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.
Dystopic literature
Autobiography
Noir
Picaresque novel
20. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Biography
Epic theater
Drama
Pastiche
21. 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.
Problem play
Fable
Didactic literature
Primitivist literature
22. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Lyric
Novel
Didactic literature
Romance
23. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Tragedy
Miracle play
Farce
Autobiographical novel
24. A narrative work that reports true events.
Biography
Nonfiction
Short story
Elegy
25. 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 ideas
Ode
Novel of manners
Pastiche
26. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Fiction
Miracle play
Noh drama
Chivalric romance
27. 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.
Satire
Tragicomedy
Confessional poetry
Play
28. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Drama
Aphorism
Pastoral
Historical novel
29. 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
Elegy
Didactic literature
Novel
Biography
30. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Soliloquy
Essay
Dirge
Parody
31. 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
Novella
Social protest novel
Biography
Chivalric romance
32. 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.
Lyric
Dirge
Bildungsroman
Dystopic literature
33. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Biography
Satire
Essay
Elegy
34. 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
Essay
Autobiography
Picaresque novel
35. 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.
Dystopic literature
Novel of ideas
Lyric
Comedy
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
Novella
Allegory
Problem play
Noir
37. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Novel of manners
Play
Morality play
Comedy
38. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Ballad
Elegy
Morality play
Novel of ideas
39. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Novel of ideas
Legend
Romance
Allegory
40. 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
Burlesque
Short story
Fable
Epistolary novel
41. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Noir
Novella
Chivalric romance
One-act play
42. 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.
Autobiographical novel
Short story
Bildungsroman
Prose poem
43. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Propaganda
Ode
Prose poem
Short story
44. A short play based on a biblical story.
Epistolary novel
Autobiography
Romance
Mystery play
45. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Parable
Primitivist literature
Didactic literature
Allegory
46. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Elegy
Anecdote
Biography
Metafiction
47. 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.
Noir
Epistolary novel
Epic theater
Farce
48. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Tragedy
One-act play
Memoir
Fable
49. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Memoir
Confessional poetry
Dirge
Epigram
50. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Burlesque
Primitivist literature
Novella
Historical novel