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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 narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






5. 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.






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






7. 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.






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






9. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






11. 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






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






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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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






19. 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






20. 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.






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






22. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.






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






24. 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.






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






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






27. 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






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






29. 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.






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






31. 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.






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






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






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






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






36. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






38. 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.






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






40. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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






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






44. 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






45. 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.






46. 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.






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.






48. 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.






49. 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.






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