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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 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.






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






3. 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.






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






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






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 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.






8. 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






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






10. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.






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






12. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.






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






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






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






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






17. 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).






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. 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.






20. 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.






21. The brief narration of a single event or incident.






22. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






24. 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.






25. 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.






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






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.






28. 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.






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






30. 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






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






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 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






34. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






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






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






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






41. 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.






42. 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.






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






44. 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.






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






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






47. 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.






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






49. A narrative work that reports true events.






50. 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.