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






2. 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.






3. 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.






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






5. 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.






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






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






8. 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






9. 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






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






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






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






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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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 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.






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






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






22. 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.






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






24. 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






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






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






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






30. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






32. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






36. Any composition not written in verse.






37. 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.






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






39. 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






40. 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.






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






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






43. 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.






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






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






46. 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.






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






48. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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