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






2. 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.






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






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






5. 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.






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






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






8. 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.






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






10. 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.






11. 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.






12. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






13. 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).






14. 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.






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






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






17. 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.






18. 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.






19. 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.






20. Any composition not written in verse.






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






22. 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.






23. 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.






24. A short play based on a biblical story.






25. 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.






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






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






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






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






31. 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






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.






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






34. 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.






35. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.






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






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






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






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






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






42. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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






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






46. 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






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






48. A narrative work that reports true events.






49. 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






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