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






2. 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.






3. 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.






4. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






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






9. 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.






10. 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.






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






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






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






15. 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.






16. 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






17. 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






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






19. 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.






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






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






22. 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






23. 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






24. 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.






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






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






27. 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.






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






29. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






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






33. 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.






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






36. 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.






37. 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.






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






39. 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.






40. 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.






41. 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.






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






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






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






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






46. Any composition not written in verse.






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






48. 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.






49. 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






50. 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.