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CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • 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 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






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






3. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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






6. 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.






7. 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.






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 novel that tells a nonfictional - autobiographical story but uses novelistic techniques - such as fictionalized dialogue or anecdotes - to add color - immediacy - or thematic unity.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






18. 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






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






20. Any composition not written in verse.






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






22. 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.






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






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






26. 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.






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






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






29. 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.






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






31. 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






32. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






33. 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.






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






35. 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.






36. 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.






37. 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.






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






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






40. 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.






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






42. 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






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






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






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






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






47. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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