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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Subjects
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clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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study here
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Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
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.
Novella
Anecdote
Dystopic literature
Ballad
2. 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.
Problem play
Dystopic literature
Legend
One-act play
3. 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.
Lyric
Ode
Soliloquy
Noir
4. 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.
Short story
Noh drama
Picaresque novel
Ode
5. 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).
Problem play
Aphorism
Short-short story
Short story
6. 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.
Elegy
Bildungsroman
Social protest novel
Romance
7. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Dirge
Play
Pastiche
Novel
8. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Legend
Novel of manners
Epic theater
Comedy
9. 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.
Dirge
Black comedy
Farce
Prose
10. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Autobiography
Social protest novel
Novel
Comedy
11. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Miracle play
Epigram
Short-short story
Prose poem
12. 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
Science fiction
Verse novel
Novel of manners
Epic
13. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Pastoral
Propaganda
Historical novel
Anecdote
14. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Anecdote
Social protest novel
One-act play
Epigram
15. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Tragedy
Eclogue
Black comedy
Novel of manners
16. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Elegy
Social protest novel
Essay
Lyric
17. 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
Allegory
Memoir
Eclogue
Soliloquy
18. 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.
Novel of manners
Memoir
Play
Chivalric romance
19. A short play based on a biblical story.
Mystery play
Parody
Black comedy
Satire
20. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Morality play
Biography
Novel of manners
Aphorism
21. 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.
Play
Picaresque novel
Farce
Elegy
22. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Morality play
Legend
One-act play
Tragedy
23. 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.
Epic theater
Dramatic monologue
Pastiche
Allegory
24. 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.
Noh drama
Noir
Pastoral
Primitivist literature
25. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Prose poem
Anecdote
Historical novel
Problem play
26. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Myth
Novella
Black comedy
Parody
27. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Farce
Noir
Nonfiction
One-act play
28. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Propaganda
Problem play
Historical novel
Parable
29. 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.
Didactic literature
Romance
Satire
Allegory
30. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Essay
Epigram
Biography
Mystery play
31. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Nonfiction
Ballad
Novel of ideas
32. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Metafiction
Autobiographical novel
Romance
One-act play
33. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Short-short story
Science fiction
Black comedy
Myth
34. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Science fiction
Noh drama
Social protest novel
Drama
35. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Dramatic monologue
Drama
Pastoral
Farce
36. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Historical novel
Farce
Epistolary novel
Memoir
37. 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
Pastiche
Social protest novel
Black comedy
Legend
38. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Primitivist literature
Picaresque novel
Romance
Problem play
39. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Ballad
Burlesque
Novel
Dirge
40. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Parable
Metafiction
Didactic literature
Chivalric romance
41. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Play
Drama
Chivalric romance
Parody
42. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Historical novel
Fable
Comedy
Prose poem
43. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Comedy
Social protest novel
Anecdote
Tragicomedy
44. 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.
Pastoral
Dystopic literature
Novel of manners
Legend
45. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Memoir
Play
Social protest novel
Epic theater
46. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Myth
Essay
Short story
Biography
47. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Metafiction
Dystopic literature
Parable
Legend
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.
Picaresque novel
Fiction
Propaganda
Epic
49. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Novel of ideas
Burlesque
Fiction
Mystery play
50. 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.
Play
Comedy
Novel of ideas
Myth