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






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






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






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






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






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






7. 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.






8. 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.






9. 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






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






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






12. 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






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






14. 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.






15. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






17. 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.






18. A short play based on a biblical story.






19. 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.






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






21. 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






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 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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






31. 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.






32. 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.






33. 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.






34. 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.






35. 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






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






37. 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.






38. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






44. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






45. 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.






46. 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.






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






48. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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