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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. 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.






2. 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.






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






4. 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.






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).






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






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






8. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






11. 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.






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






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






14. 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.






15. 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






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






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






18. 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.






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






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






21. 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.






22. 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.






23. 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






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






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






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






27. 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






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






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






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






31. 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.






32. 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.






33. 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






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






35. 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.






36. 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.






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






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






39. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






41. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






49. A narrative work that reports true events.






50. 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.