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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. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






2. 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






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






4. 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.






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






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






7. 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.






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






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






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






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






12. 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.






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






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






15. 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.






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






17. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






23. 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






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.






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






26. 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.






27. 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.






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






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






30. 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






31. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






33. 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






34. 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).






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






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






37. 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.






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






39. 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.






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






41. 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.






42. 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.






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






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






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






46. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






50. 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.