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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Subjects
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clep
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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. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Burlesque
Eclogue
Confessional poetry
Tragedy
2. 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.
Novel of manners
Metafiction
Soliloquy
Science fiction
3. 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
Confessional poetry
Prose
Legend
Burlesque
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.
Memoir
Tragicomedy
Epic theater
Ballad
5. 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.
Short-short story
Legend
Primitivist literature
Short story
6. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
One-act play
Elegy
Essay
Noh drama
7. 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.
Didactic literature
One-act play
Dystopic literature
Morality play
8. 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.
Didactic literature
One-act play
Social protest novel
Verse novel
9. 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
Aphorism
Allegory
Propaganda
Tragedy
10. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Nonfiction
Noir
Aphorism
Problem play
11. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Short-short story
Play
Noh drama
Morality play
12. 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
Miracle play
Bildungsroman
Confessional poetry
13. A narrative work that reports true events.
Nonfiction
Fable
Novel
Epic
14. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Pastiche
Satire
Historical novel
Novel of manners
15. 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.
Novel
Confessional poetry
Propaganda
Epistolary novel
16. 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
Elegy
Novella
Autobiographical novel
Fable
17. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Black comedy
Legend
Essay
Tragicomedy
18. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Play
Miracle play
Myth
Epic
19. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Epic
Propaganda
Novel of ideas
Pastoral
20. 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
Legend
Pastiche
Propaganda
Primitivist literature
21. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Ode
Chivalric romance
Fiction
Novel of manners
22. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Soliloquy
Ballad
Social protest novel
Fable
23. 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.
Ode
Autobiographical novel
Burlesque
Novel of ideas
24. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Parable
Miracle play
Black comedy
Novella
25. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Didactic literature
Elegy
Novel
Ode
26. 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).
Eclogue
Aphorism
Noh drama
Legend
27. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Confessional poetry
Social protest novel
Novel
Autobiographical novel
28. 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
Autobiographical novel
Epic
Essay
Parody
29. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Biography
Metafiction
Bildungsroman
Soliloquy
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.
Parody
Eclogue
Allegory
Myth
31. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Picaresque novel
Science fiction
Epigram
Short-short story
32. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Play
Legend
Nonfiction
Novel of manners
33. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Comedy
Romance
Fable
Tragedy
34. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Prose poem
Verse novel
Epic
Parable
35. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Science fiction
Fable
Chivalric romance
Allegory
36. 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.
Allegory
Play
Chivalric romance
Propaganda
37. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
One-act play
Fable
Drama
Historical novel
38. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Propaganda
Pastoral
Autobiography
Parable
39. 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.
Fable
Autobiographical novel
Science fiction
Epistolary novel
40. 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.
Drama
Novel of ideas
Social protest novel
Bildungsroman
41. 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.
Parable
Black comedy
Aphorism
Short story
42. 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.
Farce
Verse novel
Dramatic monologue
Epic
43. Any composition not written in verse.
Soliloquy
Parable
Tragicomedy
Prose
44. 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.
Prose poem
Myth
Soliloquy
Dramatic monologue
45. A short play based on a biblical story.
Noh drama
Prose poem
Parable
Mystery play
46. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Prose poem
Epigram
Soliloquy
Legend
47. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Short-short story
Morality play
Satire
Mystery play
48. 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.
Burlesque
Satire
Primitivist literature
Ballad
49. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Drama
Myth
Noh drama
Bildungsroman
50. 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.
Black comedy
Novel of manners
Nonfiction
Soliloquy