Test your basic knowledge |

CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

Subjects : clep, literature
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • 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. The brief narration of a single event or incident.






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






3. 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.






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






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






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






7. 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.






8. 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






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






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






11. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






12. 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.






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






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






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. A narrative work that reports true events.






17. 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.






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






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






20. 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






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






22. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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






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






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






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






29. 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






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






31. 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.






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






33. Any composition not written in verse.






34. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






37. 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.






38. 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).






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






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






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






42. 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






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






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






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






46. 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.






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






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






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






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