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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Subjects
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clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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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. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Social protest novel
Anecdote
Epistolary novel
Morality play
2. 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.
Parable
Dramatic monologue
Epic
Romance
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
Burlesque
Short story
Epistolary novel
Legend
4. 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.
Bildungsroman
Farce
Mystery play
Historical novel
5. 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
Miracle play
Epic
Noh drama
Autobiographical novel
6. 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
Primitivist literature
Fable
Social protest novel
Eclogue
7. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Satire
One-act play
Ballad
8. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Anecdote
Propaganda
Eclogue
Dirge
9. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Allegory
Novel of manners
Morality play
Tragicomedy
10. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Science fiction
Epigram
Romance
Comedy
11. 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.
Biography
Didactic literature
Chivalric romance
Primitivist literature
12. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Tragedy
Legend
Propaganda
Drama
13. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Verse novel
Fiction
Primitivist literature
Tragicomedy
14. 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.
Primitivist literature
Picaresque novel
Myth
Memoir
15. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Comedy
Fable
Science fiction
Prose poem
16. 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
Ballad
Chivalric romance
Aphorism
17. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Novel
Ballad
Fable
Drama
18. A narrative work that reports true events.
Tragicomedy
Burlesque
Nonfiction
Epic
19. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Propaganda
Primitivist literature
Autobiographical novel
Epigram
20. Any composition not written in verse.
Propaganda
Prose
Satire
Biography
21. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Pastoral
Epic theater
Epic
Noh drama
22. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Parable
Prose poem
Lyric
Epic
23. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Fable
Tragedy
Novella
Pastiche
24. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Drama
Fiction
Fable
Ballad
25. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Autobiographical novel
Autobiography
Social protest novel
Historical novel
26. 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.
Epistolary novel
Autobiographical novel
Dirge
Historical novel
27. 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
Autobiography
Ode
Fable
Allegory
28. 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.
Comedy
Fiction
Autobiographical novel
Chivalric romance
29. 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.
Short story
Allegory
Nonfiction
Burlesque
30. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Parable
Drama
Problem play
Primitivist literature
31. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Burlesque
Bildungsroman
Nonfiction
Short-short story
32. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Problem play
Ballad
Nonfiction
Epistolary novel
33. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Didactic literature
Historical novel
Aphorism
Fable
34. 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.
Anecdote
Social protest novel
Myth
Science fiction
35. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Prose
Farce
Myth
Epic
36. 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.
Tragicomedy
Autobiographical novel
Epic theater
Picaresque novel
37. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Confessional poetry
Ode
Primitivist literature
Parody
38. 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.
Short-short story
Novella
Elegy
Novel of ideas
39. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Bildungsroman
Pastoral
Burlesque
Novella
40. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Prose
Pastiche
Chivalric romance
Autobiographical novel
41. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Fable
Lyric
Novella
Epigram
42. 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.
Dystopic literature
Soliloquy
Prose poem
Social protest novel
43. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Lyric
Comedy
Mystery play
Epic
44. 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
Elegy
Pastiche
Bildungsroman
Anecdote
45. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Problem play
Soliloquy
Romance
Essay
46. 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.
Epistolary novel
Play
Elegy
Chivalric romance
47. 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
Noir
One-act play
Primitivist literature
48. 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.
Memoir
Social protest novel
Black comedy
Propaganda
49. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Memoir
Fable
Didactic literature
Legend
50. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Black comedy
Ballad
Miracle play
Pastoral
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