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






2. 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.






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






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






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






6. 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.






7. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






10. 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






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






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






13. 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.






14. 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.






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






16. 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.






17. Any composition not written in verse.






18. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






19. 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.






20. 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.






21. 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.






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






23. 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.






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






25. 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






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






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






28. 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






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






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






31. 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.






32. A short play based on a biblical story.






33. 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.






34. 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.






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






36. 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






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






38. 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.






39. 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






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






41. 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.






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






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






44. 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).






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






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






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






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






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






50. 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.