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






2. 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.






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






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






5. 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






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






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






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






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






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






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






12. 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.






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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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






19. 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.






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






21. 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.






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






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






24. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






25. 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.






26. 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.






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






28. A short play based on a biblical story.






29. 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






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






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






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






33. 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.






34. 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.






35. 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.






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






37. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






38. 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.






39. 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.






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






41. A narrative work that reports true events.






42. 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






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






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






45. 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.






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






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






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.






49. 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.






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