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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
Start Test
Study First
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. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Miracle play
Epic
Ballad
Novel of ideas
2. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Lyric
Noh drama
Social protest novel
Play
3. A narrative work that reports true events.
Comedy
Problem play
Epic
Nonfiction
4. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Autobiography
Aphorism
Epic
Prose poem
5. 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.
Prose poem
Play
Legend
Social protest novel
6. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Black comedy
Bildungsroman
Parody
Comedy
7. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Allegory
Pastoral
Propaganda
Tragicomedy
8. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Bildungsroman
Fiction
Short-short story
Essay
9. 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.
Myth
Nonfiction
Memoir
Burlesque
10. 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
Pastiche
Farce
Fiction
Romance
11. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Novel of manners
Ode
Allegory
Burlesque
12. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Parable
Epic theater
Epic
Soliloquy
13. 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.
Autobiographical novel
Soliloquy
Legend
Drama
14. 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.
Anecdote
Fiction
Prose
Novel of ideas
15. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Autobiographical novel
Autobiography
Science fiction
Epistolary novel
16. 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
Epistolary novel
Primitivist literature
Bildungsroman
17. 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
Essay
Bildungsroman
Soliloquy
18. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Autobiography
Ballad
Didactic literature
Parable
19. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Prose
Propaganda
Novella
Fiction
20. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Memoir
Romance
One-act play
Ballad
21. 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).
Ode
Aphorism
Soliloquy
Farce
22. 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.
Historical novel
Morality play
Novel of manners
Soliloquy
23. 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.
Science fiction
Dirge
Romance
Lyric
24. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Novel
Aphorism
Noh drama
Didactic literature
25. 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.
Essay
Farce
Bildungsroman
Legend
26. 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.
Propaganda
Lyric
Farce
Novel of manners
27. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Romance
Nonfiction
Social protest novel
Eclogue
28. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Metafiction
Novel of manners
Lyric
Parable
29. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Short story
Dramatic monologue
Epic
30. 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
Fiction
Problem play
Primitivist literature
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.
Primitivist literature
Bildungsroman
Dirge
Chivalric romance
32. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Play
Confessional poetry
Epigram
Historical novel
33. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Eclogue
Novel
Noir
Tragicomedy
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.
Myth
Noir
Allegory
Epic theater
35. 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.
Noh drama
Tragicomedy
Farce
Picaresque novel
36. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Romance
Parable
Science fiction
Allegory
37. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Memoir
Short-short story
Miracle play
Soliloquy
38. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Epic
One-act play
Dramatic monologue
Primitivist literature
39. 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
Epic
Drama
Play
Parody
40. 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.
Satire
Novella
Bildungsroman
Didactic literature
41. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Farce
Epic theater
Soliloquy
Novella
42. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Morality play
Ballad
Farce
Novel
43. 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
Eclogue
Pastoral
Propaganda
Allegory
44. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Noh drama
Problem play
Social protest novel
Chivalric romance
45. 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
Aphorism
Novella
Memoir
Social protest novel
46. Any composition not written in verse.
Eclogue
Prose
Bildungsroman
Myth
47. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Legend
Problem play
Biography
Essay
48. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Legend
Biography
Burlesque
Problem play
49. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Metafiction
Pastoral
Parable
Prose poem
50. 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.
Parody
Memoir
Allegory
Verse novel