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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 fictional prose narrative of significant length.






2. 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






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






4. 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.






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






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






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






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






9. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






11. 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






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






14. 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.






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






16. 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.






17. 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.






18. 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






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






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






21. 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






22. 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






23. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






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






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






29. 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.






30. Any composition not written in verse.






31. 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).






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






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






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






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






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






37. 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.






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






39. 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






40. 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.






41. 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.






42. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






46. 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.






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






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






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






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