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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.
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. 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.
Drama
Miracle play
One-act play
Primitivist literature
2. 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
Morality play
Novel
Short story
3. 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.
Tragedy
Dirge
Memoir
Short story
4. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Prose
Pastoral
One-act play
Comedy
5. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Noh drama
Romance
Parable
Autobiography
6. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Ballad
Verse novel
Romance
7. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Noh drama
Novel
Aphorism
Picaresque novel
8. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Ballad
Fiction
Dramatic monologue
Burlesque
9. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Epigram
Memoir
Noir
Tragedy
10. 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.
Tragicomedy
Autobiography
Short story
Short-short story
11. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Pastiche
Allegory
Dirge
Chivalric romance
12. 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.
Picaresque novel
Burlesque
Dramatic monologue
Autobiographical novel
13. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Autobiography
Prose
Eclogue
Fable
14. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Memoir
Essay
Ode
Dirge
15. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Novel of manners
Lyric
Epic theater
Novella
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.
Epic
Satire
Epigram
Bildungsroman
17. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Burlesque
Tragedy
Epigram
Metafiction
18. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Bildungsroman
Memoir
Parody
Short-short story
19. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Pastoral
Myth
Dystopic literature
Drama
20. 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.
Social protest novel
One-act play
Science fiction
Myth
21. Any composition not written in verse.
Bildungsroman
Burlesque
Confessional poetry
Prose
22. 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).
Elegy
One-act play
Picaresque novel
Aphorism
23. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Autobiography
Drama
Farce
Dystopic literature
24. 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.
Epigram
Epic theater
Burlesque
Bildungsroman
25. 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.
Myth
Prose
Anecdote
Black comedy
26. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Fiction
Prose
Anecdote
Prose poem
27. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Dramatic monologue
Fiction
Prose
Confessional poetry
28. 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.
Prose
Novel of manners
Fiction
Bildungsroman
29. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Mystery play
Didactic literature
Noh drama
Miracle play
30. 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.
Picaresque novel
Epic theater
Verse novel
Primitivist literature
31. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Noh drama
Epic theater
One-act play
Drama
32. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Aphorism
Problem play
Essay
Chivalric romance
33. 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
Parody
Legend
Anecdote
Pastiche
34. 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
Confessional poetry
Didactic literature
Epic
Legend
35. 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
Eclogue
Allegory
Burlesque
Pastoral
36. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Short story
Science fiction
Epic
Confessional poetry
37. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Metafiction
Myth
Prose
Biography
38. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Epigram
Biography
Comedy
Eclogue
39. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Lyric
Pastoral
Miracle play
Autobiography
40. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Burlesque
Romance
Pastiche
Drama
41. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Parable
Autobiography
Noir
Parody
42. 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
Social protest novel
Anecdote
Pastiche
Prose
43. A narrative work that reports true events.
Prose
Nonfiction
Novella
Picaresque novel
44. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Didactic literature
Tragicomedy
Biography
Comedy
45. 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
Ballad
Mystery play
Dramatic monologue
46. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Novel of manners
Prose
Autobiography
Propaganda
47. 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
One-act play
Allegory
Biography
48. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Historical novel
Noir
Bildungsroman
Problem play
49. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Verse novel
Anecdote
Morality play
Soliloquy
50. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Prose
Pastiche
Primitivist literature
Didactic literature