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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 poem that contains words that a fictional or historical character speaks to a particular audience. Alfred - Lord Tennyson's 'Ulysses' is a famous example.






2. 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.






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






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






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






6. 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






7. 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.






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






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






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






11. 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.






12. 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.






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






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






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






16. 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.






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






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






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






20. 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.






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






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






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






24. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






27. A narrative work that reports true events.






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 form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.






30. 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.






31. 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.






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






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






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






35. 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.






36. 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.






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






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






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






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






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 fictional prose narrative of significant length.






44. 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.






45. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






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






50. 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