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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Subjects
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clep
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literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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study here
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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 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.
Legend
Burlesque
Verse novel
Mystery play
2. 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
Miracle play
Black comedy
Parable
3. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Ballad
Prose
Biography
Miracle play
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.
Prose poem
Autobiography
Picaresque novel
Short-short story
5. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Mystery play
Epigram
Novel of ideas
Epistolary novel
6. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Allegory
Novel
Autobiographical novel
Confessional poetry
7. 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.
Novel of ideas
Elegy
Eclogue
Memoir
8. 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.
Primitivist literature
Didactic literature
Autobiographical novel
Pastoral
9. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Memoir
Epic
Historical novel
Lyric
10. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Morality play
Epic theater
Novel
Confessional poetry
11. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Bildungsroman
Romance
Chivalric romance
12. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Essay
Play
Autobiographical novel
Didactic literature
13. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Propaganda
Play
Problem play
Essay
14. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Mystery play
Novella
Problem play
Metafiction
15. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Tragedy
Noh drama
Mystery play
Problem play
16. 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
Tragedy
Burlesque
Mystery play
Novella
17. 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.
Lyric
Memoir
Miracle play
Prose
18. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Problem play
Essay
Short-short story
Biography
19. 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
Mystery play
Dramatic monologue
Pastiche
Autobiography
20. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Historical novel
Noir
Problem play
Comedy
21. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Science fiction
Drama
Burlesque
Historical novel
22. 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.
Epistolary novel
Black comedy
Allegory
Morality play
23. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Aphorism
Bildungsroman
Ode
Drama
24. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Elegy
Bildungsroman
Tragicomedy
Epic theater
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.
Lyric
Satire
Drama
Dystopic literature
26. 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.
Verse novel
Ballad
Dirge
Autobiographical novel
27. 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.
Bildungsroman
Propaganda
Short story
Historical novel
28. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Fable
Tragedy
Eclogue
Novella
29. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Allegory
Ode
Prose
Miracle play
30. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Eclogue
Essay
Dirge
Elegy
31. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Biography
Verse novel
Confessional poetry
Noir
32. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Burlesque
Noir
Legend
Pastiche
33. 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.
Fable
Tragedy
Epistolary novel
Didactic literature
34. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Aphorism
Chivalric romance
Ode
Pastoral
35. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Prose
Autobiography
Epic theater
One-act play
36. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Satire
Farce
Bildungsroman
Autobiographical novel
37. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Romance
Autobiography
Historical novel
Aphorism
38. 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).
Biography
Ode
Elegy
Aphorism
39. 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.
Picaresque novel
Farce
Historical novel
Dramatic monologue
40. 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.
Epistolary novel
Soliloquy
Myth
Mystery play
41. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Elegy
Dirge
Chivalric romance
Dramatic monologue
42. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Satire
One-act play
Prose poem
Essay
43. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Novel of ideas
Black comedy
Novel of manners
Parody
44. 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
Satire
Eclogue
Legend
45. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Novella
Novel of manners
Lyric
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.
Verse novel
Eclogue
Prose poem
Burlesque
47. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Novella
Novel of manners
Burlesque
Myth
48. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Confessional poetry
Epic
Memoir
Comedy
49. 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
Allegory
Biography
Dirge
Elegy
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
Social protest novel
Noh drama
Parable
Burlesque