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






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






4. 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






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






6. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






8. 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.






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






10. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






11. 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.






12. 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.






13. 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






14. 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.






15. 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.






16. 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.






17. 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.






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






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






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






21. 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.






22. 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






23. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






30. 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.






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






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






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






34. 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.






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






36. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






38. 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.






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






40. 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.






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






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






43. 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.






44. 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.






45. 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.






46. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






47. 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






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






49. 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.






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