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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Study First
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. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Prose
Fiction
Novel of manners
Tragicomedy
2. A short play based on a biblical story.
Mystery play
Fiction
Ode
Soliloquy
3. 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).
Aphorism
Burlesque
Metafiction
Fiction
4. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Primitivist literature
Science fiction
Pastoral
Burlesque
5. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Soliloquy
Novel of ideas
Short story
Fable
6. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Autobiographical novel
Nonfiction
Noir
Autobiography
7. 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.
Romance
Bildungsroman
Noir
Black comedy
8. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Didactic literature
Eclogue
Novel
Parable
9. 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.
Nonfiction
Novel of ideas
Verse novel
Metafiction
10. 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
Comedy
Eclogue
Autobiographical novel
Elegy
11. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Soliloquy
Ballad
Verse novel
Memoir
12. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Nonfiction
Tragedy
Ode
Dramatic monologue
13. 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
Social protest novel
Nonfiction
Epic theater
Epic
14. 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
Novella
Play
Memoir
Pastiche
15. 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
Science fiction
Epigram
Social protest novel
Primitivist literature
16. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Autobiography
Noir
Biography
Satire
17. 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.
Verse novel
Myth
Epigram
Soliloquy
18. 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.
One-act play
Problem play
Legend
Play
19. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Tragedy
Aphorism
Memoir
Tragicomedy
20. 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.
Anecdote
Historical novel
Picaresque novel
Dirge
21. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Anecdote
Soliloquy
Parable
Autobiographical novel
22. 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.
Didactic literature
Novel
Comedy
Short story
23. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Prose poem
Novel of manners
Epigram
Comedy
24. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Chivalric romance
Noh drama
Didactic literature
Social protest novel
25. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Historical novel
Problem play
Aphorism
26. 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.
Bildungsroman
Fable
Dystopic literature
Novel of ideas
27. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Epic theater
Myth
Parable
Elegy
28. 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.
Memoir
Pastiche
Eclogue
Picaresque novel
29. 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.
Confessional poetry
Fiction
Picaresque novel
Pastiche
30. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Short-short story
Elegy
Lyric
Confessional poetry
31. 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.
Anecdote
One-act play
Soliloquy
Didactic literature
32. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Drama
Short story
Fiction
Historical novel
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.
Autobiography
Lyric
Dramatic monologue
Epistolary novel
34. A narrative work that reports true events.
Chivalric romance
Play
Mystery play
Nonfiction
35. 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.
Autobiography
Dramatic monologue
Fable
Primitivist literature
36. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Historical novel
Novel
Morality play
Miracle play
37. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Romance
Novel
Short-short story
Morality play
38. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Science fiction
Mystery play
Romance
Propaganda
39. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Primitivist literature
Drama
Fiction
Black comedy
40. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Lyric
Memoir
Tragicomedy
Legend
41. 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.
Lyric
Dramatic monologue
Biography
Eclogue
42. 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.
Verse novel
Memoir
Novel
Dirge
43. 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
Nonfiction
Didactic literature
Burlesque
Anecdote
44. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Prose poem
Epigram
Allegory
Parody
45. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Morality play
Metafiction
Mystery play
Tragedy
46. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Essay
Biography
Verse novel
Propaganda
47. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Farce
Bildungsroman
One-act play
Short story
48. 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.
Historical novel
Novel of manners
Comedy
Fable
49. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Epic
Lyric
Farce
Fiction
50. 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.
Parody
Autobiographical novel
Mystery play
Confessional poetry