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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. 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.






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






3. 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.






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






5. 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






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






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






8. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






14. 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.






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






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






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






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






19. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






20. 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.






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 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.






23. 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






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






25. 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).






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






27. 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.






28. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.






29. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.






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






31. 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.






32. 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.






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






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






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






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






37. 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.






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.






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






40. 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.






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






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






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






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






45. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






46. 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.






47. 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.






48. 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.






49. 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






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






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