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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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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 play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Propaganda
Tragicomedy
Epigram
Farce
2. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Pastiche
Parody
One-act play
Parable
3. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Historical novel
Drama
Legend
Essay
4. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Picaresque novel
Farce
Short-short story
5. 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.
Autobiography
Picaresque novel
Novel
Soliloquy
6. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Elegy
Autobiographical novel
One-act play
Prose
7. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Comedy
Novel
Picaresque novel
Science fiction
8. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Pastoral
One-act play
Picaresque novel
Allegory
9. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Black comedy
Ode
Mystery play
Biography
10. 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
Elegy
Epic
Noir
Drama
11. A narrative work that reports true events.
Nonfiction
Noir
Chivalric romance
Tragicomedy
12. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Verse novel
Prose poem
Parable
Farce
13. 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.
Morality play
Parable
Aphorism
Autobiographical novel
14. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Historical novel
Anecdote
Play
Noh drama
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.
Fiction
Play
Fable
Primitivist literature
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
Elegy
Black comedy
Metafiction
Burlesque
17. 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
Parable
Pastiche
Dramatic monologue
Science fiction
18. 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.
Dystopic literature
Dirge
Tragedy
Miracle play
19. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Novel
Dystopic literature
Epigram
Black comedy
20. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
One-act play
Bildungsroman
Short story
Fable
21. 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.
Short-short story
Elegy
Picaresque novel
Novel of manners
22. 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.
Epic
Satire
Farce
Memoir
23. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Propaganda
Lyric
Novella
Drama
24. 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.
Social protest novel
Prose poem
Myth
Epistolary novel
25. 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.
Propaganda
Pastiche
Myth
Nonfiction
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.
Tragedy
Dystopic literature
Legend
Comedy
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.
Fable
Bildungsroman
Short-short story
Picaresque novel
28. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Burlesque
Soliloquy
Problem play
Fiction
29. 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
Confessional poetry
Comedy
Bildungsroman
Social protest novel
30. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Biography
Short story
Romance
Noh drama
31. A short play based on a biblical story.
Mystery play
Allegory
Dystopic literature
Historical novel
32. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Romance
Anecdote
Didactic literature
Aphorism
33. 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.
Dystopic literature
Black comedy
Farce
Comedy
34. 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.
Soliloquy
Prose
Novel of manners
Burlesque
35. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Tragicomedy
Historical novel
Novel of ideas
Primitivist literature
36. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Soliloquy
Confessional poetry
Metafiction
Eclogue
37. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Burlesque
Morality play
Nonfiction
Drama
38. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Didactic literature
Metafiction
Autobiographical novel
Fiction
39. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Soliloquy
Comedy
Prose
Drama
40. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Play
Dirge
Fiction
41. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Epic
Dramatic monologue
Romance
Legend
42. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Short-short story
Allegory
Satire
Nonfiction
43. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Biography
Burlesque
Ballad
Parable
44. 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
Novel
Morality play
Pastiche
45. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Tragedy
Noir
Lyric
Primitivist literature
46. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Autobiographical novel
Epic theater
Pastoral
Aphorism
47. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Picaresque novel
Chivalric romance
Autobiography
Fiction
48. 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
Nonfiction
Metafiction
Parody
Elegy
49. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Problem play
Black comedy
Tragicomedy
Dystopic literature
50. 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.
Parable
Play
Noh drama
Fiction
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