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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Study First
Subjects
:
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. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Romance
Lyric
Tragicomedy
Farce
2. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Lyric
Novel of ideas
Metafiction
Primitivist literature
3. 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.
Confessional poetry
Novel of ideas
One-act play
Drama
4. 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.
Legend
Play
Epic
Satire
5. 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
Farce
Novel of manners
Noir
6. 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
Lyric
Burlesque
Parody
Fiction
7. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Allegory
Noir
Autobiography
Fable
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.
Autobiographical novel
Epic theater
Dirge
Bildungsroman
9. 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
Propaganda
Fiction
Allegory
Epic
10. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Anecdote
Noir
Epistolary novel
Prose
11. 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.
Picaresque novel
Memoir
Nonfiction
Satire
12. 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.
Confessional poetry
Short story
Aphorism
Dramatic monologue
13. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Confessional poetry
Tragedy
Prose
Mystery play
14. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
One-act play
Short story
Noir
Ballad
15. Any composition not written in verse.
Lyric
Dirge
Prose
Biography
16. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Novella
Farce
Noh drama
Anecdote
17. 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).
Legend
Satire
Pastoral
Aphorism
18. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Short-short story
Social protest novel
Ode
Biography
19. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Anecdote
Drama
Fable
Legend
20. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Short story
Dramatic monologue
Essay
Parable
21. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Ode
Picaresque novel
Romance
Epic theater
22. 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.
Dirge
Play
Novel of manners
Nonfiction
23. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Soliloquy
Epic theater
One-act play
Novella
24. 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.
Novel
Bildungsroman
Black comedy
Aphorism
25. 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.
Novel of ideas
Dirge
Pastiche
Eclogue
26. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Novella
Elegy
Problem play
Legend
27. A narrative work that reports true events.
Ballad
Metafiction
Noir
Nonfiction
28. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Legend
Confessional poetry
Biography
Farce
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
Eclogue
Play
Social protest novel
Lyric
30. 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
Autobiography
Chivalric romance
Novella
Pastiche
31. 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.
Elegy
Short-short story
Myth
Metafiction
32. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Mystery play
Epic
Pastoral
Eclogue
33. 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
Dramatic monologue
Noir
Propaganda
34. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Parable
Noir
Lyric
Legend
35. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Epic
Dirge
Tragicomedy
Ballad
36. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Burlesque
Novella
Romance
Soliloquy
37. 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.
Essay
Dirge
Burlesque
Verse novel
38. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Dramatic monologue
Fiction
Bildungsroman
Historical novel
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.
Novel of ideas
Dramatic monologue
Short story
Noh drama
40. A short play based on a biblical story.
Science fiction
Noir
Eclogue
Mystery play
41. 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
Pastoral
Prose poem
Elegy
Short story
42. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Soliloquy
Verse novel
Picaresque novel
Parody
43. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Propaganda
Bildungsroman
Historical novel
Prose poem
44. 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.
Autobiographical novel
Short story
Novel
Dystopic literature
45. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Prose
Tragedy
Mystery play
Morality play
46. 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
Prose
Black comedy
Aphorism
47. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Tragicomedy
Autobiography
Prose
Miracle play
48. 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.
Satire
Tragedy
Farce
Chivalric romance
49. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Autobiographical novel
One-act play
Drama
Novel
50. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Myth
Pastoral
Confessional poetry
Nonfiction