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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. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Short-short story
Noir
Dystopic literature
Propaganda
2. 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.
Epic
Primitivist literature
Satire
Dystopic literature
3. 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.
Morality play
Nonfiction
Pastoral
Picaresque novel
4. 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
Novella
Burlesque
Pastoral
5. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Autobiographical novel
Ode
Myth
Morality play
6. 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.
Short story
Ode
Novel of ideas
Black comedy
7. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Pastoral
Picaresque novel
Prose poem
Soliloquy
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.
Short-short story
Bildungsroman
Play
Parody
9. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Noir
Social protest novel
Ballad
Pastiche
10. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Romance
Prose
Allegory
Ballad
11. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Novel
Noir
Nonfiction
Chivalric romance
12. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Chivalric romance
Tragedy
Short story
Drama
13. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Novel of ideas
Miracle play
Legend
Novella
14. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Biography
Dirge
Tragicomedy
Novel of ideas
15. 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
Prose
Miracle play
Elegy
Ode
16. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Epic theater
Play
Nonfiction
Confessional poetry
17. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Prose poem
Problem play
Science fiction
Dystopic literature
18. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Novel of manners
Epigram
Biography
Nonfiction
19. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Nonfiction
Metafiction
Miracle play
Primitivist literature
20. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Fiction
Aphorism
Prose
Epic
21. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Novel of ideas
Legend
Allegory
One-act play
22. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Science fiction
Novel of ideas
Parody
Play
23. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Social protest novel
Parody
Novel of manners
Tragicomedy
24. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Autobiographical novel
Allegory
Didactic literature
Drama
25. 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.
Epistolary novel
Historical novel
Morality play
Pastiche
26. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Noh drama
Propaganda
Satire
Romance
27. 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.
Memoir
Morality play
Short-short story
Myth
28. 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
Romance
Prose
Social protest novel
Confessional poetry
29. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Didactic literature
Legend
Pastiche
Biography
30. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Anecdote
Prose poem
Ballad
Novel of manners
31. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Burlesque
Parable
Ode
Novel
32. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Fiction
Biography
Confessional poetry
Dirge
33. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Noir
Miracle play
Elegy
Comedy
34. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Legend
Science fiction
Essay
Tragedy
35. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Elegy
Memoir
Propaganda
Verse novel
36. 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.
Bildungsroman
Short story
Aphorism
Comedy
37. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Short-short story
Autobiography
Novel
Play
38. 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).
Dirge
Epigram
Aphorism
Metafiction
39. 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
Metafiction
Novel of ideas
40. 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
Burlesque
Autobiography
Ode
Epic
41. 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
Satire
Novella
42. 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
Autobiographical novel
Metafiction
Dystopic literature
Pastiche
43. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Metafiction
Novel of manners
Bildungsroman
Ballad
44. A narrative work that reports true events.
Noh drama
Social protest novel
Nonfiction
Ode
45. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Historical novel
Legend
Short story
Ballad
46. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Ballad
Eclogue
Epigram
Romance
47. 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.
Satire
Black comedy
Morality play
Pastoral
48. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Morality play
Eclogue
Fable
Dirge
49. Any composition not written in verse.
Prose
Epic theater
Mystery play
Fiction
50. 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.
Social protest novel
Dramatic monologue
Novel of manners
Epigram