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CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres

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






2. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.






3. 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.






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






5. 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.






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






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






8. 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.






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






10. 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.






11. A narrative work that reports true events.






12. 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.






13. 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






14. 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.






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






16. 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.






17. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.






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






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






20. 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






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






22. 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.






23. 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.






24. 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).






25. A short play based on a biblical story.






26. 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






27. 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.






28. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






29. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.






30. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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.






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






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






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






35. 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






36. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.






37. 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.






38. 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.






39. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.






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






41. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.






42. 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.






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






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






45. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.






46. Any composition not written in verse.






47. 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






48. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.






49. 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.






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