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






2. 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






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.






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






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






6. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






9. 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






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






11. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.






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






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






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






15. 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.






16. 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.






17. 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.






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






19. 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.






20. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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






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






24. 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






25. 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.






26. 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.






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






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






29. 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.






30. 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.






31. 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.






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






33. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






39. 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.






40. 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.






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






42. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






43. 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






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






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






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






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






48. 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).






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






50. Any composition not written in verse.