Test your basic knowledge |

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.
  • 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. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






4. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.






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






6. 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






7. 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.






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






9. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






17. 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.






18. A narrative work that reports true events.






19. 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.






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






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






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






23. 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.






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






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






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 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).






28. 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






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






30. 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.






31. Any composition not written in verse.






32. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.






33. 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.






34. 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






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






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






37. 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






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






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.






40. 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.






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






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






43. 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.






44. 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.






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






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






47. 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.






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.






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






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