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






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






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






4. A narrative work that reports true events.






5. 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.






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






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






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






9. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






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






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






14. 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.






15. 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






16. 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.






17. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






21. 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.






22. 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.






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






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






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






26. 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.






27. 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






28. 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.






29. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.






30. Any composition not written in verse.






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






32. 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.






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






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






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






36. 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.






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






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






39. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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






42. 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.






43. 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.






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






45. 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.






46. 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






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






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






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






50. 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