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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. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






4. 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.






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






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






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






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.






9. 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.






10. 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.






11. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






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






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






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 narrative work that reports true events.






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






18. 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.






19. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






21. 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.






22. 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.






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






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






25. 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






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






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






28. 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.






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






30. 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






31. 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.






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






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






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






35. 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.






36. 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.






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 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.






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






40. 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.






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






42. 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






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






44. 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.






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






46. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






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






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