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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Study First
Subjects
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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 nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Play
Romance
Satire
Burlesque
2. 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
Social protest novel
Dirge
Epistolary novel
Parable
3. 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.
Tragicomedy
Fable
Satire
Eclogue
4. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Epic
Eclogue
Lyric
Propaganda
5. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Epic theater
Social protest novel
Short-short story
Confessional poetry
6. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Burlesque
Soliloquy
Farce
Dystopic literature
7. Any composition not written in verse.
Short-short story
Soliloquy
Dystopic literature
Prose
8. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Bildungsroman
Prose
Chivalric romance
Autobiography
9. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Play
Ode
Problem play
Epistolary novel
10. A narrative work that reports true events.
Legend
Autobiographical novel
Primitivist literature
Nonfiction
11. 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
Autobiographical novel
Science fiction
Epic
Anecdote
12. 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.
Verse novel
Novel of manners
Legend
Social protest novel
13. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Eclogue
Noir
Short-short story
Memoir
14. 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.
Dystopic literature
Pastiche
Miracle play
Verse novel
15. A short play based on a biblical story.
Epic
Metafiction
Mystery play
Aphorism
16. 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
Dramatic monologue
Miracle play
Problem play
Pastiche
17. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Short-short story
Autobiographical novel
Social protest novel
Noir
18. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Historical novel
Novella
Verse novel
Didactic literature
19. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Novel
Ode
Tragedy
Lyric
20. 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.
Autobiographical novel
Miracle play
Prose
Dramatic monologue
21. 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.
Picaresque novel
Tragedy
Historical novel
Essay
22. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Novel of manners
Miracle play
Didactic literature
Dirge
23. 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.
Myth
Allegory
Dystopic literature
Comedy
24. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Tragicomedy
Picaresque novel
Fable
Legend
25. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Science fiction
Fable
Drama
Tragedy
26. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Noir
Ballad
Mystery play
Science fiction
27. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Myth
Ode
Epigram
Burlesque
28. 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.
Anecdote
Lyric
Nonfiction
Soliloquy
29. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Epic
Pastoral
Fiction
Noh drama
30. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Dirge
Social protest novel
Tragedy
Noh drama
31. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Fable
Epic
Aphorism
Morality play
32. 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.
Nonfiction
Mystery play
Dirge
Essay
33. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Soliloquy
Drama
Dystopic literature
One-act play
34. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Tragedy
Lyric
Novella
Prose poem
35. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Propaganda
Nonfiction
Lyric
Noh drama
36. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Farce
Novel
Metafiction
Novel of ideas
37. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Mystery play
Didactic literature
Allegory
Essay
38. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Drama
Miracle play
Anecdote
Parable
39. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Anecdote
Noh drama
Epic
Problem play
40. 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.
Dystopic literature
Novel of ideas
Prose poem
Black comedy
41. 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.
One-act play
Aphorism
Autobiography
Memoir
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.
Drama
Elegy
Epistolary novel
Parable
43. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Chivalric romance
Fable
Didactic literature
Confessional poetry
44. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Epistolary novel
Biography
Propaganda
Ode
45. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Drama
Confessional poetry
Satire
Fable
46. 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
Dramatic monologue
Aphorism
Parable
Burlesque
47. 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
Burlesque
Propaganda
Problem play
Allegory
48. 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.
Bildungsroman
Elegy
Black comedy
Short-short story
49. 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.
Farce
Mystery play
Didactic literature
Primitivist literature
50. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Propaganda
Legend
Elegy
Comedy