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. 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.






2. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






3. 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.






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






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






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






7. 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.






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






9. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






12. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






14. 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






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






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






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






18. 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






19. 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.






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






21. 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






22. 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.






23. 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.






24. A short play based on a biblical story.






25. 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.






26. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






38. 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






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






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






41. 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.






42. 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).






43. 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.






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. 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.






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






47. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






50. 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.