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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Study First
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 form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Aphorism
Tragicomedy
Epic
Farce
2. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Comedy
Fiction
Fable
Picaresque novel
3. 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
Bildungsroman
Social protest novel
Epigram
Burlesque
4. 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
Nonfiction
One-act play
Pastiche
5. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Autobiographical novel
Noir
Dramatic monologue
Morality play
6. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Problem play
Chivalric romance
Propaganda
Pastoral
7. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Didactic literature
Romance
Nonfiction
Ode
8. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Biography
Satire
Novel
Parable
9. 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
Picaresque novel
Pastiche
Play
Eclogue
10. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Play
Science fiction
Comedy
Black comedy
11. A work of fiction of middle length - often divided into a few short chapters - such as Henry James's Daisy Miller.
Verse novel
Epigram
Novella
Didactic literature
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.
Novel of manners
Dramatic monologue
Short-short story
Tragicomedy
13. Traditionally - a folk song telling a story or legend in simple language - often with a refrain.
Novel of manners
Dirge
Ballad
Aphorism
14. 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
Social protest novel
Allegory
Tragicomedy
Epigram
15. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Comedy
Black comedy
Epigram
Drama
16. 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.
Pastiche
Social protest novel
Noh drama
Verse novel
17. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
Problem play
Mystery play
Tragedy
Miracle play
18. 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.
Lyric
Dramatic monologue
Noh drama
Black comedy
19. A story about a heroic figure derived from oral tradition and based partly on fact and partly on fiction.
Noh drama
Play
Biography
Legend
20. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Allegory
Tragedy
Problem play
Short-short story
21. 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).
Noh drama
Ode
Fable
Aphorism
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.
Noh drama
Soliloquy
Epic
Epistolary novel
23. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Social protest novel
Parody
Historical novel
Novel of ideas
24. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Social protest novel
Prose
Tragicomedy
Prose poem
25. 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.
Allegory
Burlesque
Anecdote
Picaresque novel
26. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Soliloquy
Farce
Historical novel
Ode
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.
Essay
Drama
Biography
Metafiction
28. 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
Lyric
Elegy
Parody
Epic theater
29. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Essay
Didactic literature
Epic theater
Biography
30. A serious lyric poem - often of significant length - that usually conforms to an elaborate metrical structure.
Allegory
Ode
Epigram
Dirge
31. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Chivalric romance
Autobiographical novel
Myth
32. A narrative work that reports true events.
Tragedy
Nonfiction
Dystopic literature
Didactic literature
33. A work of didactic literature that aims to influence the reader on a specific social or political issue.
Propaganda
Eclogue
Aphorism
Pastoral
34. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Tragicomedy
Propaganda
Satire
Noir
35. 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.
Metafiction
Black comedy
Drama
Essay
36. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Parable
Prose
Soliloquy
Epistolary novel
37. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Lyric
Nonfiction
Prose
Romance
38. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Fiction
Epigram
Romance
Picaresque novel
39. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Novel
Verse novel
Short-short story
Ballad
40. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Myth
Pastiche
Romance
Fiction
41. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.
Burlesque
Morality play
Science fiction
Nonfiction
42. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Autobiographical novel
Anecdote
Prose
Lyric
43. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.
Elegy
Autobiographical novel
Confessional poetry
Dirge
44. 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.
Epic theater
Pastiche
Myth
Epigram
45. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Epic
Anecdote
Noh drama
One-act play
46. 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.
Comedy
Ballad
Novel of ideas
Eclogue
47. A short pastoral poem in the form of a dialogue between two shepherds. Virgil's Eclogues is the most famous example of this genre.
Ballad
Anecdote
Myth
Eclogue
48. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Short story
Bildungsroman
Social protest novel
Miracle play
49. 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.
Allegory
Ballad
Dystopic literature
Farce
50. 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.
Allegory
Dirge
Essay
Verse novel