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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. 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






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






3. 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.






4. 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.






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






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






7. 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.






8. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






10. 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






11. 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).






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






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






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






15. 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.






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






17. 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.






18. 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






19. Any composition not written in verse.






20. 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.






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






22. 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.






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. 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.






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






26. 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.






27. 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.






28. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






29. 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.






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






31. 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.






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






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






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






35. 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.






36. 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.






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






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






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






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






41. 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






42. 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






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






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






45. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






46. 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.






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






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






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






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