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






2. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






4. 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






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






6. 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






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






8. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






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






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






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






15. 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






16. 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.






17. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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. Any composition not written in verse.






25. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






26. 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.






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






28. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






34. 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






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






36. 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.






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






38. An autobiographical poetic genre in which the poet discusses intensely personal subject matter with unusual frankness.






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






40. 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.






41. 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.






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






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






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






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






47. A play written in the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries that presents an allegory of the Christian struggle for salvation.






48. 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.






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






50. 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.