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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 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.






2. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






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






10. 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.






11. 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






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






13. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






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






20. 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.






21. 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.






22. 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.






23. A narrative work that reports true events.






24. 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.






25. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






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






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






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






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






32. 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.






33. 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






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






35. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






37. 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.






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






39. 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.






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






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






42. 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






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






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






45. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






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






47. 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).






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






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.






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