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






2. 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






3. 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.






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






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






6. 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.






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






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






9. 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.






10. 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






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






12. 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.






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






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






15. 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






16. 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






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






18. 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.






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






20. A short play based on a biblical story.






21. 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.






22. 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.






23. A narrative work that reports true events.






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






25. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






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






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






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






30. 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.






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






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






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






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






35. 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.






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






38. 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.






39. 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.






40. 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






41. Any composition not written in verse.






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






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






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






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






46. 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.






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. 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.






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






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