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






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






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






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






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






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






7. 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.






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






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






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






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






12. 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.






13. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality






14. 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.






15. 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






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.






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






18. 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.






19. 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.






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






21. 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.






22. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.






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






24. A narrative work that reports true events.






25. 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.






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






27. 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.






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






29. 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






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






31. 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






32. 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.






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






34. 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.






35. 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.






36. 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






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






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






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






40. 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






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






42. 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.






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






44. A short play based on a biblical story.






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






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






47. 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.






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






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






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