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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP Common Literary Forms And Genres
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Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
literature
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
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. The nonfictional story of a person's life - told by that person.
Autobiography
Allegory
Confessional poetry
Bildungsroman
2. Any composition not written in verse.
Epistolary novel
Mystery play
Novella
Prose
3. 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).
Dramatic monologue
Aphorism
Ode
Science fiction
4. 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.
Memoir
Tragicomedy
Soliloquy
Fable
5. 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.
Dramatic monologue
Didactic literature
Autobiography
Pastiche
6. A particularly compressed and truncated short story. They are rarely longer than 1 -000 words.
Science fiction
Short-short story
Social protest novel
Black comedy
7. A nonrealistic story - in verse or prose - that features idealized characters - improbable adventures - and exotic settings.
Romance
Propaganda
Miracle play
Historical novel
8. Literature intended to instruct or educate. For example - Virgil's Georgics contains farming advice in verse form.
Picaresque novel
Novel of manners
Didactic literature
Metafiction
9. A lighthearted play characterized by humor and a happy ending.
Comedy
Novel of manners
Parable
Pastiche
10. Fiction that is set in an alternative reality
Dirge
Metafiction
Fiction
Science fiction
11. 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
Didactic literature
Social protest novel
Noh drama
Parable
12. A humorous and often satirical imitation of the style or particular work of another author.
Miracle play
Parody
Novel of ideas
Problem play
13. A fictional prose narrative of significant length.
Parody
Novel
Epic
Tragedy
14. 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.
Ballad
Tragedy
Dystopic literature
Science fiction
15. A serious play that ends unhappily for the protagonist.
One-act play
Soliloquy
Tragedy
Novel of manners
16. A play that confronts a contemporary social problem with the intent of changing public opinion on the matter.
Nonfiction
Pastiche
Epic theater
Problem play
17. 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.
Anecdote
Pastiche
Epic
Verse novel
18. 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
Anecdote
Burlesque
Bildungsroman
Fable
19. Fiction that concerns the nature of fiction itself - either by reinterpreting a previous fictional work or by drawing attention to its own fictional status.
Short story
Chivalric romance
Metafiction
Elegy
20. A form of high-energy comedy that plays on confusions and deceptions between characters and features a convoluted and fast-paced plot.
Dramatic monologue
Primitivist literature
Verse novel
Farce
21. A succinct - witty statement - often in verse. For example - William Wordsworth's observation 'The child is the father of the man.'
Aphorism
Epigram
Chivalric romance
Novella
22. A form of nonfictional discussion or argument that Michel de Montaigne pioneered in the 1500s.
Chivalric romance
Science fiction
Essay
Verse novel
23. A fiction genre - popularized in the 1940s - with a cynical - disillusioned - loner protagonist.
Short-short story
Ode
Tragedy
Noir
24. Bertolt Brecht's Marxist approach to theater - which rejects emotional and psychological engagement in favor of critical detachment.
Epic theater
Elegy
Novel of ideas
Epic
25. A play from the Middle Ages featuring saints or miraculous appearances by the Virgin Mary.
Miracle play
Nonfiction
Epigram
Noh drama
26. A romance that describes the adventures of medieval knights and celebrates their strict code of honor - loyalty - and respectful devotion to women.
Chivalric romance
Epistolary novel
Pastoral
Memoir
27. 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.
Allegory
Novel
Nonfiction
Dirge
28. An invented narrative - as opposed to one that reports true events.
Didactic literature
Parable
Fiction
Pastoral
29. A short narrative that illustrates a moral by means of allegory.
Dystopic literature
Epic
Parable
Novella
30. A novel set in an earlier historical period that features a plot shaped by the historical circumstances of that period.
Historical novel
Autobiography
Novella
Dramatic monologue
31. A play consisting of a single act - without intermission and running usually less than an hour.
Romance
Tragicomedy
Black comedy
One-act play
32. A play such as Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale that mixes elements of tragedy and comedy.
Tragicomedy
Picaresque novel
Fiction
Chivalric romance
33. 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.
Burlesque
Epistolary novel
Novel
Autobiography
34. 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.
Lyric
Myth
Dirge
Allegory
35. 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
Historical novel
Verse novel
Fiction
Elegy
36. The nonfictional story of a person's life. James Boswell's Life of Johnson is one of the most celebrated examples.
Biography
Confessional poetry
Miracle play
Romance
37. A poetic work that features the strong rhythms of free versebut is presented on the page in the form of prose - without line breaks.
Novel of ideas
Dirge
Novel of manners
Prose poem
38. A composition that is meant to be performed. The term often is used interchangeably with play.
Epigram
Drama
Romance
Memoir
39. A narrative work that reports true events.
Noh drama
Nonfiction
Problem play
Comedy
40. The brief narration of a single event or incident.
Soliloquy
Parable
Problem play
Anecdote
41. 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.
Bildungsroman
Satire
Fiction
One-act play
42. 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.
Novel of manners
Elegy
Propaganda
Black comedy
43. 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.
Satire
Short story
Aphorism
Dramatic monologue
44. A short poetic composition that describes the thoughts of a single speaker.
Anecdote
Aphorism
Noir
Lyric
45. 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.
Epistolary novel
Novel of manners
Pastiche
Prose
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.
Soliloquy
Historical novel
Picaresque novel
Elegy
47. A short prose or verse narrative - such as those by Aesop - that illustrates a moral - which often is stated explicitly at the end.
Noir
Mystery play
Ballad
Fable
48. A ritualized form of Japanese drama that evolved in the 1300s involving masks and slow - stylized movement.
Autobiography
Epic
Romance
Noh drama
49. A celebration of the simple - rustic life of shepherds and shepherdesses - usually written by a sophisticated - urban writer.
Ballad
Pastoral
Confessional poetry
Epic theater
50. 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.
One-act play
Parable
Autobiographical novel
Metafiction